Next day we checked out Les Cavaliers. The swell had dropped substantially so we made the decision to head north to Hossegor. One thing I noticed in France is that the conditions can change very quickly. Forty five minutes drive to Hossegor and we arrived at Culs Nuds which means bare bum, a nudist beach! The surf was pretty much flat one to two feet at best, we were gutted but still went in.
Went out in Hossegor in the evening. The town was lively and we found a 'surfer bar' and met some nice Australian and Swiss ladies - enough said! The next day we went to a place called V V F which we thought stood for Very Very Fast and we expected it to be flat but were greeted with clean swell lines as far as the horizon. A good session was had by all with head high waves acclimatising us for the powerful Hossegor shorebreaks. In the afternoon the waves got bigger and it got windier. We checked out an area called Seignosse North where the waves were particularly large but decided against going in.
Night time and we were out and about again risking food poisoning with the local 'moules et frites' but we managed to make it through the night unscathed!Next day we returned to V V F where the waves were even bigger than the day before and everyone had good waves and wipeouts!
The day after we got up early, had my first cigarette of the day and could see the smoke was drifting in an offshore direction....oh dear! Everyone was quiet, they knew what lay ahead and tried to focus themselves. We went back to 'Culs Nuds' and the tide was right in and it was quiet with no-one out. The waves didn't look that big but appearances can be deceptive...I put my full wetsuit on for extra buoyancy! We all paddled out and were greeted with offshore overhead waves. As the tide dropped back and the swell hit the sandbanks, the waves really started to jack up.
I had a good left and a couple of rights and suddenly Mark and Mat disappeared. I later found out that Mat had snapped his board, not completely - it sort of folded in the middle. Fortunately he had a spare as in all we were carrying six boards in the van, now five. I drifted nearly down to 'La Grarive' and had to be really careful making it back into shore.
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