Hodgepodge versus reality

A few years ago, a magazine dedicated to ecology contacted me by phone, in my capacity as president of Eco-Safe Surfing, a group of surf schools with an eco-responsible approach.

The question was: “In the wake of the Covid crisis, do you think surfers are more sensitive to environmental protection than they used to be?

I suspected that my answer would not be in line with the journalist’s desired editorial line. I prefer frankness to marketing at all costs. So I replied as follows:

Between ecological rhetoric and perverse effects

There was talk of gravelots, a species of small wader, nesting again on the beaches. The ban on walking on the sand during Covid, which was of course totally ridiculous, had at least had this beneficial effect. But the domestic dog population had also increased. Many people had bought a four-legged friend because they were allowed to walk their dogs during Covid. So when nature was once again open to the public, despite the injunction not to disturb the gravel birds at the foot of the dunes, there was a tidal wave of dogs on the beaches.

Then there’s the question of electric bikes. Another fad, introduced in the last decade, has swept through Hossegor, that of fat-tired electric bikes. Holidaymakers from other regions are astonished to see so many of these Californian-style electric machines on the roads, cycle paths and beaches: from 8 to 77 years old, a fat bike frenzy has descended on the brains of the inhabitants of a handful of small coastal towns.

Nothing to do with ecological awareness: the original idea was to drive on the beach, thus escaping the ban on the use of motorized vehicles in coastal areas. Absurd, given that, electric or not, the vehicle is equipped with a motor that allows it to penetrate further into natural areas, thereby increasing the damage caused to ecosystems. Where a handful of walkers once ventured, the beach now resembles a bicycle garage.

Covid has seen the emergence of numerous waste collection associations, yet no one has reacted to another ecological disaster, that caused by the mechanical cleaning of the beach by machines called sifters, which collect 90% of sand and organic matter and which, under the guise of removing plastics, accelerate erosion and the degradation of the coastal ecosystem. In a few communes, this observation has been followed up by action, and manual collection is now the preferred method, helping to recreate a living environment that is repopulated by marine species and more resistant to coastal retreat.

In Hossegor, to organize a motorcycle competition, they plough 2 km of beach every year!

By this stage, I think the journalist had stopped the interview and didn’t keep much of it in her article. Appearances sell better than complex reality.

Don’t touch my beach

Public projects regularly threaten the well-being of the Landes population, and it’s not so much surfers who react as the inhabitants of an ecosystem. Often, the initiative comes from environmental protection associations such as Sepanso or Les Amis de la Terre, which wage exhausting David and Goliath battles: against the dredging of Hossegor lake, against the construction of yet another supermarket in a natural area in Capbreton and, more recently, against the burial of a very high-voltage power line linking Spain to France, passing through the seabed and the land and destroying dunes and forests.

With mixed results, because the idealism of the ecologists is always contrasted with the realism of sacrosanct economic development. Sustainable development, or the strategy of the pacifist warrior, makes it possible to bring together everything and its opposite under the same name, emptying language of its meaning and turning it into a marketing tool. In the forests of the Landes region, for example, “Réserve de chasse” signs have been replaced by ” Culture de gibier ” signs, reinforcing the idea that nature is entirely artificial.

As for surfers, they often react with a delay when a coastal development impacts their playground, creating currents and erosion phenomena that degrade surf spots and make swimming dangerous.

Consumer power

There isn’t one type of surfer, but like the society in which they live, European surfers are consumers. You only have to sit for fifteen minutes at the entrance to a beach to witness a fashion show. Half of all surfers pass by with the latest board under their arm, combining performance and technological innovation, sometimes costing twice as much as a conventional board. Between vintage, trends and postures, we’re clearly not into sobriety.

Nevertheless, the surf equipment market is beginning to offer less polluting alternatives. Chemical compounds are being partially replaced by recycled or natural materials, indicating the existence of a public eager to consume responsibly. The initiative often comes from small, innovative companies, while the big brands, although lagging behind, are forced to follow suit.

The surf schools in the Eco-Safe Surfing network keep abreast of these developments, so as to offer their trainees the most eco-responsible equipment possible. The quality charter aims to infuse the sector with the notion of responsible business.

Nevertheless, the increasing number of surf schools being set up in certain coastal areas that are already well-stocked suggests that the individualistic logic of business still takes precedence over respect for the environment as a limited resource.