Behind the doors of Infinity SUP Europe with Leonardo Lazzeri

The sales and team manager of JLID Distribution, the Italian company charged with distributing the boards and products of Californian brand Infinity SUP in the whole of Europe, Leonardo Lazzeri lives in Livorno, a small Italian town on the Tyrrhenian coast. At 53 years old, he’s been living a waterman life for decades, windsurfing and surfing in the early part of his life. For more than ten years, he’s been SUP racing and SUP surfing and now, of course, SUP & Wing foiling. And Infinity has been part of his SUP lifestyle ever since. As we are, admittedly, big fans of the Boehne family work spanning over the last 50 years, building one of the most high-performance SUP surf and SUP race brands on the planet, while never losing sight of their Southern California surf roots and (cool) lifestyle, we wanted to understand the European side of the Infinity business … and potentially let out any opportunities for potential European resellers, athletes or future customers and fans.

Hi there Leonardo, can you give us a quick background on your paddling career?

Hello Mathieu. I have been paddling for more than 10 years now after surfing and windsurfing for many years before that. In SUP racing, I took part in many national and international race competitions such as the Miami Orange bowl and Euro tour events. I am not very young anymore but I try to go in the water every time there are good conditions. It is good for my health and above all, it relaxes my mind. I think that if tomorrow I stopped having fun in the water with all my Infinity toys, maybe I wouldn’t have so much energy even to carry on my work.

Can you tell us what Jlid Distribution does, where it is based, and what your role is?

JLID Distribution was founded in 2009 with the aim of importing the most important Stand Up Paddle brands to Europe. Within Jlid, I hold the role of sales manager and team manager. We are based in Livorno where all the main segments of the company are centralized: our Office and logistic warehouse with the arrival and departure of goods for the whole of Europe. We are very focused on the stand up paddle market but the foil segment is also rapidly growing.

How long has Jlid Distribution been working with Infinity and why did you decide to distribute in Europe?

I have been working in this company since the year of its birth in September 2009 and since 2016 we have had the great pleasure of being the official distributors for the prestigious Infinity brand thanks to the good work done in the previous years for other brands. We decided to focus on Infinity despite receiving offers from other brands, due to the nature and appeal of the brand. We feel much closer to a brand that makes its family history their raison d’être rather than a large company. I was lucky enough to know Steeve and his wife Barry Bohene personally. They are the historical founders who later together with their children and Dave Boehne in the front line were able to transmit first of all their passion for what they do but above all an immeasurable talent in designing boards that can be totally futuristic or timeless classics. They are first and foremost a surfer family!

What is, in your opinion, the appeal and attractiveness of the brand and the uniqueness of its products?

Surely their way of making boards has made them a super cool brand. But also their family philosophy that has dedicated their life to this makes them unique. Dave spends a lot of time drawing boards but he also goes on the water a lot to try them out. Often with his family in San Onofre where his father surfs with a two-seater canoe with her wife. Their products are special as shapes, construction and graphics and above all they have managed to make sure that both the production of the custom boards is the same as that of the mass production which is in Kinetic, the best sup/surf factory specialized of the top quality carbon PVC construction. Indeed, the production boards are lighter and stronger.

The JLID crew with Dave Boehne, CEO of Infinity

What are your 3 favorite Infinity products?

Easy question.

– First of all the Infintiy Blurr V2 , a sup surf board which is exceptional for its great speed and maneuverability.
– Then the Blackfish flat deck. I love this SUP Race board especially in wave conditions, fast and fun, especially in technical races.
– And finally the Tombstone SUP Foil board. With this particular shape, Dave saw first of all where and what could be done with the foil.

However Infinity has a great range of products and everyone at the moment are freaking out for the new Whiplash SUP Race board which will is the first hollow board by Infinity. Very light, rigid and very fast.

Despite being a top brand in California, with a very strong sup surf and sup race team in North America, I’m surprised to see there aren’t many Infinity-sponsored athletes in Europe. Can you provide more details on this?

Infinity is a historic surfing brand based in Dana Point, California and for sure it made it easier for Infinity to build a strong North American team of racers. Some of them live close to Dana Point like Candice Appleby and Tyler Bashor while others are not very far from California except the “Peruvian prince” Itzel Delgado. In Europe, things are slightly different than in the USA. We have also tried to pushed in this direction looking for strong athletes but this requires a very high budget that at the moment we do not have and therefore we focused essentially on young people with great prospects first of all Riccardo Rossi able to finish fifth at the Nautic Paris Cross of the last December. Certainly also the covid situation did not facilitate our task in this sense with the blocking of almost all the races for at least two years. We are working together with our European distributors and certainly in the coming months some new dark horses to focus on will emerge.

Team Infinity Italy 2021

Before being a SUP brand, Infinity is a historical brand of the surf family. Is surfing (and Infinity Surf) an important part of your distribution job?

Yes, because first of all I’m a surfer!  It is my passion and my life has been turning around the surf lifestyle since I was a kid. In this case, we are really happy to be distributors of the historic Infinity brand. Just to be clearer infinity covers 70% of JLID sales and I’m talking about a company that also distributes other prestigious brands such as Jimmy Lewis, Quickblade, Axis and Mormaii. We work every day to improve this target and over the years we have progressively grown year by year by at least 20%.

How/Where can one buy an Infinity board in Europe?

As mentioned we are always looking for new partners but it is also true that we are able to satisfy all requests directly from our warehouse. We have developed a very valid shipping service capable of delivering the boards in less than 10 days to all areas of Europe. We are certainly open to new collaborations with serious and strong European shops or distributors for countries such as France, Spain, Austria while for other European countries such as Portugal, Holland, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greece. , Slovenia, we have excellent distributors who are doing a great job for Infinity. Therefore every people who are interested on Infinity products can contact us by email order@jlid-distribution.com or through our instagram and facebook infinity sup europe pages and after We’ll send the the request to the national infinity distributor of reference.

2022 Infinity European Reseller Map

Are you actively looking for new shops or country distributors in Europe?

We are looking for good partners who intend to push the Infinity brand and certainly, after this interview we will have more chances to find them so I thank Infinity for giving us the opportunity to represent them in Europe and TotalSUP for giving me the opportunity through this interview to make us know even more in Europe.

For more information on Infinity, go to:
https://infinity-sup.com/

To order your Infinity gear in Europe or find your nearest shop, please go to:
https://www.jlid-surfstore.com/