BON JAOUR

e Details

Best Tide:
Smaller swells need a lower tide, but once it's overhead, it doesn't matter.

Best Swell Direction:
NW

Best Size:
Double overhead

Best Wind:
E (it's pretty far out there and is very sensitive to wind)

Perfect-O-Meter:
8 (1=Lake Erie; 10=Jeffreys Bay)

Bottom:
Rock reef

Ability Level:
Beginner to advanced

Bring Your:
Shortboard and a mid-7-foot gun

Best Season:
Summer's for hotdogging; winter's for Real Men.

Access:
Park at the end of town and walk down; the channel (just south of the break) is easy to spot. Long paddle.

Crowd Factor:
Underhead summertime sees a bunch of longboarders, but as the winter swells start kicking in, the lineup gets bigger and the crowds chill out.

Local Vibe:
If you show respect and cojones on the big days, they should leave you alone. Don't expect free waves though.

Bicep Burn:
8 (1=1ft Waikiki; 10=15ft Ocean Beach)

Poo Patrol:
2 (1=clean; 10=turds in the lineup)

Shark Danger:
4 (1=none; 10=bring an iron cage) 

The  forecast has dropped off. Nothing to get pumped about.

About Guethary   

If the southwest coast of France has become an escapist cliche for older surfers wanting out of California and Australia, Guethary is its mecca. There's a good chance you may spot Aussie surf-scribe Phil Jarrat sipping on vin rouge in the ultra-hip Heteroclita right above the break or Jeff Hakman out on 8-foot gun on a triple overhead midwinter's day. Guethary is the kind of place where if you wanted to write a novel, you could rent a quaint apartment overlooking the break for the winter, stock up on wine, get a solid wetsuit and serious gun, and do some intense introspection.

The wave itself is quite deceiving. From the park benches at the west end of town, you look out at what seems to be a clean and mushy right-hand peak breaking into a clearly marked channel, as if Sunset Beach moved to San Onofre. But reality kicks in mid-paddle as you start to realize it's out there. The outside peak is easily a few hundreds yards from the rocky shoreline and it shifts around, turning those peaks that seemed so easy and makable from the cliff top into roguish A-frames stalking around the lineup just waiting to catch you inside. And if you try to go left on a big day, be prepared to inhale a whole bunch of Atlantic Ocean. Make no mistake; Guethary is the closest thing to open-ocean Hawaiian power you'll get in France.

Guethary is no disco flyaway closeout -- it's all about long, drawn-out bottom turns and swooping cutbacks and carves. Like Sunset, it's more of a thinking-man's wave, and the lineup tends to reflect that level of saltwatery sophistication, with the median maturity level on the big days leaning closer to half a century than half a brain.

But you're not composing poetry out there. After the initial big bottom turn/cutback, the wave'll either back off again, allowing another carving combo, or begin to wall up across the bay and demand some serious high speed lines toward the inside section. When it connects properly, you'll be using more of your rail in one wave than you would in an entire session at Hossegor.