"Violence, especially against women, should never, ever be part of surfing."
Peacemakers are working overtime in Hossegor tonight after it was revealed local French surfers had given hell to competitors in a German gal contest there.
A damning video, more of a GIF than a video but a moving testimony nonetheless, shows one French surfer becoming “physically aggressive”, as they say, after dropping in on a competitor and pushing her off her surfboard.
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The gal on the wave Maya Sauer reports from the scene,
The event was fully approved by the city and paid for. All the necessary licenses were in place for that stretch of beach, flags were up and lifeguards on scene.
But still, a big group of freesurfers deliberately paddled out in the contest area. They dropped in on us on purpose, yelled at us, insulted us, and got physically aggressive.
The lifeguards tried getting everyone out of the water, but they didn’t listen at all.
The guy from the video who pushed me off the wave seemed to be proud of what he had done, showing no remorse after being confronted.
And let’s not forget: the contest had official permission for that stretch of beach, and the freesurfers had no right to be in the water during contest hours. On every other day, they’re the locals and may control the lineup, but not then.
I totally understand that It’s frustrating when your home spot feels more crowded every year. I’ve been coming to Hossegor for 11 years now, and I’ve seen how the vibe in the water has changed. There’s a lot of tension, and learning to deal with that can be tricky.
But there’s a line. And violence, especially against women, should never, ever be part of surfing.
It breaks my heart to see things heading in this direction. Surfing is supposed to bring people together. We’re all out there because we love the same thing. I hope we don’t lose sight of that.
Comments, naturally, disapproved of the action and made several good points.
I was shooting in the water when this happened. I tried to talk to the guy, but he was only satisfied with what he did because he lived there. If you’re a living in an area that only exists because of tourist infrastructure, and then you decide to paddle out onto a sandbank along a 106 km coastline during a girls’ heat just to annoy and push them—there might be something wrong. Hopefully, he finds a better hobby.
What we saw today was the most disrespectful behavior I experienced in 12 years of surfing and it made me really sad! As a german surfers who mostly need to travel for waves we need to show respect to locals anywhere we go and I consent with that. But respect is exchanged for respect. This guy and all other Contest-crashers with similar attitudes deserve something else.
Horrible attitude in the water the last few days in seignosse lately:/ bad vibes through and through – there is so many peaks along the coast why not just move over to the next one – and sad that the lifeguards get no respect from these „locals“.
From your viewpoint, many thousands of miles, how do you survey the scene?
I think pushing girls and being a pest during a surfing contest is a lose-lose scenario, the work of a beta male and very bad all around, although I also know, from living in the joint, how few good banks there are around Hossegor, despite the two hundred click coastline, and the boiling madness it’d generate if you rolled up to a surfing contest full of dang Huns.
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German “girls”
To be fair the Germans should be the ones to walk the extra mile down the beach. I would, and my German surfing ex uni student partner would too. She would walk 2 miles, just to make it very clear.
do you understand the word Nationalism…….it’s a regression , where everybody no longer cares about anybody else, only there n back yard….and that’s maga/USA….but now the USA has gone to war with Iran…….maybe maga is dead?
My Beach..My waves.. go home
How many other comps recently? If it has been every other weekend, then fuck their permits. ROCALS ONRI!!
how far do you want to go back in History??
So you would have to agree that as indigenous people have never given up their sovereign Rights through treaty and or formal legislation , that locals in Australia are….???
yeah therein lies the problem..a BG article that was lifted off the Inertia as a source to form an opinion?
Hmm…… Nationalism…seems to working well in the USA?
In case anyone was struggling to decide which side to be on, this is from her Instagram.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Well I’m definitely on this side… looking at that side
If people don’t stop calling everything violent i’m going to strangle someone
French clearly top spot in the Cuntiest Nations Power Rankings.
And german surfers … well they are german, and they want to be surfers
Gotta really squeeze my brain on this one. Sorry, I’ll pass.
Schweinehund!
Tell us more sweet stories of your times in France.
Links to old articles should suffice
Hè hè ma vague!
……Nein!
And in other news, sometimes surfers can be dickheads.
I find it shocking that a French male was aggressive in a physical manner.
