These past few days in the Bay – not much

Yeah, well, I guess we can’t complain. We had an interesting swell over the weekend: on-shore for most of Saturday and off-shore but unsettled on Sunday. We obviously surfed in France to get most of it. Since then it’s been very small at home, and a little better across the border, especially at low tide. I made the trip to Anglet on Wednesday and had lots of fun. There’s a little swell supposed to arrive tomorrow. Let’s see…

Here are some photos from the past days (for Monday at Home see the previous post):

(Saturday am before the swell really picked up)

(Sunday am at Anglet according to Surf-Report)


(Chuck on the nose at Salinas on Monday; courtesy of Clau)


(Tuesday at home)


(Anglet on Wednesday evening)



(and again)


(Thursday at home. The right hand corner. After work crowd)



(same thing, but the other end of the beach)

Not many news either:

(1) We finally know who the members of the Jury of the Surfilm Festibal are… although we only have their faces, not their names. Check them out here.

(2) The O’Neill Mission (to get waves?) finally ended in (presumably) 3-4’ waves… -although apparently they only took pictures of the 2 footers- with Julian’s Wilson victory. Check here. It’s fun how although half of the competitors are sponsored by O’Neill in the last two years (I can’t remember the previous editions) it’s always been a Quik rider who’s won.

(3) I finally received the Drift magazine. I’m really looking forward to check it out. Looks… different. And in my book, different normally is good.

(4) Oh, and they had some very good waves in the Med, specially on Monday. Check it out here.

Over & out.

Monday - 4 moments

My friend Kukurusta got the tail end of the weekend swell early at home before work.

Early in the afternoon it still looked doable.

An hour later a big storm came in.

By sunset it was very slow. I went to have a look but I couldn't be bothered fighting the crowds for such small waves.

This past week in the Bay – little waves, fun people & cheap talk!!

What a flat week it's been!! Since the weekend of May the 1st that there hasn’t been a proper swell in the Bay (unlike outside the Bay, as proved by the waves I got last week –see tag on the road-). Let’s hope it’s not the sign of things to come.

(It's been like this for weeks)

The silly season is just around the corner and some events are waking up the beaches, nooks and crannies of the Bay after the long, quiet and wonderful fall and winter (sigh). But let me tell a little story about a friend who has been visiting the Bay this week. His name is Didac and he is the shaper/glasser/polisher/painter and owner of Montjuich Surfboards, a little brand that makes vintage boards (pre 1982) only based near Barcelona, on the Med coast.

(Didac after-surf)

It turns out that some years ago Didac was a big fan of the late Miki Dora and his attitude towards life, surfing, crowds, etc… and created a Church dedicated to spreading the word of Dora. He even printed some little cards that he would give away (or sell) to people. One summer night in Biarritz a slightly drunk Didac was on his way to his van when he ran into Joel Tudor, who was in town for some Longboard contest. Didac approached Joel and after introducing himself, he gave him one of his Dora cards. Now, those of you who have watched the acclaimed One California Day movie will remember that the film takes us into Joel Tudor’s home in California, and… what can we see pinned on one wall in his living room? Didac’s Dora-card!!

(Didac's Dora card)

So anyway, Didac was here this week and we had a couple of surfs after work at some reefbreaks in Guéthary. Guéthary was also one of the favourite places of Dora when in France, and they’ve got a little plaque in his honous on a bench he used to sit to check the waves.

("Dedicated to Miklos Sandor Dora...")

One day I took Didac to Esteve Rosés’ place. Esteve is a Catalan surfer who has spent most of his life in Guéthary. He is cited a couple of times in Les Tontons Surfeurs, a book about the French surfing pioneers, as he started surfing right after them, and has held (and still does) several jobs within the surf industry. Esteve is also the publisher of the first free Spanish surf newspaper, Surf Time and still finds time to run a brand new surfshop (hardcore goods only) right next to his house.

(Last Surf Time's cover)

When I informed Esteve that Didac was in town, he wanted to meet him to discuss the possibility of stocking some of his boards in the shop. At the same time, we got the opportunity to study Esteve’s first board, a 40 year old beauty.

(Esteve, Didac & 40 year old board)

Talking about Joel Tudor: this week we found out that he will be attending the Salinas Longboard Festival in early August. This Festival, now in its 6th or 7th year, is always held during the first weekend of August at this popular beach near Gijon (Asturias). Besides the contest (open to everyone with a log and a nice attitude) there are tons of good friendly vibes, some barbeques, concerts and movies in the open air. If you want to spend a weekend with over a hundred friendly longboarders, this is where you should go. Some of the top European surfers (Spaniards, French, Portuguese and Brits) have entered the contest in the last couple of years, but one thing most of the regulars remember is the visit of a world class longboard such as Beau Young a couple of years ago. Beau came to surf, jam and enjoy himself and lots of Salinas regulars still remember his visit as one of the highlights of the Festival… if not of their lives!! It is fair to assume that Joel’s visit this year will reach, at least, the same level of stokedness. All the longboarding blogs and forums are full of it, and I have never seen so many grown up men behaving like teenage fans like that before... three months before the Festival!!! I wouldn’t be surprised if by the Sunday evening Tudor has a tired wrist and some sore cheekbones from all the smiling, hand shaking, autograph signing and photo posing that he will have to endure. Oh well!!

(One of the traditions of the Salinas Festival is to have a group photo)

Let’s go shorter: This week the O’Neill The Mission – somewhere in France event started. For the last two years, O’Neill had invited the top four surfers of the O’Neill Highland WQS plus some some O’Neill wildcards to a luxury cruise around French Polynesia where they held a free surfing contest in which the competitors were also the judges. This year the budget for this event has somehow shrunk and the luxury cruise boat has been turned into some rental motor homes and the perfect waves of Tahiti into the flat waves of France during one of the traditionally flattest months of the year. Maybe after all signing Jordy Smith was quite expensive.

