Our next plan of action was to head south. A huge 12ft swell was on its way and we were looking for a beach with some protection. We found a camping car aire surprising central in Biarritz. It was a short walk to all of the beaches and into the centre, perfect. Not for surfing though, we ventured further south to a place just near the border of Spain called Hendaye. When we got there, there was a really mellow wave, something we hadn’t seen in a while so it was nice to get in. We got up really early the next morning and as expected the waves had built, but not a patch on what the rest of the west coast must be getting. For me it looked like a challenging paddle out but found it surprisingly alright, we were only metres from where we’d intended to sit when John turned to me and said those ginxing words, “That was alright, at least it’s not too heavy”. When suddenly on the horizon a monstrous set came through... I got out with a snapped board.
As we’d noticed from the previous day it’s not really a surfable wave at high tide. We were resting on the beach watching the crazy head high shore break when a bride and groom came walking onto the beach with their photographer. They looked lovely; him in traditional tails and her in a long white dress covered in detailed netting and a long train. We couldn’t work out at first if it was actually their wedding day and they were going for a walk and a few pictures like john and I did with Helen or whether they were doing this on a separate day (I’ve heard of people having pictures being taken on another day if the weather wasn’t good on their wedding day, and looking back to the previous weekend and the torrential rain and gale force winds we thought this could be a distinct possibility). After having a few formal photos they took off their shoes and he took off his jacket. Engrossed in their photo shoot they didn’t notice that the tide was now racing in and covered their shoes and jacket that they’d left on the sand, fortunately a bather noticed this and quickly scooped up their things before the sea took them away with it. The couple were grateful but didn’t seem overly phased by the drenched belongings or even take notice of how fast the tide was flooding. Oh dear! A few close calls meant her beautiful delicate dress started to get dirty and soggy around the bottom but this obviously didn’t come as enough warning; then came the next wave; it surged in around knee height, the groom struggle to keep her on her feet but the wave was too strong and she ended up face down completely submerged. As the photographer and groom pulled her out, face full of sand, she could barely walk as her dress must have been so heavy, but the shoot carried on, almost like it was all part of the plan. They will have an interesting wedding album. I only hope it wasn’t their actual wedding day.
We headed back up to Biarritz to the camping car aire. The first night as we’d expected the police came around the vans about tea time to collect 10 euros from everyone (we thought we must have just missed them the last time we stayed here as we didn’t arrive until a bit later). The second night we stayed they didn’t come to collect, after chatting to some other campers, we found out it’s very hit and miss whether they turn up or not. We decided it must be just when their coffee fund gets low.
As we’d noticed from the previous day it’s not really a surfable wave at high tide. We were resting on the beach watching the crazy head high shore break when a bride and groom came walking onto the beach with their photographer. They looked lovely; him in traditional tails and her in a long white dress covered in detailed netting and a long train. We couldn’t work out at first if it was actually their wedding day and they were going for a walk and a few pictures like john and I did with Helen or whether they were doing this on a separate day (I’ve heard of people having pictures being taken on another day if the weather wasn’t good on their wedding day, and looking back to the previous weekend and the torrential rain and gale force winds we thought this could be a distinct possibility). After having a few formal photos they took off their shoes and he took off his jacket. Engrossed in their photo shoot they didn’t notice that the tide was now racing in and covered their shoes and jacket that they’d left on the sand, fortunately a bather noticed this and quickly scooped up their things before the sea took them away with it. The couple were grateful but didn’t seem overly phased by the drenched belongings or even take notice of how fast the tide was flooding. Oh dear! A few close calls meant her beautiful delicate dress started to get dirty and soggy around the bottom but this obviously didn’t come as enough warning; then came the next wave; it surged in around knee height, the groom struggle to keep her on her feet but the wave was too strong and she ended up face down completely submerged. As the photographer and groom pulled her out, face full of sand, she could barely walk as her dress must have been so heavy, but the shoot carried on, almost like it was all part of the plan. They will have an interesting wedding album. I only hope it wasn’t their actual wedding day.
We headed back up to Biarritz to the camping car aire. The first night as we’d expected the police came around the vans about tea time to collect 10 euros from everyone (we thought we must have just missed them the last time we stayed here as we didn’t arrive until a bit later). The second night we stayed they didn’t come to collect, after chatting to some other campers, we found out it’s very hit and miss whether they turn up or not. We decided it must be just when their coffee fund gets low.
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