BIARRITZ SURF FESTIVAL

The Biarritz Surf Festival was the summer surf event in Europe, bringing together some of the greatest names in Hawaiian and world surfing for a week of longboard contests and music and films, on the beach at the Côte des Basques, the birthplace of surfing in France.
More than 150 000 spectators came to watch the numerous contests and demonstrations of tandem surfing, paddle board racing, Tahitian pirogues, and other water sports.
The festival started off with the traditional and symbolic mixing of the waters between the hundred surfers arriving from the four corners of the globe.
During the week the public had ample opportunities to try out longboard surfing, paddle boarding, bodysurfing and the pirogues, with the surfers to guide them.
And the surf spirit continued into the long summer evenings with films and music, ending on the last day with a night time surf show and Hawaiian animation throughout Biarritz.