22nd First full day
Surf 2
I woke up a long time before my alarm, which was set for 6.20am. Although still completely wasted from the trip down and the late evening surf I wanted to get on the dawnies right away. VVF still had an angry look to it and Sports was looking a bit sloppy so we opted for Bunkers (the spot just to the left of Sports but before La Piste and to the right of the sinking German bunkers.) The waves were chunky and felt quite sizey with big bowly peaks and heavy fast and at times closey walls. Best described in the 4/5ft range but with some freakish sneaky sets which you’d were wise to avoid especially in the ever increasing crowd. I had great fun surfing my 6’2 quad which liked to straight line it down the super fast walls tucking in to get properly nailed.
The day was spent finishing off setting up the camp, getting some food shopping in and swimming with the kids. The weather was good, warm and sunny but not too intense which was good for Char. Andy arrived at 8pm with surfboard and I was questioning if I could keep up this intensity!
Surf 3
Bunkers 3/4ft had dropped off since the earlier session and as the tide pushed in and the crowds dispersed things seemed to mellow even more. I surfed my Bonzer and I preffered it in some ways to the quad although I missed the easy paddle in especially on a mellowing wave.
Bunkers is probably my least favourite place to surf in the Hossegor area but it is a great option for a semi sheltered break, picking up a lot more swell than Sports/Towns in Capbreton (Towns is the furthest beach to the right in Capbreton which ends at the jetty wall). The main problem with the place is it gets very crowded mainly because when surfing it, it is probably one of the few options around unless you are inclined to travel down to the Biarritz area.
23rd Secret Spot
Surf 4
The alarm woke me up and I was aching, I could have slept another 5 hours and this felt like pain. Andy was waiting outside my van when I emerged and we made what felt like a long slow cycle to the sea. We arrived to feel off shore winds on our back and 2/3ft of swell hitting the main beaches we decided to head for our secret spot which makes a 2ft swell head high. The swell comes in from a completely different angle compared to the swells hitting the normal beaches and unless you are some kind of pro, extremely skilled or a generally psychopathic surfer this break should only be surfed on small swells. You can always tell a heavy wave if the white water after the wave has broken kicks up a lot higher than the face of the wave itself and on this wave the white water kicks up very high. Only 1 guy out and surfing my Bonzer it is safe to say we had a lot of fun!
Day spent chilling, resting, swimming, socialising and eating. We had a shortish bike ride with the kids, Billy gave Char and I some stress as he thinks he is Evil Kanevil on his BMX and tries to pull jumps or stunts where ever possible. He is still only 4! I think we may need some more padding!
Evening surf
I was actually quite pleased to see it soft and sloppy and after the great morning surf there was no way either of us fancied that. At last an evening with some red wine.
24th Text War
At 6.10am a text from Andy came in ….trees really moving lots of wind… I could hear the rain but had no perspective of wind. After several replies the early was called off… back to sleep.
We all woke to the rain a couple of hours later, A Biarritz day was called! This was not an original idea as I have probably never seen Biarritz quite so crowded. We didn’t last there that long we had a small window of sun and then the rain kicked in really heavy so we decided to head back. There was a fun looking 3ft wave in Grande Plage but with 100 other surfers and family in tow I didn’t fancy it.
Kids, Char and Bump in-between the rain Grand Plage showing a sloppy crowded wave
Surf 5
We drove to the surf today which was rare but the weather was bad and it was getting late. We surfed Bunkers which was chunky and messy and probably 3/4ft. Andy wasn’t that keen but I persuaded him it looked good and kind of reminded me of an intense winter onshore big messy pier session back home although in a shortie! We actually had great fun with only a few out I think Bunkers is best described as fast and furious. I surfed my 5’10 fish for added fun and scary drops!
25th Rain Rain Rain
Pretty much 2 days of solid rain and today was relentless. The last time we had weather this bad was in 2007, we were camping further up the coast in Cap de Homy. Billy was only 10 months old Imogen was 3, it was our first year back in France after missing a year for the birth of Billy (which was a heat wave year in Bournemouth). We spent 3 weeks in a tent in the woods with some friends C and Al. Storm after storm blew with little rest bite, after 3 weeks of probably the worst weather a French summer has to offer we headed south and stayed in the Acotz area which is somewhere between Biarritz and St Jean De Luz, where yet another storm battered us and finally finished off our tent. Luckily we spent the next 3 weeks with some friends in a Villa in Capbreton where the weather decided to improve and my love for The Capbreton/Hossegor area was born.
Charlotte vowed never to Stay in a tent again and to be fair it was quite unpleasant, so I took a deep breath, had a word with the devil, and bought a caravan. Probably the best purchase I have ever made especially today!
The rain is not so bad when you have somewhere warm and dry to go, the kids played happily in the awning, we had a jolly out in the car to Dax (I wouldn’t recommend the place!) all was quite comfortable and chipper. The same can’t really be said for the Andy crew, (8 adults 3 Kids) long faces and grumpy grownups, the kids all seem quite happy and Andy is upbeat saying he spent many a year camping in Scotland and this reminded him of that.
I still think a caravan would have been a better purchase than Andy's brand new seriously pimped up Bongo, but each to there own!
The surf
We had already decided a dawnie was pointless and frankly unnecessary so that evening we drove to the surf again, considering in the 13 previous weeks I have spent on this campsite I have never felt the need to drive to the surf it may indicate quite how bad the rain was. We got to the sea front in Capbreton to see huge mess of onshore nastiness, a few boogie borders out in Sports and 4 crazy groms trying to pull airs in the heavy shore break close outs at Towns It looked horrible and there was no way I was going out, Andy on the other hand seemed strangely quite keen and a short argument followed where I was must have made some kind statement to the effect of it looks un-surfable and Andy argued that there were people actually surfing it so it must be surfable, I conceded that it was ‘potentially’ surfable but I wasn’t going to surf it, but he was welcome to try!
We drove home together discussing the potential for tomorrow!
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