aller pour le plaisir on peut se rememorer aussi la premiere fois qu'elle a été surfée a l'automne dernier (22 novembre 2002)
Fred Basse Wrote: Date: 12-12-02
22 nd November, the swell is 30 feet, 18 seconds. It is a Friday and since the Monday with a couple of friends we followed the evolution of this solid swell coming to us. The waves and the wind have destroyed on their way nearly most of the multihalls 60’ of the Route du Rhum race plus a super tanker which sank and is actually destroying the entire Galice coast with its fuel. France is getting ready to fight this natural disaster.
On the Friday, it was there. Hossegor was huge and waves were breaking 2 km outside. The decision of the group was to drive down south towards the Basque country where several options were possible. Avalanche was one of them as we surfed it a solid 15-20 feet the week before. An outer reef around the Saint Jean de Luz was more our objective. When we arrive on the top of the road over the ocean, a huge set broke on it. There is a right and a left, and it was the first time I saw it so big. That was it, forget the rest we needed to go and check the place
Nobody ever surfed it before, it is a scary area for the fishermen as all the big ocean reef. They are sources of seafood but also dangerous for them. It was the dream of most of the Basque surfers, going there but nobody ever tried it.
Max Larretche and Peyo Lizarazu were ready to go first, we promised the Basque team to leave them the first wave. Peyo came back especially from England where he follows a business university marketing course for the year. He missed the session the week before but this one he was ready. Unfortunatel y their jet skis had some mechanical problems and they had to come back to repair.
In the mean time, the other teams left to check the place. There were Yann Benetrix and myself (both from Hossegor), Vincent Lartizien ( from Hossegor) and Michel Larronde ( old time Biarritz surfer living on Maui since 15 years) plus a other jet of security with Xavier and Romu Junqua both used to go in waves.
It took us 10 minutes to reach the place, the wind was strong side shore and we were not sure to what we will find exactly. On the spot, we stayed a good 15-min to look at the spot and understand how it was working. There were three levels of breaks inside, middle and outside and the reef is in the middle of the ocean. We tried to follow the waves on the jets to see the speed, we couldn’t, the choppy water, the wind didn’t allow us to stay on the shoulder from start to end. The swell was really going fast.
Vincent started, we were waiting for Peyo but he didn’t showed up. Before he took the first wave, they turned with Michel a good 10 minutes. We positioned the two jets along the reef ready to come in case anything happened. They refused a first monster and then they targeted one beast. From where we were, we saw the white water behind the jet and imagine they were taking off. We couldn’t see as the wave in front was reducing our visual possibilities. Then Vincent appeared, the waves was huge, hard to say especially today with this race of feet attached with big money. The face of it was at least 30 feet, he looked small and the take off was never ending. It was a race between the white water and him, we were really tensed and quite afraid he will not make.
I know Vincent well, he is my partner for the last three years while he is in France and I could feel him concentrate and wishing to make it. Both of our jet went straight toward him, ready to rescue. I had the feeling it was forever but everything was happening fast. He made it, the first wave in Belharat was surfed.
The session was on. We stayed two hours. We all surfed and got good waves more or less big. Yann, my partner got the one that we see everywhere. It was a clean monster, when I sent him, we both knew it was a good one. This wave will stay forever in its memory. He was a father since 24 hours and he dedicated it to his new baby Maxime.
With the tide coming in, the point was easier but the size was still big. We took mostly the left and I got a first right toward the end. I regret we didn’t go right more as it looks better on certain sets. It will be for next time if we have enough jet for security. With only three to ride and one to secure, it was to limited to spread on the spot. Staying on the left, we could always check the others.
How big was it, it is hard to put a size. But for the one, who knows Hossegor, when you look at the main north beach in front of the three buildings, you look at the 4th balcony and it gives you an idea. For Michel who is used to surf Jaws, the waves is a different shape but he had the feeling to be in an other dimension. In Jaws, the all crews are here, it is surfed since many years. In Belharat, it was the first time for all of us on this sport and in this size waves that makes the moment exceptional.
We didn’t realise, but the road over the cliff was black of cars and people watching. From where they were, it was hard to see us. A guy in a helicopter and an other team on a boat came to make pictures and they are the one you see everywhere.
When we came back, we knew we lived a beautiful adventure. We didn’t realise, as usual, we cleaned the jets, pack everything and we were still in our dreams. We had a beer in a little private club of the harbour. In it, the fishermen knew what we did in the afternoon, they looked at us with a certain respect and a good camaraderie was on.
