Surfragette in Hossegor // Quiksilver and Roxy Pro France 2015

Whenever you think about Hossegor in October, the first thing that pops into your mind is the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro. Hossegor is a charming village about 40 km North from Biarritz and with it it represents the Mecca of surfing in Europe. The village, which takes place between the coastal sand dunes and the Landes forest, counts less than 4000 inhabitants. But during high season and the main surfing events, thousands of surfers and beach babes from all over Europe crowd its main street and beaches.

October is one of those periods. Camper vans with licence plates of different countries and colors are parked all around the main beach where the contest takes place. They give hospitality to families with kids, lonely travelers with four-legged companions, groups of soul surfers and party guys. Everyone is there for watching the best 34 male and 17 female surfers in the world competing for the winning place and basically putting on a spectacular show.

Last Sunday the surf conditions were perfect for the contest: consistent swell, long periods between the sets and no wind at all. Andrea and I arrived just in time to watch the men compete - no need to describe their surfing performances!

The crazy thing of it all is that I also had the chance to finally meet for real somebody I talked you a lot about and who is really dear to me. Patricia Fuentes from Costa Bikinis was actually on visit in Europe and, guess what, she came to see the contest!!! Our paths crossed, we were so happy to finally be able to meet each other after months and months of distant virtual friendship! And she's even cooler than behind the screen!!! We couldn't miss a picture together (from left: me, Patricia and her friend Maria) :)

Than, after the contest, I was so pumped up that I decided to take a shortboard borrowed from a friend and have a sunset session with Andrea. Total scored: 0 waves.
God, it was hard!!! But I am stoked to get the challenge! Any suggestion for not drowning myself or, at least, catch a few waves?

Did you so something fun last weekend? I hope you had an amazing time :)
xo

Quiksilver & Roxy Pro // Like in a movie set

For me September in the Basque Country means the été indienne, good waves and less people in the water. But for the most it means the time for Quiksilver and Roxy Pro!

So, convinced by the wrong tide for surfing at Côte Des Basque, I decided to spend my Sunday morning in Hossegor and watch the pros competing for the title.

It was my first time at a shortboard event and I have to admit it was pretty spectacular. I won't annoy you talking about how they ripped it - you just need to scroll the list of competitors such as Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Sally Fitzgibbons between others to understand the level of surfing.

The thing that was new and most overwhelming for me was the atmosphere. Photographers all over, little future surfer girls and boys running towards the pros for autographs, people from all over Europe coming for the event...

The beach was filled up with people and I felt I just ended up in the set of Blue Crush.

It was a pretty good feeling actually and I enjoyed it all!

As an Italian girl, I normally imagine all of this excitement during a football match, with kids with their favorite player's tee-shirt on and people singing their team's song.
But now that I'm in the European surf mecca, I realize that people do really follow surf competitions and I have to get used to this kind of things.

But I really think it won't be so difficult.


If you want to see all the other pics from the day, you can find them on Surfragette facebook page in the next few days!!!




Credits // Author // Photography: Marta Tomasini
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