They started in the 80s or 90s, when surfing was still a counter-culture. Their knees make noise, their shoulders have been repaired once or twice, and there’s a board in the garage. And they’re still surfing.
The myth of the young surfer
The image of surfing is young, acrobatic, competitive. But Biarritz has another reality: a significant community of 45, 50, 55-year-old surfers who practise regularly. Not to perform — but for the physical pleasure of gliding, for the connection with the water, for what surfing does to a mind that a week of work has battered.
What changes after 40
The practice adapts. Boards get bigger — more volume, more buoyancy, less effort to catch waves. Sessions get shorter. Conditions are chosen more carefully — less wind, fewer people, forgiving waves. You learn to read the sea differently, with a patience you didn’t have at 20.
Biarritz, ideal terrain
La Grande Plage and the Côte des Basques offer regular, relatively forgiving conditions. Surf schools have developed courses specifically aimed at adults. Bodysurf spots — less physically demanding, equally satisfying — exist for days when the shoulders don’t cooperate.