A few days after, when the first pictures came out, we started to realise that we turned a page on our French surfing history and we are quite proud of it. We respect a lot all the surfers who have guided us in surf in the past 30 years. In late seventies, Nat Young came to show us the first small boards, in 79/80 we had Rabbit, Maurice Cole in Hossegor to showed us how to go in the tube, from 80 to 90 Maurice and Tom lived in our country. Tom was the star and this legend of surfing, each time he was going in the water we were used to go out and look at his turns. He helped the French surfers to grow. From 90 to now, the pros are there for the contest. At Belharat, nobody was there to guide us and that is why we are happy we did it by ourselves showing that our surfing becomes maturer. We practised for the past 3 years to achieve this moment. It also showed that Atlantic coast can be part of big waves stories.
It was like a making a new way in a mountain, Belharat’s reef and some other will become certainly classic tow in spots like Todos or maverick. The waves goes to fast to surf it normally. It needs at least 20’ to start breaking or a big tide. I have no doubts that it will be part one day of the XXL trophy or an Odyssey adventure. We have a few other one to exercise still within the area and Spain.
This is also a story of friendship, the three teams were used to surf together. Vincent, Peyo, Max, Sebastien (who was not there this day) and myself are used to surf together. Michel Larronde came from Hawaii to spend a few weeks and trained with Vincent as they are building a tow in team together. We are at the start of this sport in France like many other countries. I only hope that the new comers will understand that it is not a sport you do fast that you need to train, prepare your gear and be fit. It takes some times. The most important, they must accept the values of the sport, which should be respect toward the environment of other surfers, the nature and security that is extremely important and vital there.
Fred Basse. Hossegor
Vincent Lartizien Wrote: Date: 12-14-02
Hi Eric, I have been riding large swells on Maui for the last 20 years, I spent the last 3 years in France working but also looking for theses large waves in our area: South west of France and North west of Spain . This wave breaks only when the tides are big and the swell is over 20 feet at the bouee, that day the bouees were 34 feet 17 second, the largest swell we had in the past year. We knew the swell was going to hit pretty hard a week before, and everyday the forecast was re-evaluated to bigger waves, it was a little weird because usually it is the contrary, the forecast says in 4 days there will be 20 feet, then the next day it says it will be only 15 feet and you end up with a 10 feet swell! That swell was the contrary and the morning when we first saw the Ocean it did not look like our place anymore, I could not recognize nothing it was just a size above anything that we had seen before.
We decided to go to this waves (there are others) because of the wind, it was a bit windy side off shore 15 knots, so a lot of chops on the wave, 2 teams made it up first Michel and I and Fred Basse and Yan Benetrix. When we got there we looked at each other and thought: OK let just go back to the harbor and cancel that session, the eyes were big! After looking at the place for 30 minutes Michel and I decided to give it a try and we decided that I will start, I felt good that day and safe, My physical was good, my mental was good and I felt the place, it was not pushing us away, the vibes were good even if it was looking like nothing we had seen before and kind of scary with the chops. so I went calmly, looked on a first waves without letting go the rope to check our placement and on thesecond wave I let go the rope and went down , it was not steep , I was onthe shoulder and I could see the bowl shooting up on the right of me , but it was full of big chops so I had to focus on them and on keeping my speed, it seems like it was just a giant take off , I was going down on the face of the wave for so long and I had to go through so many chops that the wave seemed endless .
Then I started to feel that the bowl had broken already and the white water was coming I could feel it behind, so I started to aim to the way out and another ride started with the white water on my ass (see picture attached) I was just trying to stay ahead and it lasted for so long, I even swallowed some water coming up from in front of me, I was happy when I felt that I made it safe but when I saw the eyes of the cameramen and the other team, I understood that it was not normal! SO there again we meet and almost decided to go back that it was to big and out of control but Michel and I wanted to take another one because some of them were smooth, so I went for the second one and it was much better (second picture I sent you) the wave was much smaller and I could be incontrol on the wave and we started to have fun and kept riding but the tide got full pretty fast and the size dropped, so after 3 hours we went back!
et un ptit morceau de video du 22 novembre 2002 :
http://www.europe.ripcurl.com/videos/bellhara/ref.mov
inscrit le 17/01/02
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