By Jean-Pierre Tamisier – [email protected]
The Rip Curl Pro Anglet surf will open from Tuesday August 24 the Qualifying series (QS) season in Europe. The continental gratin is expected there for the sixth edition of a competition that is growing in importance
Although it still looks very young, surfing started to take hold in Anglet almost 70 years ago. Photos from 1954 show the Dacquois Jacky Roth, who died in 2019, trying the first boards of his manufacture, Plage de la Chambre d’Amour. Ten years later, the first French championship took place at the same place, and La Barre beach hosted its first international competition in 1968.
Tuesday August 24, will begin le Rip Curl pro Anglet QS 1 000, which will run until Sunday, August 29. This event to which the Australian Rip Curl, one of the emblematic brands of clothing and accessories for board sports, chose to associate its name a few months ago, will have its sixth edition.
“When he arrived at the town hall of Anglet in 2014, Claude Olive wanted the city to find an important surfing event,” says Anthony Bleuze, deputy mayor in charge of tourism and entertainment. From 2015, in agreement with the World surf league (WSL), we had a stage of QS, the second international division. From the start, we have sought to associate a great name with this meeting. This is the case with the arrival of Rip Curl, one of the major companies in this economic sector. “
With sanitary pass
Anthony Bleuze sees in the constitution of this WSL triumvirate, city and Rip Curl, the opportunity to perpetuate and develop the Pro Anglet to higher levels. Without the Covid-19 pandemic and its variants, it should have taken place last June, while August would have kept night surfing, a meeting specific to Anglet and which the WSL has included in its calendar .
In the end, the night surfing was canceled to avoid too large a gathering. As for the Rip Curl Pro Anglet QS 1000, it was maintained during the week of August 24th to 29th, but in a partitioned space. You will have to show a health pass to be able to access the enclosure which will allow you to attend the competition.
With the Olympians
The public should nevertheless be there, given the proposed poster. In a recent press release, the WSL announces the arrival of the reigning European champions, Vasco Ribeiro (Portugal) and Leticia Canales Bilbao (Spain). There will also be former residents of the CT, such as the Basco-Landais Joan Duru and the Guipuscoan Aritz Aramburu.
We will also see several of the participants in the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo. In particular Ramzi Boukhiam (Morocco), Leon Glatzer (Germany), Anat Lelior (Israel), Yolanda Hopkins and Teresa Bonvalot (Portugal) as well as the local champion Pauline Ado, licensed at the Anglet surf club and member of the France team Olympic.
In addition, the young surfer from San Sebastian Kai Odriozola and the Brazilian Sophia Medina, sister of the double world champion Gabriel Medina got the wildcard from their sponsor Rip Curl.
It will allow them to access respectively the fourth and third rounds of the Pro Anglet, with the seeds of the competition.
If you cannot get to the Chambre d’Amour, it is possible to follow the competition on the website of World surf league (free for the first two days) and on the WSL YouTube channel and the WSL Qualifying Series Facebook page. The new platform MCS Extrême, an extreme sports platform, will also broadcast live with commentaries in French.
The Chambre d’Amour film festival will be renewed
Between Wednesday July 28 and Saturday July 31, the Chambre d’Amour held the first edition of its film festival, at the initiative of the Monciné cinema, with the support of the city. “Due to the constraints linked to the health situation, and the little time we had to set it up, it was more of a test, a number zero to prepare for a real first edition,” comments Anthony Bleuze. Even if the elected official says he is fully satisfied with the public’s response to the three evenings proposed, which notably allowed to see “Bac nord”, by Cédric Jimenez, with Gilles Lelouche, the reflection to prepare the 2022 edition remains very open. “We want to make this festival sustainable. This year, we did it at the end of July, because there were no Bayonne festivals. We hope they will come back. Suddenly, we have to find the best date, between June and September, to ensure that we have important films and actors and directors available, ”emphasizes Anthony Bleuze.
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