Surfing the South of France – the Atlantic Coast.

When I was posed the question if we wanted to go to the South of France (namely the Bordeaux region) I quickly answered yes। It was the thought of the beach, sand between my toes a beach and the possibility of a wave that appealed the most, maybe even a taste of the local wine. I’m not complaining about the lakes in Luxembourg it’s just that there is something special about salt water that im drawn two, so much so that I am prepared to drive across one of the largest countries in Europe to get a fix. Sometimes I think it would be cheaper to addicted to drugs.
Long story short, I booked two weeks leave, bought a 1995 VW Golf and packed everything that might be remotely useful into the car. Then we drove almost the width of France some 1200km to get to the beach.

A few things to note:
Between the 15th July and 15th August are summer holidays and Europeans especially the French take this quite seriously, EVERYONE is on holiday – shops will shut their doors over this period and a lot of French people love to camp so not only do the prices go up the campsites do book out. We where lucky in New Zealand style we travelled over this time and didn’t book anything – it wasn’t a problem, although we did encounter traffic jams on the roads and big queues when trying to book into campsites.
For more details about the driving I will load an article about driving in France shortly.
Secondly, a few key words of French go along way – I watched one English person walk straight up to the counter and with out even saying hello talk in English to the girl behind the desk, when she didn’t understand he repeated himself louder using exactly the same words. Have a little respect after all we are visiting someone else’s country.

We arrived in a tiny town called Mimizan, roughly 120km towards the Spanish boarder from Bordeaux obviously on the coast. Mimizan is well know for its surf break and the smell produced by its paper mill, (neither where to let us down). Besideds nothing was going to bother me; I was at the beach that equals ‘happiness’.
The beaches are incredible, the sand is like talcum powder and the water is a comfortable 25 degrees. Incredibly all those stories about women tanning topless are also totally true, inhibitions are don’t exist in France.
Mark and Emma arrived the next day surfboards in tow. Mark is a staunch long boarder and luckily bought enough boards for three people to surf every possible condition, giving me a great choice of boards (mine still being in New Zealand).

In the morning the paper mill was blowing straight into our face – the smell brings a tear to your eye, but its also great news because it equals the magic words all surfers’ worldwide love to hear . . . 'offshore breeze'. An early morning mission to the beach proved to be successful with clean 5-6ft waves with beautiful clean faces. Better still we where the only people surfing the break, eventually the onshore breeze arrived and so did the crowds. We happily retreated to the comfort of the campsite for a breakfast of bacon and eggs. After almost a year without surfing I was happy to get out of the water as my shoulders where screaming in pain.
Over the next few days we repeated this formula – early morning was defiantly the way to go, the offshore breeze was quickly overthrown as the land heats up and the dreaded onshore takes over. Interestingly the tides seemed to made little difference – they changed the shape of the waves a little but overall we had nice waves through a range of tides (over the time we surfed almost everything but dead low)

From Mimizan we moved up the coast to another renound French surf spot of Biscarrosse which is very close to the city of Archachon. Seeing as it was essentially the same beach I was surprised by the change of wave It was smaller maybe 3ft and not as steep – perfect for the bigger long boards 9’2 and 9’8ft, it was great fun riding the waves of the big boards. At one point I watched Mark ride with ‘five over the front’ and the tail of the board still planted firmly in the green face of the wave. The second day unfortunately it was totally flat, the water however was an incredible turquoise Green. An amazing colour and just screamed ‘swim’.

Then final stop of the tour was Carcans, we moved from Biscarrosse rather quickly when we established the swell was go and wouldn’t be back for a few days. Hoping for more luck at Carcans we where not disappointed – the swell report read like something from the movie ‘Big Wednesday’ 3.5meter swells reported later in the week. Mark and I looked at each other and laughed nervously painfully aware the smallest board in our arsenal was an 8’6ft Gun or Mini-Mal. We only managed to surf here once, the conditions where OK, but not what we where accustomed though. Carcans had clean lines and a nice break, lots of peaks and was probably the most un-crowded of all the beaches, the downside was that there where a lot of English speaking people here – 200km south we where quite an unusual breed. As reported the swell picked up and a strong and constant onshore breeze that was accompanied by thunder and lighting made surfing an impossible task. With great disappointment we had to resort to what everyone else was doing . . . testing the world famous Boudreaux red wines and telling tales - It really is a hard life some days.

We did however wander to the beach one evening to see the excitement of the French lifeguards in full action, two lifeguards dived into the setting sun and swam out the back to where six people where being smashed by the waves. I have no idea how they found these people because even from the top of a sand dune we couldn’t see them, the waves where large and dumping heavily onto everyone in the water. Then out of no where a rescue helicopter flew overhead quickly identifying the group and dropped another rescue swimmer into the water. Within minutes all six individuals and the lifeguards where back on the beach and after a quick victory lap the helicopter was also back on the tarmac. I have to take my hat off to their dedication and skill of these lifeguards, they where fast and professional even without the aid of the helicopter I am confident the two swimmers would have helped everyone to safety.

I can confidently say the waves along the Atlantic Coast are some of the best I have ever surfed, it is all beach breaks and sand banks, it’s safe to say there isn’t a point break within a few thousand kilometres of here. On the upside, find a good bank and choose left or right – waves usually break both ways. Be aware surf when it on offer because the surf is not consistent. It can be onshore and sometimes even flat. I have also been told winter is a better time for the surf with more consistency, however the 35 degree temperatures and blue skies where just beckoning I couldn’t wait for winter. Besides when did surfing become a winter sport?

Then suddenly after all the excitement the next morning it was all but over, a 1000km drive across France meant we had to say good bye and head back towards Luxembourg where reality would once again kick in.
Mark and Emma where heading up to St Rochelle for an attempt to find those nice clean Atlantic waves again before heading to Britney and finaly home to Plymouth.
It was a long drive but nicely broken up with a very enjoyable climbing session on the world famous boulders of Fontainebleau just 60km south east of Paris. Finally if that wasnt enough to top off a great couple of weeks we watched South Africa loose to the All Blacks 19-0 in the Tri Nations.