Last week saw the start of the Quicksilver Pro-France www.aspworldtour.com/2008 and the arrival of the pros into town! This news brought a smile to the girl’s faces, and an increase in trips into Hossegor – for ice-cream :)

Pros were spotted everywhere, surfing the breaks early in the mornings, and at night in restaurants and bars in Hossegor town.

One afternoon we turned up at the competition site just in time to see an amazing sight. The perfect 10!

Kiren Perrow was surfing against Mick Fanning. Kiren took off on the wave, and after only one sharp turn, he seemed to make a decision, and instead of turning again, he headed straight across the wave. We all waited to see what would happen to him. As we watched the sea scooped up and over him, and the whole crowd caught their breath – expecting to see the usual close-out and a very painful wipe-out, but… to everyones surprise a beautiful barrel formed with Kiren inside. After a few seconds, out he popped the other end as clean as a whistle! The crowd went mad – cheering and clapping, the commentator announced ‘dix’ and above the noise you could hear a shout of ‘au-revoir Fanning’ in a strong French accent ………really funny! Watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51D1nG9gBko

The weather has been amazing – temperatures peaked at 27C and the sea was a balmy 22C. The surf offered us a couple of clean days with some head high waves and dropped off later in the week. The group got some really good waves.

Surfing highlights included Rachel’s epic day of perfect long left-handers, and Tim and Matt’s surf-fest, where they seemed to be getting back in the sea every 1/2 hour! Penny made a sterling effort to push her surfing up a notch, and stood up on the board many times over their week’s holiday – well done Penny! Olly made an impression on his fellow surfers and was greeted to sounds of Allez Allez!! each time he went for a wave! If there was a prize for most wipe-outs – Lauren would have won hands down! She is now an expert on surviving a French beach break on the head!

The whole group has had fun this week, and the coming week is looking good with more warm weather and surf picking up again with new swell.