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.

Wednesday to Friday – ooh la la!!

Ooh la la indeed!!! The French have some very fine things (my Mom for instance) although not quite as many as they think. You want to make a fast buck? Buy a Frenchman for his real price and sell him for what he says he’s worth!! (Bad) jokes aside, this has been a very French week. Home is quite a swell magnet. It’s one of the places that picks up more waves on this North facing side of the Bay, but when the swell is tiny and from such a westerly direction it can be flat while, about 30 minutes North on the French side, they have une petite vague.

(Home today... or yesterday... or Wednesday. At any tide)

And this is what this past few days have been like: flat here and some little waves in Anglet. Everyday, around low tide, they’ve managed to run a few heats of the World Longboard Contest. Low tide falling during working hours, no surfing was done by yours truly… until yesterday, when I found out about a little reef/swell magnet that is rideable at high tide with a fish.

(Cavaliers today... or yesterday... or Wednesday. But at low tide)

Some waves were had, especially after 8pm, when all the French left the water for dinner (us, from South of the border don’t tend to have dinner until 9pm… at the earliest) and it was just the five of us in the water until dark (10pm). Among us renowned painter, good surfer and all round nice guy Sandow Birk and his lovely girlfriend Elyse, who are visiting/surfing this stretch of coast after a few months of hard work in Paris and before returning to LA shortly.

(The swell magnet yesterday - Thursday- while waiting for the French lognboarders to leave the water and the wind to die. It's basically a fat peak, but the first section is very enjoyable on a fish.)

(The same place today - Friday -. Magic only happens once. We hit the bar nearby instead)

The après surf consisted in dinner -and celebrating our good fortune- at the Heteroclito. We are packing our stuff right now, and getting the van ready for this coming week of travelling and surfing. The destination is still uncertain: West or Southwest? One or the other, they are both beyond the fringes of the bay. I might update this blog with our findings during the week.

Wish us luck, nice waves, no crowds and lots of fun.

Over & out.

P.S.: The other blog has been updated recently. If you are interested in the Surfilm Festibal, click here.

Monday to Friday – on & off… again

Monday it was onshore and stormy. I didn’t even bother to freeze the webcam. Tuesday was fine at home. Got an early session (before work) and got my ass kicked by a couple of sets. Swell was building quickly and managed to get a couple but not many.

Yes, I know, it doesn’t look like it’s that big, but you’ll have to trust me on this one.

In the evening I spent some time with the French Surfing Royalty (capitals intended) on a fine terrace at Biarritz’s Grande Plage, celebrating Surf Session’s 250th issue. I can’t say I talked to many people except for a couple I knew already, ace photographer Greg Rabejac being one of them. Someone, though, was smoking clove cigarettes (to make sure everyone knew that he/she had just returned from Indo…). Oh well, clearly the French don’t need a king because every single one of them behaves like one. Anyway, it was nice to smell that scent again. I shall be there –Indo- in late September. Cool!

Wednesday was big and onshore… again…

…which means nice and off-shore in Laredo (2 hours West) according to Sendoa.

And Thursday was public holiday – 1rst of May – and the ocean decided to join the festivities throwing a nice swell (up to 8’ in the morning at the most exposed beaches).

Lafitenia was chock-a-block with Germans, Dutch and Italians… and locals. I didn’t even paddle out after counting sixty smthing heads (lots of them definitely not surfers) bobbing out there and ten more getting suited in the carpark. I had a little surf in the shorebreak of the World’s Worst Beachbreak (WWB) and it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Apparently some other places were not that crowded: outside the Bay from Dani.

In the afternoon I took a short drive West to check a couple of reefs…

…but they were not working (strange with a long period swell like this one). Maybe it was because of the swell direction. I ended up surfing this reef/pointbreak in sub par conditions, with rocks sticking out everywhere. But at least it was just the three of us.

It wasn’t like in this photo -from a Surfer magazine-. The sets were breaking more or less where the second wave is breaking on the photo.

Today - Friday- I had another early surf at home…

&

… but the tide got too low after the first half an hour for the sandbank to work properly, and then it was close out city.

I had another surf at Zarautz at lunch time, in the shorebreak.

It was fun but the lulls were very long. The swell is fast disappearing.

Apparently in Salinas they had similar conditions (photo by Clau).

Titbits:

1) I haven’t checked any films for the St Jean de Luz Festival. I guess that tells about my interest in their programme. I might go tomorrow afternoon, though.

2) I am working on a new entry for the Donosti Surfilm Festibal blog, on the different posters they’ve had. I just found out that last year’s poster was an original work exclusively done for the Festibal by Andrew Kidman and Andy Davis. Read more about it here in a couple of days.

3) Finished the last Wavelength (nice photos from the North) and Carve (Wanderlust issue). Not bad, at least this time no one claims to be the fist to surf that wave in the Sahara (unlike what someone wrote in Surfer some months ago when the trip was first published). Busy with The Surfer’s Journal right now… and enjoying every single word of it so far.

Over & out.