During a surf contest, held in the heralded French surf region of Hossegor, recently, a group of female Germans were aggressively assaulted by a group of local surfers. And video was there to capture it.
The contest, a happy and harmless event by all accounts, was held from June 14th-21st. It featured: “numerous students from all over Germany will swap the lecture hall for the beach and participate in Germany’s largest university surf contest on the French Atlantic coast”
Good, clean fun…right? Well, here’s where things turned ugly:
According to Maya Sauer a German surf lass, locals paddled out during her heat, dropped in on her, and shoved her. Here’s her account of what went down:
“The event was fully approved by the city and paid for. All the necessary licenses were in place for that stretch of beach, flags were up and lifeguards on scene.
“But still, a big group of freesurfers deliberately paddled out in the contest area. They dropped in on us on purpose, yelled at us, insulted us, and got physically aggressive.
The lifeguards tried getting everyone out of the water, but they didn’t listen at all.
“The guy from the video who pushed me off the wave seemed to be proud of what he had done, showing no remorse after being confronted.”
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As she mentioned, the event was sanctioned, went through all the permit loopholed to make it happen, and yet, the French weren’t having it. And Sauer was able to understand where the French were coming from – without condoning the aggressive actions – but locals are protective.
“I totally understand that It’s frustrating when your home spot feels more crowded every year,” she said. “I’ve been coming to Hossegor for 11 years now, and I’ve seen how the vibe in the water has changed. There’s a lot of tension, and learning to deal with that can be tricky. But there’s a line. And violence, especially against women, should never, ever be part of surfing.”
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