Warning: If you intend to visit Les Landes during the coming weeks, be aware that the ISA World Junior Championship will be held in the area from May the 24th to June the 6th. There will be plenty of testosterone filled young guns with amazing water skills.

Cheap talk: Lewis Samuels and Surfline have done it again. It seems that provocation is the only weapon they have to attract web traffic. Shame on them. What was presented as a honest review of the WCT Top 45 surfers has turned into a "got an e-mail from Kelly Slater and all the non american surfers are lame" kind of gibberish. Please bring back Derek Hynd's reviews; at least he had walked the walk before talking the talk. Saddest note of the week by far.

And to end it all some photos from this week’s action (or lack of thereof):

(Monday - Pantín - Dani)

(Thursday - Salinas - Jaider)


(Today - SW France - the 2 reefs in action)

(Today - after surf sunset - no photoshop)

Over & out.

This past week in the Bay – rough times past & ahead

I just had a quick look at what’s been cooking in the Bay during my absence: poor souls, except for Tuesday and Wednesday… not a ripple!! On Sunday they managed to finish the World Longboard contests in Anglet, and on Monday there was an extremely heartfelt farewell ceremony to Peter Viertel in Biarritz. Peter Viertel (a Hollywood screenwriter and husband of Deborah Kerr) died last November in Spain, and was the person who introduced surfing in France 50 years ago (photo courtesy of the Surf-report).

In Salinas, meanwhile, it was almost flat (courtesy of Clau).

Tuesday saw some clean waves in Salinas (courtesy of Clau)...

...& Xagó (courtesy of Hindi)...

...while I’ve been told it was epic up in the Landes. The forecast had announced the arrival of a high period small to medium west swell and no winds, and so it was. Can’t find any photos though… There were some waves left on Wednesday in Sopelana (photo courtesy of Surf30) and that is about it.

This is what we had this morning at home.


All in all we chose the right week to leave the Bay, as we got much more surf than we would have had at home. The problem is the forecast is nearly as bad for this next week.

Over & out.

On the road – friday & saturday – days six & seven

And that’s it; we are back at home. Seeing the forecasts we decided to come back today -one day earlier- so we can have the whole of Sunday at home before going back to work. On Friday we saw –and surfed- the last of the swell at Pantin: 1-2’, nice and not too windy.

(The little beach near Pantin where we spent most of Friday afternoon)


(Another ría -fjord-. There's a bar in that city in the background where one can eat the best calamari ever... no argument!)

(Finally i found a lawn on which to take a photo of my quiver: (from l to r) fish quad 6'1'', retro bonzer 6'4'' and modern trifin 6'4''. The only board missing is my 6'11'' bonzer gun.)

Then we spent the whole afternoon at a beach nearby and walking the dogs near Dani’s house.

(Funky rocks near Dani's house)

(A panoramic view of the little beach just below Dani's)

Today we got up, bid farewell to everyone and drove home. The sea is calm and I don’t think there’s been a surfable wave anywhere in the Bay (maybe smwhere in France?). Anyway, we didn’t see any at the several places we checked.

(The first beach in the Bay we came accross: flat)

(A swell magnet closer to home: way too small)

Tomorrow I shall post a review of what’s happened in the Bay during our absence.

Over & out.

On the road - thursday - day six

The swell was a little smaller than yesterday but there were a few waves at Pantín. I took the bonzer out for a try: interesting except when it hits the flats. We took some pictures of Pantín and another beach nearby. After the rain of yesterday, and except for a few showers this morning, the weather has been very mild and sunny.

(Pantín this am)

(A panoramic view of the beach of Pantín)

(The beach at Valdoviño. Lunch time and no one on the whole beach -4.5ks of it-)

On the road – wednesday – day five

The swell dropped a little bit today: 2-3’ with the occasional 4’ set, and the wind (side / offshore) was a bit too strong. My surf didn’t go very well at Pantín, as I timed it wrong and the tide got too full too soon.

We checked a beach nearby, but it wasn’t quite working. No crowds though.


There was a bar nearby with a very inspiring name: horizon!

And then it started raining… cats and dogs. We spent most of the afternoon at Dani’s place, by the cliff.


We enjoyed amazing views and nice walks under the rain in the woods with the dogs. It could have been much worse.

Over & out.

On the road – tuesday – day four

Same place… and the swell really picked up this morning. I had a surf in 3-5’ side/off-shore Pantin first thing in the morning. Both the right and the left were working and it got better with the incoming tide. Got my ass kicked by a couple of sets and managed to get a few rights and lefts.

(Pantín, still building up.)

Then we ran some errants, taking some nice pictures here and there.

(I don't think they pray for surf.)

("A cara do mar" - "the face of the sea")

Before lunch, and while my wife had a little surf at another beach, I made a sun shelter for our Scottish Diamond Terrier with the driftwood I found on the beach… except it wouldn’t go anywhere near it.

After lunch I had a surf with Dani, a friend for over 15 years who lives nearby. The surf was small and rip affected (1-2’), but at least we were alone and could have our little yearly surf contest. As usual it was a draw. Now it’s ten o’clock at night, there’s still some daylight left and some 4 or 5 surfers are still enjoying a few waves at the point. We are in the van, thinking about dinner and testing today’s wifi connection. We are expecting good surf again for tomorrow, so we are going to have another early night.

Over & out.