Vive la France & the roots of surfing in Biarritz
Vive la France & the roots of surfing in Biarritz
by
Sam Bleakley
Southwest France is the hub of European
surfing, attracting visitors from all over the globe to sample hollow beach
breaks, classy culture, mussels and fries, and great beers and wines. France
offers everything for the adventurer: the lofty Alpine peaks have some of
the best ski resorts in the world and both the Atlantic and Mediterranean
coasts have good surf. The 800-mile rugged coastline of Brittany has climate
and surf conditions similar to Cornwall. In contrast, the French Riviera on the
southeastern coast enjoys short-lived Mediterranean swells when northwest or
east winds send waves to beach breaks around Marseille and Toulon. It is one of
the most glamorous resort areas in the World, with Monaco, Nice and Cannes
attracting the superstars.
Brittany
– like Cornwall across The Channel –
is rugged, hilly and windswept. Along its
jagged coastline, granite headlands are interspersed with sandy beaches and
wide bays. On a perfect day (lined-up swell plus easterly winds) you’ll find
quality beach break waves at La Palue on
the Crozon Peninsula,
La Torche near
Quimper, and Port Rhu towards
Quiberon. Further south, past Nantes, the landscape flattens out and the roads
become tree-lined and straight. On
a mid-size swell, make a detour to Les
Sables d’Olonne and weave your way through the forest to sample the right
point
at Sauveterre. On a big
swell, head for La Tranche sur Mer where you’ll find a sand-bottom right point
next to the new pier, L’Embarcadère.
France is most famous for ‘The
Silver Coast’ extending from Royan (at the mouth of the
Garonne estuary) in the north to Biarritz in the south. The 160-mile long
stretch is backed by pine forest and lakes, while the deep of Bay of Biscay
unloads swell right onto the steeply shelving sand with full force. Inevitably
there is a powerful and sometimes dangerous north to south current flow and
good sand bars come and go with tide and swell. But generally you will find some
of the finest beach breaks in Europe and witness
many of the continent's top surfers.
Peppered
along
the coast are dozens of seaside resorts: Soulac sur Mer, Carcans-Plage,
Lacanau-Ocean, Biscarrosse- Plage, Mimizan-Plage, Moliets, Vieux Boucou,
Hossegor and Capbreton, to name just a few. The unique underwater baththymetry around Hossegor produce some of the best beachbreaks on the planet.
There’s something
magical about The Silver Coast. The endless peaks, the pine forests and the relaxed
continental vibe together make this a classic place to visit, especially in the
late summer and early autumn. If the waves are two- to five-feet and clean, the
surfing possibilities here are endless. Hike along a sandy track through the
forest, climb the dunes and see what you find. But don’t mess with French
lifeguards! The blue and red uniformed beach patrollers are highly qualified
and have the right to confiscate your surfboard if you ride a wave into the
blue flagged swimming area. Respect the signs or you might get arrested and
fined. The best solution is to always surf peaks a good distance from the
swimming area.
Biarritz is the arguably the most stylish surf
city in Europe. Originally a summer escape for French aristocrats, the city may
have faded a
little from the days when Empress Eugenie (wife of Napoleon III)
built her palace on the beach, but it still attracts the rich and famous.
Ferraris and Porsches roam the streets of the city centre which are dotted with
haute couture fashion shops. Côte des
Basques is the most sheltered and mellowest of the town’s breaks. It’s a
popular longboard spot and the best place for a surf lesson.
When the early ambassadors of French
surfing Joel and Arnaud de Rosnay explained to Surfer magazine in 1964 that Swiss writer Peter Viertel, working in
Hollywood, had brought the first balsa board to Biarritz in 1957, they were
unaware of the whole story. According to research by Paul Holmes revealed in
his book Dale Velzy is Hawk, the
story of French surfing involves Richard Zanuck. He was a scion of the
Hollywood movie industry and son of legendary producer and studio mogul Darryl
Zanuck, founder of Twentieth Century Fox.
Young Zanuck had been a hardcore Malibu surfer since the early 1950s. His
surfing adventures had taken him north to Santa Cruz, west to Hawaii and east
to France.
“Zanuck can take credit for introducing
surfing to the now-renowned European surf-centre of southwest France,” writes
Holmes. “The occasion was the location filming in Northern Spain of the 1956
movie The Sun Also Rises, the
screenplay adapted from the Hemingway novel by Peter Viertel and being produced
by Darryl Zanuck. Richard was tagging along, an apprentice, fresh out of
school. Screenwriter Viertel lived in Switzerland and Spain but on one of his
many visits to Hollywood during the pre-production phase of the picture, he
remarked to Zanuck that he had seen waves just like those at Santa Monica and
Malibu along the beaches of the Basque country near the film location. Zanuck
needed no further prompting. When the studio loaded a charter plane with camera
equipment, props and costumes, Zanuck added his surfboard. ‘Peter Viertel and I
drove down from Paris headed for Pamplona and on the way down we stopped at
Biarritz. They’d never seen a board before. It was a weekend and I went out and
surfed. There were a lot of people there and I was the centre of attention,’
Zanuck reported.”
Surfing took root in Biarritz immediately. “After
Viertel saw me surfing…he became obsessed…and surfed every day for years,” says
Zanuck.” When filming was over, Viertel
remained in Europe, living in Northern Spain with his wife, actress Deborah
Kerr. Zanuck left his board with Viertel, who became a regular in the emergent
Biarritz surfing scene. Joel and Arnaud de Rosnay, Viertel and two other
Frenchmen, Jacques Rott and George Hennebutte, comprised the original core
group in Biarritz back in 1957, which within a year had expanded to include
Michel Barland, Andre Plumcoq, Robert Bergeruc and the Moraiz brothers, all
sharing a total pool of seven boards. By 1960, Barland and Rott were
collaborating to build foam and fibreglass surfboards. In the same year the
first national French surfing contest was held, while the Waikiki Club became
the central social base of the Biarritz surfing scene. It would be another four
years before La Federation Francaise de
Surf was formed, with Roger Petit as its President, based at the Office of
Tourism in Biarritz.
La Barre near Bayonne was the jewel
in the French surfing crown in the 1960s. Joel de Rosnay glides a glassy
section. La Barre was destroyed by a river dredging project in the early 1970s
For punchier
waves head to Anglet, just north
of the city, where a series of rock groins divide up the beaches from Chambre D’Amour to Les Cavaliers. Just south of Biarritz,
Guethary is a superb
Basque Country reef break, offering rights and lefts that peel for 60 yards in
front of a small fishing village. Guethary breaks all year round, preferring a
northwest swell and southeasterly winds. It works from three feet right up to
15 feet, and it’s usually
best at lower stages of the tide. Drive another
couple of clicks south and you’ll reach Lafiténia,
a steady-peeling right point which can be really good on a clean four- to
six-foot swell. It’s best at lower stages of the tide. Hit it early to avoid
the crowds.
France also has many overseas
territories and possessions spanning the globe, from islands in the Atlantic,
Pacific and Indian Oceans to a portion of South America and a major claim to
the Antarctic continent. Many of these areas have fantastic waves, such as
the Indian Ocean island of Réunion; French Polynesia, including Tahiti, Moorea,
and the Tuamotu islands; New Caledonia and the French Caribbean islands of
Guadeloupe, Martinique and St Bartholomew. Surfers from all these areas
carrying French passports have made France one of the strongest and
best-represented surfing countries in the world today.
