It turned out we’d parked less than 100m from the Denel brothers’ apartment so they cruised down the beach to check out the conditions. In the spirit of politeness and local respect, we tried to talk in French as we made our introductions. I managed to blurt out Bonjour and a few other basics but it was soon agreed that we all better talk in English to save time and confusion. The Denel brothers both seemed pretty relaxed about the lack of conditions but Timo and myself were already starting to worry that we’d made one almighty blunder.
9 am Timo: As we pulled up we were greeted by 3-4 foot surf, clear blue skies but not much wind, there were a few surfers in the water, but the promised 30 knots of wind was nowhere to be seen!
9.20 am JC: We spend half an hour in Jules apartment while we wait for the wind and drink a coffee. Both myself and Timo are itching to get back to the beach but the Denel brothers are both confident that the conditions will improve through the day so are happy to chill out.
Another ten minutes pass until Timo finally suggests ‘on y va aux plage?’ The Denel brothers look at each other and whisper ‘Imbeciles’ but reluctantly agree to head out. The spot is about two minutes from the Denel apartment to a little alley way right next to the sea wall.