Côte des Basques 2010

Nikonos V, 35mm lens

From the heights of Biarritz leads small hidden passageways in the bushes down to the rolling waves. Down in the valley lays the legendary spot Côte des Basques. The place is historical in many ways. For surfers, this is the place where Europe's first wave where surfed in 1957. This became the beginning of Europe's surfing history.

This magical place become my home for my converted VW bus for the summer. The waves were small, very small and almost nonexistent. But small waves don’t mean bad waves. 

I had been to this spot so many times before but now the light was right. We were tucked into the corner on the bay, to the left was open sea, to the right a castle hanging on a cliff. My friends Jens and Peter had surfed this break for years. This evening was quiet, almost empty, and you could hear the gentle crash of the waves when they hit the shore behind us.

The wait was long between the sets of waves. I was floating weightless with my camera, not the normal position when shooting in waves, relaxing while waiting to shoot the next set. For a moment I was lost looking into the sky. Then I came back, pulled my camera out of the water. There was something beautiful there - the wait, the quietness, the small clouds on the horizon. Two surfers, painted as silhouettes against the pale backdrop of the sky touching the horizon.

I raised my camera to my eye, waterdrops on the viewfinder. I shook off the lens to get it clear. Click, one photo, this felt good. Click, click. I shot a couple more. Only five frames left on the roll of film. This is surfing. Even the wait is a part of the journey. The journey to catch the next wave. Then it was over, the waves came in again and we shot one last photo before swimming into shore.