[ La Madrague - The first Report ]


In the end of April I was moving to La Madrague in South France in the bay of Almanarre to spend the upcoming season down there. Now I'm living together with Mélanie on the "Camping International", where the surfshop and school "spinout.fr" is located as well. We are working in the shop as well as on the water to teach beginner and funboard levels...



The spot - Home sweet home - The bay of Almanarre


When i arrived on the "Camping International", the weather was defnitely not like you expect in the south - it was pretty cold and raining. But the rain stopped soon and also the sun was shining. In my first week we had some clients and I had to teach some beginners, what was not always easy because we had some strong wind - the Mistral was blowing and allowed everybody to use 4.2 sails or even smaller! Welcome in the south of France!


Some sightseeing during our weekend-kajak-tour


The next weeks the weather was really good, but the wind was not as strong as expected during this time of the year. We had some days with wind from the east, but generally not strong enough to use sails smaller than 5.7. But therefore the spot works really good with wind from the east, because it comes offshore and so you can sail without any chop - and still the wind is not too gusty. But also during the days without wind we had already a nice time and the atmosphere at the spot is always good as well!



Lightwind surfing with 5.8 - Méla is working - No wind action


The team of "spinout.fr" is pretty small, that means next to Mélanie and me there are only Marc & Julien who work here, too. Later in autumn we will be some windsurf instructors more, because for this time we have already many reservations and it will be quite buisy. Before in July and August there will be many people on the camping as well, but the windsurfers who wait for the stronger winds usually come later in September or October. 


The "Presqu'ile de Giens" - Sightseeing in St. Tropez - Sundowner


The last weekend we had again wind from the east - but this time strong enough to try my new 4.7m˛ sail! We had a reeealy nice session and you could try all moves ten meters away from the beach in the flatwater - niiiice! It's a pity that we didn't take any photos this day, but everybody wanted to sail as long as possible and nobody wanted to rest on the beach to take photos. But hopefully next time... I really hope we will have these days more often!



Sundowner-Freestyle in choppy water


This week we had one day Mistral and Mélanie and me could sail with 4.0 and 4.7. Sometimes you have some nice waves with mistral - but only sometimes. This day we had just some choppy water so that all moves were really much more difficult. But still we had a nice sundowner session - and this time Mélanie took some photos - thanks! So far so good - hopefully with the next report I can deliver some more action pics and hopefully some of you also like to surf a bit in South France - cu on the water!!! Sometimes you can also find some pics at www.stehsegelrevue.com in the category pic of the day - check out "la madrague"!


                


Text: Mirco
Fotos: Mirco, Méla