You are here: Hossegor, France
Being in France is a lot better than getting to France.
I didn’t take the easiest route since I’m planning to visit a few places later in my trip and was hoping to use some of my American Airlines points to upgrade (which didn’t happen). I might have to go back to the Ryan Miller School of Travel before I head home and get that straightened out. The journey here was a grind.
From my apartment in Costa Mesa, CA I finally arrived in Bilbao, Spain — where I was straight into my mini Fiat with boards strapped to the roof and hit the toll road for Hossegor, France.
Through the tunnels in Spain and after a few wrong turns in the mountains and I crossed the border into France. Seeing those world famous (to surfers) signs reading: SEIGNOSSE / HOSSEGOR / CAPBRETON. I could feel some of the tension leave my body immediately.
My friend Mathias Maallem, Roxy TM, had a room waiting for me at his place. Before I even got to the house he called me to head over to the Roxy party to celebrate Caroline Marks’ recent World Title victory. Straight off the plane I walked into the warmest welcome I had ever had in France.
Right on the harbor in Capbreton as the sun was setting we celebrated Caro’s big win with all the girls (Steph, Coco, Laura, Nikki, and of course Maud among many others). Everyone was straight off the plane with Shimmy Disco on the decks and drinks were flowing.
Delirious, I felt like I was in a dream, but after one espresso martini, I was assured that this was in fact real life. I made it. The excitement in the air was electric. France was back!
I managed to sleep in until around 5am. Jet lagged and a bit dusty, I headed down for a look at the waves. First stop was Les Estagnots where I heard there was a good bank — finding the good banks is everything in France. When I got there I was greeted by none other than Jeremy Flores. It looked pretty epic, but he assured me that it was due to get better with a little less tide so we opted to run for breakfast at a little secret Hossegor gem called Pacific Coast. Not exactly the first place I had in mind for breakfast coming straight from California, but the breakfast burrito was delightful nonetheless.
The waves were turning on just as we arrived back at the beach and it was the France like you dream of. Peaks up and down the entire stretch that was littered with beachgoers yelling for every epic ride they saw. The contest wasn’t even happening, but the fans already lined the beach to watch the action. We had a quick surf and then got the jet ski ready and dropped it in the water at Capbreton. The waves went from good to great at Estagnots. As I sat watching everyone step off from the ski onto perfect running barrels, Marc Lacomare got blown out of a crazy long left tube followed by Jeremy Flores on the wave of the day just after him.
After Mathias dropped Jeremy on a few, he came and grabbed me to step me off onto a couple. Right then it changed again from a pumping left and all of a sudden there was a right down the way. We got there just in time to nab a couple and watch Michel Bourez get another dreamy, long pit.
I hit the sand and was feeling like I was in a dream again. It could have been the jet lag or the second espresso martini from the night before, but after I walked up the dune and sat in the sand in front of the cabin de plage at Estagnots, it all settled in. With a handful of the surfers here for the Quik Festival sinking a few cold ones as the sun was setting, you could feel the excitement in the air that the Quik Festival opening day was tomorrow and we are all going to score. We had already scored.
With everything already happened, it feels like I’ve been here a week, but that was only day one. If that’s a sign of things to come then this must be the place. Stay tuned, should be a great week here.—Brandon Guilmette
