The Quiksilver house
Sunset
On our way to the event site!
Bianca Buitendag on the beach
It was great to experience a bit of a change in climate when arriving in Bordouex and getting ready to drive to Hossegor. There were sunny skies without a cloud in sight and we were still dressed like snow-men.
The first day we arrived in Hossegor the waves were tiny and it stayed like that for the duration of our trip. This didn't faze us; we settled in and after having the first of many baguettes for lunch we went for our first surf. Making our way to the water through the crowds of people on the beach was our first mission and catching waves between the millions of people in the water was equally challenging but we made the best of the warm water and found ourselves some fun waves and had a great surf.
Staying in the Quiksilver house was amazing and lots of fun. We made many new friends and saw different faces every day as team members from all over came in and out the house.
We managed to get some coaching with the Roxy coach / team manager, Franck, who gave us some good tips to help us in the upcoming event.
We were well looked after by Franck as we made our way to Lacanau for the contest. The swell still hadn't picked up but the contest was going to run anyway. Bianca and I somehow ended up in the same heat along with the two other girls we were staying with. Bianca and I had a good start to the contest with a busy two days a head of us.
There were lots of heats that got surfed and since that the swell was small they could only hold the contest on the low tide which meant starting at 8am and running until 10am and then we’d have a three hour break while the tide was too high and start again at 3pm.
After the contest we could sit at little restaurants along the beach until 10pm watching the sun set. Even though we didn't get perfect waves, it was am amazing trip and a great experience, with some good results.
- Tanika Hoffman