"Four police officers arrived and made us get out of the water, but it didn't take us long to get back into the water.”
The Coronavirus Apocalypse sure has exposed many heretofore unknown truths. But two months ago who would have ever guessed that surfers, as a whole, are spineless tattletales just waiting to shame fellow surfers and call the police on them for not following the rules?
Who could have imagined that the French, by and large, are a bold, brave people who refuse retreat and will fight to the bitter end?
Certainly not me.
Just days ago, we met Frenchman Dylan Nacass who happened to be surfing Bells Beach when a very near relative of the mighty Great White shark attacked. Did Dylan tuck tail and run? No. He punched that shark twice in the face then calmly paddled to shore where he stripped down to the national uniform (trim underpants) and threw shakas (watch here).
And today? Today we have an unruly pack of Cannes surfers who mocked the law keeping them out of the water by paddling into some very attractive Mediterranean waves. When the gendarmerie came motoring across the sea to bark them out do you think they quickly formed a puppet gendarmerie force, much like collaborationist surf media Stab magazine, in order to enforce the “no surfing” rules?
No.
But we must read the rest of this inspiring story together and now.
A group of surfers in Cannes, in southeast France, defied a government ban to take to the waves on Monday amid a debate over whether beaches should continue to be closed to the public to stop the spread of Covid-19.
“It’s so much fun, we’ve got the waves, the sun,” one surfer, named Adrien, told Reuters.
The group of around a dozen surfers were in the water for about two hours, before local police arrived in a patrol boat to force them to leave the beach.
“We surfed for what? Two hours? Four police officers arrived and made us get out of the water, but it didn’t take us long to get back into the water,” said Nicolas, a Belgian surfer living in France.
France’s beaches, closed since March, have become a battleground in the debate over how far government restrictions to control the spread of the pandemic should go.
And now let us sing.
Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L’étendard sanglant est levé,
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras
Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes!
Aux armes, citoyens
Formez vos bataillons
Marchons, marchons!
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!