Hossegor’s Best Bargain: Free Chiropractic Therapy With Oversized Barrels

A martial arts teacher once told me, “Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent.” 

To become proficient at successfully coming out of tubes, one needs practice, and a lot of it. The more one gets, the more likely the habit of bursting through chandeliers and over foamballs will lean toward permanent. 

France’s beach breaks are anything but permanent. As any nude sunbather will tell you, beaches there are prone to 10-foot tide swings in the winter. Sandbars look magic one hour then gone the next. 

But when everything finally aligns, France’s neoprene-clad knights take no prisoners, getting attempt after attempt to dodge the guillotine. While the US West Coast has been stormy and bumpy as of late, France got its day(s) of the year earlier this month—solid, double overhead cylinders held aloft by generous offshore winds. 

The video above, which is dramatically scored to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” shows many Frenchmen getting their reps at some of the biggest and most consistent swells to hit Les Landes this year. It’s an absolute pit fest that brought out the French artillery like Joan Duru, Benjamin Sanchis, Marc Lacomare, Aritz Aranburu, Charly Quivront and many more. 

Not shown, however, is the amount of chiropractic therapy one needs after getting thrashed by a powerful sandbar. Gotta pay to play here.