After a day of good surf at Biarritz we journeyed north to one of our favourite places on the west coast, Mimizan Plage. As with many beach towns on the west coast there is the town and then the town plage which can often be 10km apart. For example Lacanau has Lacanau Ocean, Moliets has Moliets Plage and Mimizan has Mimizan Plage. The plage town is heaving and vibrant in the sumer but almost completely shuts down in the winter. We headed here hoping for quiet waves however we arrived at the start of the Quiksilver German Surfing Contest.
The surf was huge and getting bigger. By the end of the day perfect hollow barrelling waves were breaking all along the north and south beaches. No one was surfing except for a jet ski that was trying to tow a surfer into the waves unsuccessfully. It looked like you could park a buss inside the barrel. The next day the surf had dropped a few feet so I (John) headed in. The surf was still too big for the contest but a German surfer a bodyboarder and me eventually managed to make it out back. I caught a few before having one of my worst wipe outs ever. Taking off on a big one, the wave was steep and very hollow. I tried to put pressure on my toes to pull into the barrel but unfortunately ended up free falling head first down the wave to then be sucked round with the curl (going over the falls, surfers call it). I was then pummelled under water for what seemed like ages. When I did surface the water was so aerated that it was difficult to get my head above the surface. Ruth said later the German spectators on the beach responded with a collective uuuuuuuuuuuu!! Slightly shaken I managed to get a few better ones.
Over the next few days the size dropped and we had some great waves.
Mimizan has a huge paper factory. When the wind is blowing in your direction you get a really unusual and not very pleasant smell. There really is nothing quite like it, Ruth describes it as rotten sprouts which is the closest description.
The surf was huge and getting bigger. By the end of the day perfect hollow barrelling waves were breaking all along the north and south beaches. No one was surfing except for a jet ski that was trying to tow a surfer into the waves unsuccessfully. It looked like you could park a buss inside the barrel. The next day the surf had dropped a few feet so I (John) headed in. The surf was still too big for the contest but a German surfer a bodyboarder and me eventually managed to make it out back. I caught a few before having one of my worst wipe outs ever. Taking off on a big one, the wave was steep and very hollow. I tried to put pressure on my toes to pull into the barrel but unfortunately ended up free falling head first down the wave to then be sucked round with the curl (going over the falls, surfers call it). I was then pummelled under water for what seemed like ages. When I did surface the water was so aerated that it was difficult to get my head above the surface. Ruth said later the German spectators on the beach responded with a collective uuuuuuuuuuuu!! Slightly shaken I managed to get a few better ones.
Over the next few days the size dropped and we had some great waves.
Mimizan has a huge paper factory. When the wind is blowing in your direction you get a really unusual and not very pleasant smell. There really is nothing quite like it, Ruth describes it as rotten sprouts which is the closest description.
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