In 1971 I went to Biarritz France. After staying in a hotel for 2 or 3 nights we had to get out ‘cause it was really expensive. We met 6 Australian guys on beach who were camping south of Biarritz, at a surf break called Lafitenia. So there were 8 of us at a campsite and campsites were $2/day. So divided by 8 it was $.25 per day! The only other people there were 4 guys from Santa Barbara. Imagine camping in front of a break just like Swamis…there were no French surfers yet so it was completely un-crowded. The day we got there was the biggest day we surfed… 15 to 20 foot then it dropped to about 10 feet in afternoon.
That afternoon we saw this goofy footer drop in and just rip apart the wave so I asked the other guys, “who is that.” They said, “that’s Lopez (Gerry Lopez).” Later down in Cabo I talked with him about it and he remembered that day.
That season a ton of pro surfers were in France. It made it really fun cause some were really ripping. Guys like Mike Tabling, Lopez, Bruce Veluzzi, Brad Maccal, Jeff Hakman, Mike Diffenderfer, Doug Haut, Jackie Baxter, and Mike Miller. Hal Jepsen the photographer ( A Sea for Yourself), was there with Hakman.
That September I remember Hossegor with full on Santa Ana type conditions. Back then it was a 45 min drive. We’d drive there super early and would be on the beach in dark waiting for it to get light. A whole week in mid September Jeff Hakman and his crew would be there before us by a bonfire waiting for the sun to come up.
At the beach break in Biarritz the cutest girl on beach was named Bridgette and she was on vacation from Paris. So of course a bunch of guys were hitting on her. Rodney Sumpter was a film maker showing surf movies in town and so I invited her to go. She said yes. I had bought a scooter and had gotten a surf rack welded to frame. The scooter only cost me $20. I ended up selling it when I left for $20.
So I get to her house and found out she was only 16. OK, so I was only 20. So we hopped on our scooters and went to movies. In the movies it was pretty funny. Here we were in France watching Hakman and Lopez on the screen and in the audience is Hakman and Lopez!
After the movie we went to meet one of her girlfriends. It’s like 10pm and Bridgette couldn’t speak any English and I couldn’t speak any French but her friend did. So Bridgette and her friend were talking and her friend asked me if I had to go all the way back to the campground that night (a long 10 miles on a scooter). I said, “yes”. Then they talked some more and her friend turns to me and says, “Bridgette said that you can stay at her house but there’s one problem, you have to sleep in the same bed with her.” I said that that wasn’t a problem (with a straight face). We said goodbye and went to her house. Her parents were asleep but we had to walk through her brothers room to get to hers…so she introduced me to her brother. So, I spent the night! In the morning she told me I had to climb out the window. My scooter was outside the window so I had to walk it down street before starting it. So I went back to the campground. When I came pulling up everybody said,” look at that smile.”
…also John confirmed Greg’s Trestles stories from the previous post. They even got their technique down so that they used a construction looking truck and eliminating anything surf looking from the truck!
