The Wimereux Surf School in action on Wimereux beach. This school has just opened, illustrating the craze for surfing, even on northern waves. – EDOUARD BRIDE / HANS LUCAS
- It is quite possible to surf the coasts of northern France
- The practice of this sport is gaining more and more followers.
- Professionals, such as a shaper and schools, are now trying to make a living
Surfin’Pas-de-Calais. On this sunny morning, the Channel is still chilly in Wimereux. Not enough to discourage these five teenage girls in wetsuits, hanging on the lips of their coach who gives them his advice: “We lie down on the board, we watch the wave coming, we row to gain speed, come on row, we row and hop, we stand up, we push behind, foot before… Not bad! “
These young girls are taking a surf lesson with Pierre-Louis Couvelard. The 25-year-old teacher rider has just opened the “Wimereux Surf School”, a new school on the Opal Coast after the North Surf School, in Equihen, created in 2019, and Côte d’Opale Surfing, in Le Touquet, in 2017. The local child, who sees Wimereux as “an ideal place to learn”, has not been idle during the first weeks. Perfectly illustrating a phenomenon: surfing, which we imagine rather confined to the beaches of the southwest, has developed greatly on the coasts of Hauts-de-France for five years, with several hundred practitioners on the waves. “In 1998, there were twenty surfers all over the Opal Coast, laughs Eric Veinberg, one of them. Today, even when the temperatures are negative, there are thirty of us in one spot. “
Adapt to the playing field
Would Hauts-de-France be an ideal new playground for surfing? you must not exaggerate. The rollers are less powerful and less frequent there than in the South-West. The swell background is sometimes long overdue. Local surfers therefore juggle the direction of the wind, the swell and the period (the time between two waves) to identify the right spot at the right time. Thus, Julien Fleurman, met one winter morning at 8 am, will spend two hours between Wimereux and Ambleteuse hesitating to get in the water before returning home, empty-handed but not so annoyed. “Once you’re in the water, it’s so magical… So, I never regret!” It’s the only sport I can get up for at 4 a.m.! “.
To what can we attribute this development? A conjunction of events, say surfers. The paddle boom has brought more surfers to surfing, while the lighter and more efficient wetsuits make the practice more enjoyable. The number of followers is increasing everywhere in France, thanks to the nature and easy access side of the discipline. The feeling of freedom obtained also counts… Even more in this period interspersed with restrictions.
Northern shaper and Basque name
The phenomenon is so marked that, now, the region has its “shapers”. To find one, you have to go to Sangatte, where Eric Veinberg is just busy making the concave of a board. Surfboards, he had been making them for himself since the 1990s, but now the PE teacher in a Calais high school draws them part-time for the others. Between 15 to 20 hours of work for a custom-made board and already many requests are satisfied. According to his calculations, the local clientele should be enough for him to sell 70-80 boards per year and tomorrow live full time from Izurdea composite. A name which means dolphin… in Basque. The spirit of the South West is never far away among surfers.