Well, it was towards a woman so there’s that.
True but normally the french male is known for quickly surrendering while adorned with multiple white flags.
Well played Picard.
In all seriousness, I like the French as long as they’re not wagging their all knowing finger at me or bullying women…
Yeah sometimes.
I was kinda on the dudes side thinking it was day of the year at whatever North Sea spot gets waves in Germany. But at Hossegor the dude is gonna look bad even if this is a bigger day for this time of year.
If too many contests are a problem have them burn you. Then when you push them you can lie to yourself and convince others you did it for safety. And if you can’t take off behind some German tourists you’re probably not the dude to be making this point.
Blame the French owned holiday village across the road from this bank (& Huey for creating a decent bank there). Blame German surfers for not having any decent waves in their own country and taking up surfing instead of sticking to skiing or any other sport (many of whom do not understand basic surfing etiquette themselves) . And blame these wannabe locals thinking this is their spot; they probably arrived post Covid.
To be fair, I’ve surfed with a ton of German surfers (during autumn in N Spain, SW France and Portugal) and by in large their etiquette is very good in the water and their pretty considerate van campers in the car parks.
Their etiquette in Ireland has been deteriorating rapidly! The French have always been cunts in the water – and the worst fucking drivers!
Anyone wrote any articles about that?
How many Europeans come to Ireland to surf? Is it a lot ?
I don’t imagine there are many articles about it. Since covid they come in droves, in their campervans, clogging roads, often from Germany and France. There always used to be a few but if you go to Easky in September/October they are parked all over the place. They all seem to be connected with each other, blowing up lesser known spots. It’s probably nothing compared to other countries, but it’s annoying, as you can imagine. I don’t see that much of an international presence after November!
It’s truly amazing how human civilisation develops. You Irish now know how it happened in Bali, Costa Rica, Mexico, Portugal and a slew of other places. Now you’ll have to watch it take place in your own homeland and know that there’s nothing that can be done about it other than being a right cunt to the foreigners (and very few people want to be a cunt at the beach).
We are inundated with the backpacker van life crowd here in Australia but mostly they have no clue in the water, which means getting a wave isn’t any harder, but getting run over by one is way more likely.
Most of them fit surfing in around their yoga lessons, oat milk lattes and insta feeds so they usually miss it when the surf is actually breaking.
A modern scourge. They will usually do one to two years in Oz, come back to Europe identifying as surfers, travel to Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France and unfortunately to Ireland for a few years before they pack it in!
isn’t Ireland in Europe?
Usually French guys who surf well are cool, but plenty of below average ones surf like they drive. A complete disregard for anyone around/close to them.
Obviously I’m making grand generalizations. Some are sound. In some ways I think that great Torren Martyn video series emboldened a load of euro kooks to buy vans and go to previously largely ignored areas.
Far too many mid-lengths around Seignosse on the smaller days
Yeah maybe, look they had a shit tonne of van culture going on even 27 years ago, its easy to forget sometimes, but a shit tonne of our western cultural shit comes from Europe , even abusing women,
Fair enough, but suppose it takes only one bad apple. Surfed with 2 in Fiji many years ago who were both fkin annoying. Ozzies and Americans in the line up all cool, but not Hans and his mate. Same in Africa more recently too. Nice guys, but clueless when it came to taking turns.
Northern Europeans were shy while learning. Now they just know how to standup and have enough skill to paddle to the lineup and be an annoyance because of the lack of surf etiquette, out mere ignorance. Post COVID surfers.
Etiquette doesn’t make up for the share mass of numbers.
Don’t engage! Troll at work!
how do you define a local??
Here we go again lol
An asshole with a reason….?
Anyone that’s paid their dues in the water and on the beach where they live.
In the spirt of modern gender neutral equality , all hoodads are targets.
wow , just for the record and the facts…….there has been the competition in Hossegor for years…there is the Swiss /German( National coach is French)/Austrian/Belgians/Dutch etc who all have surf camps/national titles/surf schools….there’s Italians/Spanish…..the Hossegor area has suffered and been exploited quite nicely……over the last 40 yrs or so…the locals I know and their kids would not have interfered with this comp….sounds like blowins pretending….??