Nautical sports

With 250 kilometres of Atlantic coastline and almost 500 kilometres of shoreline around the nine lakes in the region, Aquitaine is perfect for water sports. 

Canoeing, sea kayaking, diving, water skiing, sailing and surfing… There is something for everyone and for every level, all the way down the coast.

Thanks to the mild climate, there is also something for every season: the autumn waves are ideal for surfing, the winter winds for sand-yachting, and the gentle spring and hot summer for boating and canoeing.

French surfing was born in Biarritz in September 1956.

For the record, it was the Americans Dick Zanuck and Peter Viertel – in the region to make a film based on the Hemingway novel The Sun Also Rises – who, noticing that the waves of the Grande Plage were somewhat reminiscent of the Californian swell, imported a surfboard to France for the first time.

Barely six months later, a few locals – the surfers of the future – had made their own boards, and the Journal de Biarritz published its first article on surfing on 11 September 1957.

However, the Aquitaine spots (surfing sites) are not limited to the Basque Country. The beaches of the Médoc (Soulac, Carcans Océan,) and the Landes (Biscarrosse, Moliets and Mimizan) are also popular among surf-lovers – beginners or experts.

The Fédération Française de Surf, founded in Biarritz in 1964, moved to Hossegor in 1984, and there are now clubs and schools in all the seaside resorts of the Côte d’Argent.

Similarly, you can find national and international competitions on the sandy beaches of Lacanau in Gironde (Lacanau Pro), Hossegor in the Landes (Rip Curl Pro Women and Men) or Anglet in the Pyrénées Atlantiques (O’Neill Surf Challenge).

These competitions which attract the international surfing tribe are also an opportunity to see how surfing has become a traditional Aquitaine sport in its own right, with its clothing (the Oxbow brand was born in Gironde in 1985), its folklore, its celebrations…

It is a whole world to be discovered, and it is closer than Australia, Hawaii or California!