Watch: Belharra before lockdown
Video and text from SurfSession.com:
Over the past 72 hours, we have taken our hearts to a roller coaster ride.
First, we got excited about this XXL swell that was scheduled to hit Europe this week. What happened yesterday on the sides of Mullaghmore and Nazaré came to reinforce in us the idea that, yes, something special was in the process of being prepared.
Then, Emmanuel Macron came in the evening to shower our enthusiasm with the announcement of a reconfinement. But the announcement made yesterday around 8 p.m. drowned in the excitement of living one last beautiful and very big day before shutting ourselves away.
And what a day!
A few hours before being confined again, Belharra gave us one last gift. Because, yes, the Basque giant could have woken up tomorrow, or during the month of confinement to come, and we would have missed everything. But no, it is today that the beautiful Basque had decided to put on her clothes of lights, a little as if she had decided to come and give us a little of her strength for the weeks to come.
If COVID is occupying the media scene at the moment, it was good to forget this anxiety and gloomy climate.
We had the chance to embark at 7am this morning aboard a boat to capture what the beauty wanted to show us today. Laird Hamilton, initially announced, was ultimately unable to make the trip, but the French chargers made a whole community proud.
On the side of Belharra: Peyo Lizarazu (in foil), Pierre Rollet, Stéphane Iralour, Gautier Garanx, Benjamin Sanchis, Joan Duru, Miky Picon, Justin Becret, Mathieu Aguirre (in foil), the Mangiarotti brothers, Paul Duvignau (in the oar), Antonin de Soultrait (with the oar) or Mathieu Crépel in particular were there for a morning in paradise.
Pierre Rollet, Stéphane, Iralour and Gautier Garanx probably nabbed the three bombs of the day.
Thank you, gentlemen!
Comments
Didn't see any Frenchmen with the big baguettes catch any waves. Good effort to try and paddle into that lump.
That foiler looked awkward, not totally in control and just a bit of a pest IMO.
I'm totally in awe, but have to agree.
Foiling looks really fun but in general, I can't help wondering if taking up foiling is a choice between foiling and having any mates.
Well, you gotta learn somewhere...
Ha!
So he’s a typical foiler then.
Yeh surely it’s the ultimate insult to be dropped in on by a foiler on a 30 foot wave
Not sure why they bothered with such a dynamic soundtrack.. lots of mis-matched audio crescendos where they bizarrely cut to someone grinning on a jetski in the channel.
Totally. Mullaghmore wins the best place to be on that swell. While i sat in my edit suite on the Northern Beaches hating every minute of it.
every time someone caught a good one they had to navigate wake from some oblivious numpty on a ski.
That foiler was so far out on the shoulder he was barely on the wave.
As someone just said, the biggest problem for the surfers was negotiating one or more ski wakes while trying to make the drop.
The word "craptacular" was made for that foil rider.
Years ago I suggested that the only way to ride massive Nazare, to cut through the chops and move fast enough to outrun the wave, was with a foil.
I still believe that, though old mate up above guy wasn't presenting the best argument.
stu - there *was* a foil out at nazare later the other night (our time). they got a few but mostly on the shoulder - seemed to have difficulty because (i guess) they needed to avoid the impact zone because (i guess) it was difficult for them to get onto the ski with the foil. it looked too difficult and therefore dangerous to get into position.
Foilers last wave gets obscured by the boat but pretty sure he'd still be feeling a bad case of whip lash. Yeowch!!
Is France going into lockdown again due to foilers not socially distancing?
thats just ausie east coast bombie size
Soundtrack? Nah. There is plenty of hipster French le tune's they could have used. I agree on the Foils being the next step, but jeez, it still shit's me seeing power craft in the way and being a safety risk rather than a safety measure. I would have been just as happy watching from afar with my Croissant and Cafe.
What, the French don't know about drones?
WOW.... that 4 minutes and 44 seconds was as riveting as a rivet gun........
I need to watch the Skeleton Bay 'Mirage' footage just so I can sleep tonight......
I bet there was a few high cinq's goin around that day.......ohhh la la
good for them, I mean its big yes but it's an absolutely shite wave, other joints nearby would have made for way more exciting footage, this place makes Nazare look hollow.
Jeez what a tough crowd of armchair chargers.
haha. Nailed it mate
Wouldn't mind seeing the actual catching of the wave - watching a paddle on, that would be interesting
So.... it's official. Belharra is a dud even on the biggest, cleanest swell in years and we never want to see it again!
Sancho was there so bound to be some good footage coming
https://www.picuki.com/media/2432176834395748949
Also... lots of Billys in this thread
the whole thing was bizarre
its a giant burger.
Yep, it’s a burger.
But the immense size of the wave and the eye-popping peril and the high speed they sustain for a very long distance, it must be quite a thrilling wave to ride.
Edit: I take it back. I was talking about Nazaré.
Belharra. It’s certainly not a good wave shape. But imagine if it was a local wave and you were up to it. It would be pretty fun to have a dig when it was on.
I’d be one of the watchers on a jetski.
..you lot must have forgotten Jamie Mitchell's wave from 2016? out there - was about xxx ft..if only he'd made that drop - going right ..I might add..not on my Peahi radar, which I ride regularly from my armchair - but hard to ignore volume of water out there.
Having said that; it did look a little like a caper cops episode out there in this ep; a lot of jet powered objects moving around, on what looked like dangerous trajectories.
Three 'x' signs for Jamie Mitchell's wave, hey? Triple digit territory.
The thing about the JM's wave was that during the same session there were lots of big, broad burgers, much like in the video above...and then Jamie's wave came through. All of a sudden things stepped up big time.
Reminiscent of Avalanche in Hawaii, just the wild randomness of it, where a xxft wave can gently break right here, but the next wave will be xx + 1 ft and break top to bottom 200 metres further out.
Stu > exactly where I was coming from - in essence, I wouldn't write-off Belharra based on that 1 wave of JM's, which was nuts. I don't know anything about Belharra's bathymetry vs. Nazare unique canyon/trench - but both of these waves seem to have similar characteristics to me? A few more JM type waves ridden at Belharra and the hordes will descend and revalue its context IMO > RR
PS: saw the xxx+1 factor at Boat Ramps last Thursday > as I turned the corner a set broke 100 meters further out from the pack. I nearly crashed my car, stopping to watch, trying to calculate the size from 2kms away. The next set was ridden at 10ft+ - so what did that make the size of preceding set?
I know it looks fat in action, but still shots of Belharra are worth a closer study: