A booming sport between passion, nature and thrills

In This radiant morning in May, in the south of the Landes, two teams align their surfs against the ocean: blue jerseys and reds. Monitor at the Darrigood Surf School of Hossegor, Léo explains the bases of the sliding to a band of gender quadra friends who landed all of France. Florian, he quickly indicates to his group, a little more advanced, the conditions of the session: “Today, the waves are hollow and rapid. So we will have to get up suddenly! »»

More and more girls in schools

Accustomed to the course, Alice, a young Toulouse with long black hair, pink war painting on the cheekbones, is ready to catch the wave of her dreams. Sophie, a 46 year old Parisian with a luminous smile, hopes to find her level after a year without practice.

At the Darrigood school, students come from all walks of life and in a long universe that have remained macho, girls are increasingly essential. If the surf events of the Paris Olympic Games have captured 19.3 million spectators, this passion is of the background blade: according to the French Federation, the number of practitioners, which revolved around 600,000 years ago, would now exceed the million.

A sport of fun and adrenaline

However, seen from the beach, the question can arise: why spend hours in the water to hold three minutes standing? Effectiveness is the youngest of Raphaël’s concerns, 11 -year -old follet fire that has only one idea in mind, to have fun: to babbet in the foam where Florian pushed him, to get up and laugh to have lost his bib in the eddies where he ended up falling.

Only offshore, Louis, a forty -something biologist installed in Hasparren, in the Basque Country, is in search of a completely different type of sensations: he sneaks in a roller who closes like a jaw. “I am looking for the rise of adrenaline and dopamine that the glide provides. It is such a powerful addiction that when I lived in Reunion in 2011, and the shark attacks multiplied, we were still a hundred on the island to brave the danger! He admits, folding his steel blue eyes.

The moments suspended

The intensity of the moment affects all surfing fans, whatever their level. Sophie portrays a fullness that she rarely experiences, if not, sometimes, during opera representations. “In our immediacy society, where I had to limit my time on social networks, it is the only activity that mobilizes me entirely. To take a wave to my measure, I must always scrutinize the horizon, determine the moment when I have to start rowing, then straightening up … “she specifies.

This body and soul presence in the world reaches its peak in tubes. Arnaud Darrigade, who opened the Darrigood school ten years ago, evokes, in his singing voice, an almost mystical experience: “When you enter the roller, time stops. We remain a handful of seconds that appear for minutes. We see everything clearly, the shape of a drop of water, our supports … it’s as if we had been chosen to be in the right place at the right time. There is an almost divine side. »»

Ocean gifts

These epiphanies so difficult to describe, some are working to make them live to others. For Arnaud, ex-companion who leads amateurs but also young professionals, the transmission is above all synonymous with emotion: “I am happy when beginners stand for the first time and their face lights up. Even for the hopes I coach, my victory is their satisfaction, more than the podiums. Alice follows on Instagram the talents that Arnaud advises, hoping to make such spectacular figures one day. But it keeps in mind the essential: “The feeling of evolving in my element. I realize that the ocean has already taught me a lot: the patience to wait for the swell, the lucidity to appreciate the few waves that I have learned, perseverance when I struggle … “

Such a connection to nature tends to arouse the desire to protect it. The champion Maud le Car, a gray blonde in the air of a mermaid, founded the association Save la Mermaid in 2021 in Seignosse (Landes). “I broke my ankle and thought it was the end of my career. Before I forgotten, I wanted to use my voice to accomplish what was close to my heart: to preserve the ocean that had given me everything, ”confides the thirties.

She had already thought of joining a collective, but had never found shoe at her foot: “Many seemed extreme to me. Now I am far from perfect, I travel by plane … I have created one that encourages people to do the best they can. Last year, Save la Mermaid collected three tonnes of waste on the Atlantic coast. “In Seignosse, we organize workshops to educate primary students in a fun way, inviting them to recycle small plastic waste picked up on the beach in colorful mosaics. The idea is to establish good habits. »»

The call for waves

For some, the ocean already represents the alpha and the omega of their existence. Matthieu Waeles, who tasted the joys of the bodyboard in Polynesia from the age of 7, became an oceanographer and anchored himself on the edge of a Brestoise cliff (Finistère), more than thirty years ago. At 50, the father with silver hair responds every day to the call of the sea. “I hear the sound of the waves downstairs, I imagine the sandbank and I want to be there. And as it is a difficult spot, I find initiates there: we are kidding our bowls, let’s talk about the local football club … They are my water friends. »»

In contrast, Charline, a yoga teacher in Lyon (Rhône), chose homelessness. In 2022, the sweet young woman bought a van to shine around Lacanau, west of Bordeaux (Gironde). “I arranged it like a small house, with a bed, a kitchen, a shower … After the covid, it was my guarantee of freedom to explore new sites and continue to meet people,” she says. Like many surfers, she picks the days like the waves, who follow each other without ever being alike.