Sunday – new mag & off to Bali

Very briefly:
The run of good waves is not stopping. Here are some photos, but there are plenty more in the usual blogs and webs where I normally source them from. September is truly prime time here in Europe. If I didn’t live here and I wanted to come on a surftrip, September is the month I would choose to travel.

Pantín by Dani:

Meñakoz by Surf 30:


Oléron by Tristan Mausse:

Salinas by Clau:

Asturias by Cezonillo:

Salinas by Clau:

Those of you who are interested is contest surfing probably know by now that the top surfers (WCT) are in France because of the Hossegor contest. But there has been plenty of other events up and down the coast these last few days/weeks. Maybe not as relevant from the surfindustry point of view, but with heaps more soul in them: Check this video here from the Royal Single Trophée (held last weekend in Anglet)…


Royal Single Trophée 2008 from moussrider on Vimeo.

and click here to watch some photos from the surf art expo up in Seignosse.

Also, and because of the Hossegor contest the English speaking surf media (basically American) can’t help writing about the most obvious topics re. French culture when reporting about the competition. Unfortunately, only those aspects of the French culture that seem to be more unacceptable in their narrow worlds are mentioned, such as the speedo wearing & nudity on the beach, or the snails & frog eating. It is quite shameful that surfers (and one still believes that the surf media is operated and owned by surfers), who have always prided on being quite open minded end up talking/reading about the same silly topics as anyone else would. Seriously, I still have to see a single European (UK non included… but again they never want to be Europeans) surf media using the same kind of antiques when reporting about the Lower Trestles (California) WCT event for example. Maybe it is about time that we Europeans start writing about the masses of overweight people and silicone breasted females that we see on Californian beaches & streets, where it seems to be cool to own a 4wd oil guzzling machine to drive to the mall some 100 yards away. Or again maybe not; maybe we should not loose hope and expect that one day those narrow minded writers/editors -and their publishers- will experience the unique feeling of being open minded and respectful.

But all is not lost. Last week I got to meet Mr. Erik Olson –the Californian surfer & shaper behind this blog- and his lovely wife, Ms. Oaks, with whom I got to spend a lovely afternoon in Donosti. They seemed to be genuinely interested in what happens in the old continent, besides the obvious topics about the French, the Spanish, the Basque, etc…. Erik, if you read these lines I hope you are safely back at home and I look forward to see you soon. It was a real pleasure to meet you guys.

The last 3sesenta (issue #130) has come out, and with it my last piece about the future of Spanish high performance surfing. I’ve added the cover on the right hand side.

And this is my last post before I’m off to Bali with my wife next weekend for 3 weeks of surfing and… surfing. My wife has never been to Bali before and although from a surfing point it’s not my favorite place, I’m looking forward to the idea of exploring what lays beyond the obvious Kuta-Nusa Dua (Bukhit included) area. I don’t know if I’ll will post from Bali, so I will probably write here again in late October. Until then…

Over & out.

Saturday - Bertha

Tropical storm / hurricane Bertha managed to send us a few pulses of West swell all the way from the American shores. Most of the Spanish North Coast didn't get much (as the coast faces N/NW and the swell was W/SW), but down in Portugal and on the French Atlantic central coast they managed to score a few nice summer sessions:

This is what home was like on Wednesday am before i drove to the French coast where i had a lovely surf on a brand new board at a nice little reef/point set up:

Further up in Hossegor it was all-time at certain banks... while flat at others. In the afternoon the off-shore was so stiff that it almost killed the swell (by Gecko):

Down in Galiza way they also got a few pulses. Photo of Soesto by Dani.

On Thursday there were some nice little lines still to be found on the Île d'Oléron, North of Bordeaux, a beautiful area that doesn't really get much surf in summer. Photo courtesy of Tristan Mausse.

And the circus is in town. The ASP is back in town after five years, for the Vans Pro Junior. There waves are very tiny, the ASP broadcast focuses almost exclusively on the French surfers -in spite of plenty of local and Portuguese surfers doing very good so far (this is what happens when the ASP regional offices happen to be in France)- and the weather is beautiful. At least it is helping me out heaps for my upcoming article for 3sesenta.

Over & Out