Scottish surfers prepare to take on world's best in Biarritz

Mark Boyd surfing Thurso East PIC: Niall Manson

This weekend the ISA World Surfing Games '“ the nearest thing the sport of kings has to a World Cup '“ will descend on the chi-chi resort town of Biarritz, on France's Basque coast. The place is already an odd mixture of faded glamour and contemporary beach culture, where packs of local surfers pad bare-footed past grand, Belle Époque and Art Deco hotels on their way to and from the waves. But from 20-28 May the town's already considerable surfing population will be swollen out of all proportion as teams of waveriders from around the globe arrive to do battle on its beaches.

This is the first time the World Surfing Games has been held in Europe since 2008, when it was hosted by Costa da Caparica in Portugal, and the location is notable for being the place where surfing first gained a toe-hold in France. In 1956 and ‘57, so the story goes, the Californian author and screenwriter Peter Viertel was in Biarritz working on Henry King’s big screen adaptation of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. As soon as he clocked the area’s surfing potential he arranged for his board to be shipped over, and from that moment on the French never looked at their long, wave-rich Atlantic coastline in quite the same way again.

Scotland will be among the nations taking part in the ISA (International Surfing Association) event next week. Mark Cameron, Mark Boyd, Scott Main and Chris Clarke will compete in the men’s open division, while Shoana Blackadder and Phoebe Strachan will compete in the women’s. As outlined in last week’s column, the Scottish Surfing Federation (SSF) have struggled to raise enough money to cover the cost of sending a team to the Games this year, and ended up well short of their £4,500 target. Last year the Scottish team had to pull out of the World Surfing Games in Costa Rica due to a lack of funds, but this year, Boyd says, the surfers will be making up the shortfall themselves and competing anyway – no small commitment when you consider they are already taking a week off work to fly the Saltire in France.