Every country with an Atlantic facing coastline has been pretty much firing for the last few weeks.

Even France’s south-west corner, which often transforms into one never-ending onshore storm surge once winter rolls around has been enjoying solid, lightly groomed surf.

As the first swell of winter lit up the coast around Biarritz, Adrien Toyon hooked up with the crew at Deflow and happened upon a sparsely populated lineup, with overhead and perfectly clean lefts riffling across the bay. He whipped open his boot and produced a slightly battered 5’10” Lighting Bolt twinny shaped by Graham Smith.

“That was my first ever surfboard.” he explained. “When I was 9 years old, my parents gave me for Christmas, almost 20 years ago. I found it again in my parents house in Reunion Islands and I brought it here. Then it spent some long time in my garage looking at me hahaha…That single concave and sharp lines were perfect on this day. Never thought I was going to surf this board again, and even more in this kind of waves.”