Conférence : Le surf Landais, une histoire à découvrir

Conference Hosted by Jean-François Loudcher, Ludovic Falaix and Thierry Organoff If surfing has its roots in the Hawaiian he'enalu discovered by Captain Cook during his voyage in 1777, it was not until 2021 that it became an Olympic sport. After being subject to limitations by Anglo-Saxon pastors, it was taken up by young Australians and Californians at the beginning of the 20th century who transformed its equipment and practice. The boards over 3 m long in the 1970s were replaced by short-boards allowing increasingly extreme tricks: surfing became a real culture shared by thousands of people living at the mercy of the spots and waves around the world. But while it is common to associate its practice with a philosophy of immediate pleasure conveyed by the image of the vagabond and vaguely rebellious Californian hippie like that broadcast by the film The Endless Summer (1964), the beginnings of French surfing show a more complex phenomenon. Thus, on September 12, 1960, the organization of a first competition in Biarritz, sometimes called the French Championships, also testifies to the existence of a competitive culture while no federation was created. This one, founded in 1964, was already based on a well-established Landes surfing with the Atlantique Surf Club and the Waimea Surf Club in Hossegor. Jacky Rott from Dacquois is even said to have been one of the very first French surfers in the 1950s. Soon, in Seignosse, in Vieux-Boucau, many clubs were created. The movement will not stop and the Landes will experience an unprecedented development of surfing and tourism as evidenced by the establishment of the Federation in 1986. Free entry within the limit of available places, without reservation.

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