Serious things now, after Tarifa we flew back to the south of France where I spent some time with my family before to head to Saint Julien in Medoc, close to Bordeaux in the south west of France where the most important wine great growths are present. If you like good wine it is the place to be !
The "Garonne" is the big river passing by the small villages before to end up in the Atlantic Ocean close to Lacanau and some of the best beach breaks in the world. The strong Atlantic tides affect the river flow several times a year during the big tide "coefficient" which was 105 yesterday. After a quick search on internet we found out with my uncle and some friends that the village of Saint pardon close by the river "La Dordogne" a part of "Garonne" was hosting an amazing tidal wave... we then did a quick search on youtube and found some pretty cool small videos showing off this amazing long wave rolling along the river and where people were surfing. It looks so fun that we decided to head there the next day.

We arrived on this small village knowing nothing on how to actually surf those waves or where to go. But as soon as we were on site we saw many cars parked and several people with all kind of flotable devices on the roof of their cars, on the side of their bikes or on top of their head walking towards the river. The river is approximately 300 meters wide at the point where we arrived.
The tidal wave is generated by the current of the river going in the opposite direction of the strong tide coming in the river creating a small long wave, this effect is called the "Mascaret" and is a big organization each time it happens in "Saint Pardon" the village we headed actually located 100 km away from the river mouth.
The wave is braking away from the Ocean coming up along the river.
The road is closed to let people watch on the side of the River and over 70 people are on the water with all kind of boards, kayak or Jet ski to surf this amazing wave .



Once we arrived, Laurent prepared his SUP while I took a small longboard. You need to use pretty big boards if you wanna be able to catch the wave and stay on it for a while. When you arrive it is very difficult to realize that so far from the Ocean a wave is going to break here on this muddy brown water, flat as a lake. The wave was scheduled for 7:34 pm and is suppose to arrive on time. So every body paddled far out where the wave is suppose to start breaking . We didn't know at all what to expect or where to place to be able to catch the wave but we tried to follow the ones who looks like they knew what they were doing and waited for "the wave" on this quiet river...


At 7:33 pm a big noise woke up everybody, it was several jet skis coming down followed by the wave. We knew it was coming so we started to find the right spot with not to many people on the way.


The wave just came, very small first and started to brake and grow slowly along the shore. I then paddled in stood up and was able to surf for real on this small wave pushing over 50 surfers, kayaks and more. First I was on the first wave where everybody had to go straight board against board, but then I had the chance to catch the 3rd vawe where I could actually surf. I was alone on this 3rd one and could cross half the river frontside, come back backside turning around and surfed more than 8 min, over a km.





When we passed over the place where hundreds of people where watching and they were all cheering and clapping their hands, it was very fun and I hope to do it an other time.
For now , Linn and I will be heading to the west coast , around Lacanau to surf a bit and then we may spend a couple days in Paris to relax and visit ! Next kiteboarding trip will be around the beginning of August !



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Jeremie Tronet