This weekend, despite the lockdown, many amateur surfers couldn’t help but take to the water to live their passion. This time, and unlike last spring, without hiding.
This new lockdown, announced on Wednesday, October 28th by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and effective since Thursday night at midnight, prohibits the practice of amateur sports, including surfing, although article 46 of the decree states that beaches, bodies of water and lakes remain open to the population.
This ban is not to the taste of surfers, who last spring had already thwarted the laws of the moment to go soak the drifts early in the morning or late at night, each in their own way, a little in secret, avoiding the surveillance patrols.
This time, during the first lockdown weekend, the ban on not getting into the water was flouted. This was clearly the case on Saturday and Sunday on several very famous spots including the central beach and the Côte des Basques in Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), but also in Capbreton (Landes). And at the sight of all.
On Saturday, a collective also called to demonstrate the next day at the Côte des Basques. They denounced “an injustice”, “an arbitrary decision”, basing themselves on the fact that “the ocean environment is not a contaminating playground”.
In a press release, the French Surfing Federation states that it is “already at work” and that it is “multiplying” meetings with government services to obtain clarification on several points. Certain derogatory activities could be specified very soon by the authorities. “It is therefore urgent to wait.
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