The sky is gray, the bottom cool air and the water around 14 degrees. Not really a weather forecast to go to the sea in Marseille. But in the vicinity of La Ciotat, as on the Côte Bleue in western Marseille, there are dozens of them rushing into the water, surfboards under their arms and full zipped suits, on this late afternoon of March. Like Kim, 33, who hurried out of her work as an educator at 4 p.m. to go surfing with her friend Clémence. Arrived from Paris six months ago, the latter “did not believe it”, when she was told that it was possible to surf in Marseille, in the Mediterranean.
The two friends met on a Prado beach (also nicknamed Beach Peelings, due to the presence of waste), an accessible and visible spot which works rather well – thanks to the Huveaune which flows into it, creating sandbanks – in Mistral weather, meeting place for neophytes or workers in a hurry. In recent days, it’s a weather episode of low pressure from the south-east that has created the right conditions. Rarer than the Mistral, which blows from the northwest, this wind regime raises a powerful swell, coming from the open sea. Not as good as a southwesterly wind, “but not bad at all”, rejoices Denis, 42, who has just come out of the water and is changing while sitting on the trunk of his car. A surfer since he was able to drive, this pure Marseillais has seen “more and more people in the water”.
Well-kept “spots”
A “democratization” which can be explained by a double movement. The advent of surfwear over the last twenty years – a fashion which however began to decline almost 10 years ago – and its corollary, the exploitation of the image of freedom of surfers by advertisers to sell cars, sodas, mineral water or even after-shave lotions. As a symbol of this recognition and ascension, surfing made its debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. foam, and an easier flow of information through social networks and messaging loops. Because it’s one thing to want to surf, you still have to know when and where to do it.
Hervé Amouyal is one of the pioneers of surfing in Marseille. He still runs the Massilia Surf Shop today, which he opened in the mid-1990s – it was then the first surf shop in the region – shortly after co-founding the Sardine Surf Club and set up a telephone answering machine system that gives the weather and the orientation of the swell, on the model of party infolines. A time that Nathan, 27 years old and resident DJ in a nightclub in the Old Port, did not really know, but he seems to regret that today some applications provide this information in three clicks. “Me, I learned to find the surf spots alone. The new generation discloses them too much with social networks, and it has become dangerous, some do not have the level. Others sometimes squat the peak in groups to reserve the wave, ”he believes. Because in Marseille, the good waves are lifted by rocky bottoms, not the most safe. Spots that, like mushroom spots, are only given to friends, and that’s why you won’t find the places listed in this article.
The fact remains that, surprising as it may seem, Marseille has produced some high-level surfers such as the brothers Antoine and Edouard Delpero, respectively European and world champions, although they now live on the Basque coast where they have open their surf school. Schools that have also swarmed in Marseille, like the 13th wave, launched in 2010 by Florian. “In recent years, it has completely exploded,” observes the 36-year-old who can supervise up to 80 trainees a day with two other instructors. An attraction further reinforced by the Covid-19 and the resulting appetite for outdoor sports. “We especially have a lot of adults who are between 30 and 50 years old and register for surfing as we subscribe to the room”, explains Florian.