Born in the windsurfing hotspot of Wissant, near Lille in northern France, with a keen windsurfer for a father, it's no surprise that Arthur Arutkin has gone on to be so at home on the water. The youngest of three siblings (his older sister, Alice, is a windsurfing champion many times over), Arthur got his first sailboard at the age of nine and has been making a name for himself anywhere there's wind and waves ever since. By the age of 15 he was junior European champion in the slalom discipline.
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However, in 2009, after Alice brought back a paddleboard from a trip to Hawaii, Arthur quickly caught the SUP bug. He'd always had an interest in surfing, but being born too far up the French coast to take easy advantage of that Atlantic swell, he took to the new discipline like a duck to water. Now best known for his exploits on a paddleboard, Arthur finished fouth in the Waterman League's Stand Up World Series back in 2015 and the results have only got better since then.