Rider Spotlight: Flora Artzner
Flora Artzner is no stranger to the podium. As a former world champion in both wingfoil racing and freestyle, she has spent a lot of time pushing her limits on the water. But these days, she’s just as passionate about what happens off the water.
A trained biodiversity engineer, Flora has stepped away from the competitive circuit to focus on a growing list of sustainability projects, many of them centered around the places we ride, travel, and explore. From traveling the coast of France on a bike to speaking at the United Nations Ocean Conference, she’s channeling her energy into making a real difference.
We caught up with Flora to hear more about her work, her journey, and how she’s combining science, sport, and sustainability in powerful ways.
Keeping Up with Flora
Flora Artzner is not only a top-level wingfoiler, she’s someone who truly loves being outside. From wingfoiling and downwinding to hiking and skiing, she spends as much time as she can in nature. “I’ve always been passionate about outdoor sports, windsurfing, mountain biking, climbing, trekking,” she says. “And I’ve always been captivated by the natural environment and the living creatures that inhabit it.”
That love for nature led Flora to study biodiversity and focus her work on protecting the environment. Over the years, she’s gained experience in both marine and land conservation, as well as water and farming sustainability.
One of her main goals now is to promote more sustainable ways of traveling – especially in tourism and watersports. For Flora, that starts with staying closer to home and traveling in ways that connect you to the places and people around you. “Sustainable tourism means discovering the wonders near home or in neighboring countries through slow, immersive travel,” she explains. “Taking the train, cycling, sailing, or even walking. These ways of traveling are more meaningful – and much better for the planet.”
And Flora doesn’t just talk about these ideas, she lives them. Over the past year, she’s been part of som e exciting projects that bring her values and passions together.
The Roca Cup – A Festival of Sport and Sustainability
One of Flora’s biggest projects this year was bringing back the Roca Cup, a unique watersports event she helps organize in the south of France. Held at the well-known Almanarre Beach, the Roca Cup is more than just a competition. It’s a three-day festival that mixes high-level wingfoiling with community, creativity, and environmental awareness.
The event welcomes riders of all levels and includes racing, freestyle, parawing sessions, pumpfoiling, and even syncro-style group riding. But the action isn’t limited to the water. On land, the event features workshops, food, music, and talks, all built around themes of nature, local culture, and sustainability.
“The Roca Cup brings together everything I care about,” Flora says. “It’s a space where people can connect through sport, learn something new, and discover more responsible ways to travel and enjoy nature.”
Flora’s goal with the event is to show that watersports and sustainability can go hand in hand. By offering fun, low-pressure ways for people to get involved, she’s helping build a culture around foiling that’s open, inclusive, and conscious of its impact.
Sailing and Biking to Corsica
One of Flora’s most personal projects this year was a trip from her hometown of Hyères to Corsica without using motorized transport. She biked along the southern coast of France, then crossed the sea by sailboat to reach the island.
In Corsica, she hosted a series of wingfoil clinics for women, combining her love for sport, adventure, and environmental awareness. The trip was a way to explore nearby regions using low-impact travel and to share her passion with others along the way.
Starting from L’Almanarre, a spot in Hyères where she was born and raised, made the journey even more meaningful. Known for its strong Mistral winds and powerful waves, the area has shaped her life both as an athlete and an advocate for nature.
Flora at the United Nations: Launching Athletes for Science
This year, Flora was invited to represent a new athlete-led initiative at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice. It marked a major moment in her journey as both a sustainability expert and a professional athlete. Standing alongside six other high-level athletes, Flora helped launch Athletes for Science, a collective that connects sport with scientific research to support the ocean, climate, and biodiversity.
The program is supported by France’s Ministry of Sports and the French Sailing Federation. Its aim is to build stronger bridges between athletes and scientists – helping researchers share their work with new audiences, while giving athletes deeper insight into the environmental challenges we face.
“As both an engineer and an athlete, I’ve seen how sport allows me to more easily convey messages about environmental and social issues,” Flora says. “That’s why I wanted to coordinate this initiative.”
Through Athletes for Science, Flora and her teammates are encouraging fellow athletes to work with scientists on real-world projects, act as spokespeople for research, and promote a culture of learning and action within their sports communities. Follow their socials to see what they’re up to!
Looking ahead
Flora’s journey shows how passion for sport and commitment to the environment can go hand in hand. Whether organizing events like the Roca Cup, traveling sustainably across beautiful landscapes, or standing on the global stage at the United Nations, she is living proof that athletes can be powerful agents of change.
Her message is simple but powerful: by caring for the places we love to explore and ride, and by using our voices to support science and sustainability, we can protect the places we love for generations to come.
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