Forget Hawaii...Surf's Up au Lacanau

Think surfing holiday and your wishful mind may immediately wander to far-away and sublime shores off the coast of, say, Hawaii, Bali or Australia. These locations, renowned for cranking surf, white sand, sunshine and bikinis to boot, are, however, a little far for us Brits to get our regular fill of surfing kicks.

But think again. There’s a little-known French gem that’s (almost) right on our doorstep and needs to be shouted about. Just an hour and a half flight to Bordeaux and then a forty-minute drive, it’s the sleepy little seaside town that comes alive both on the water and at night. Introducing Lacanau…

OK, so it may not have a reputation for 15ft barreling waves and world-class point breaks boasted by some of the abovementioned surfing meccas, but it does have something for us mere dabblers in the sport. The shore breaks are perfect for beginners, powerful enough for white water riding (which, let’s face it, is a pretty exhilarating aspect of beginnerhood) but not overwhelming, whilst the long and peeling waves further out are ideal for the more experienced to strut their stuff.

Rico and Sarah win the Tandem Surf French Cup at Lacanau

La Fédération Française de Surf has clocked this little hotspot and, on 9^th – 10^th July, its 15km of sandy beaches played host not only to my motley crew’s holiday, but also to one of the most important events in the French surfing calendar: the Long Board, SUP and Tandem Surfing French Cup. If it’s good enough for the French pros, it’s just about good enough for the rest of us who can’t help but totally rip, shred and tear it up on the water.

A word of warning: French surf instructors, having taken out a group of schoolchildren who are obediently lined up in the shallows learning how to read a wave (if such a thing can be done), do not take kindly to the English girl whose board surges out of control as she hangs on, belly-down, for the ride, and crashes straight into the middle of said group, sending boards flying, the group scattering and the instructor into a rage. For unfortunate occasions such as this, commit to memory this infallible line: ‘Excusez-moi monsieur, ma planche est cassée. Elle bouge comme un rodéo’. Then, whilst monsieur l’instructeur is left reeling and trying to decipher your meaning, hoist the culpable board under your arm and hastily scamper off to disrupt some other echelon of the French surfing society further down the beach. 

If you’re on a shoestring budget, the misleadingly opulent sounding Hotel Côte d’Argent is your best, and brilliant, bet. The double room makes for an interesting icebreaker if you are sharing with a relative stranger; its shower, complete with a totally transparent glass screen, unashamedly and full-frontally faces the only other feature of the room, the bed. But don’t let that put you off; it works out at just €25 a night on the basis of two sharing and oh-là-là, quelle vue! Its prime position on the seafront offers the best lookout to attain your early morning sneaky peek of the swell, and means that you need only to skip joyfully across the road to arrive at the beach. Moreover, the hotel is inundated with friendly staff who happily ensure that, if forgotten, your board will get a good night’s sleep in the hotel garage, and will thrust a mean mojito into your hand at the first sign of you kicking back on the verandah to the setting sun before trotting off round the corner to Lacanau’s finest bars and clubs.

And so I ask you, who needs Hawaii when we have sunsets, mojitos and a little bit of je ne sais quoi so much closer to home? 

In a moment of pre-holiday rashness at Luton airport, I purchased a bright orange waterproof video camera. Then in various moments of post-holiday boredom at home, I played around with iMovie. This is the result. The videography is about as amateur as the surfing (I speak for myself alone, of course) but hopefully captures the essence of fun had by all. Granted, the waves look piddly. But that’s because we are all such hardcore surfers (as you will no doubt notice if you watch this video) that we were far too busy shredding to capture the really good stuff. You really had to be there. So go on...go to Lacanau!!