Photo: @ripitup.fr
The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is unlike the other 51 on the calendar. While the entire world doesn’t celebrate Christmas, the holiday still has a ripple effect on the home stretch of December for most people. Vacations are booked. Many industries either shut down or slow down for a moment. Businesses close. And even the ones that stay open often operate on a truncated schedule. Hell, even the corporate world is prone to fire out mass emails to their employees gifting a 4:45 p.m. clock out so folks can really soak up some quality family time with those extra 15 minutes.
All snark aside, the world does seem to slow down in the days leading up to a new year. And there are few things that can leave a person feeling energized and refreshed for that brand new calendar like a solid run of swell. Surfers in the southwest of France are being reminded of that this week with back-to-back unreal days in Hossegor. Conditions could only be described as perfect on December 28 and December 29.
“With strong onshore winds whipping up powerful swells of 2.5 to three meters nearly every day, the conditions were both challenging and breathtaking,” filmmaker David Berthet told The Inertia. “It’s been an unforgettable week here.”
And what’s better than closing out a year with waves? Starting the next year with more waves.
The same swell that lit Hossegor up over the weekend stuck around into the beginning of the week and started to back off going into the morning of New Year’s Eve, providing a brief window for opening up a bottle of champagne, wishing everybody a Happy New Year, letting wetsuits dry out, and then gearing up to do it again in 2025. Forecasts predict more swell pushing in over New Year’s Day and for (hopefully) another couple of solid days Thursday and Friday.
The French have it good right now.
