Biarritz (AFP)

They were the first to spin 360 degrees on the waves.

And on the beach.

Parties, alcohol, drugs, fighting, adrenaline: The surfers of the Grande Plage band in Biarritz lived their passion without limit, recounted in a film with a rebellious scent of the 80s.

Time has passed but nothing has really changed, they are still surfing and "arguing" as much!

Michel Larronde, La Mouche, Nabo, Eric Graciet, Kikette, Sammy and Tcheuch left their mark on 80s surfing with carelessness and insolence.

For the VOD release on Monday of the film dedicated to them, "Biarritz surf gang" (already released in 2017 on Canal Plus), directed by Nathan Curren and Pierre Denoyel, these surfers have remade their world, the time of an exchange with AFP.

The hair still long for some, they talk about their crazy young years, room and bicker happily.

They catch fire talking about today's surf and wave pools.

"You wanted to know what we are doing between the waves. And there you have it, in a nutshell: we spend our time arguing!", Launches Frédéric Etchebar, said Tcheuch.

The famous Grande Plage strip is the story of a youth who wants to live without concessions or shackles.

"We were a bunch of wankers like there are on all beaches but in Biarritz the beach is right in the city center, that changed everything. And among us, there were the best surfers of the generation", continues Tcheuch.

- Unmanageable -

They made the heyday of the France team from the 80s to the early 2000s. But they were unmanageable.

Their priority: to party, on and off the water.

“We were dark in the morning sometimes!” Recalls Michel Larronde, the first European to have surfed the big waves in Hawaii, where he lived for 25 years.

"We were spotted, we had long blond hair, we hung out until no time, we got out of the water we went to a club."

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The film is skillfully constructed by mixing together Super 8 footage from the guys from the gang, their testimonials from today, a very colorful cartoon to talk about the dark moments in their stories, and interviews with rival surfers, such as the star. American Laird Hamilton (inventor of towed surfing) or three-time world champion Tom Curren.

The Frenchies talk about their travels, the happiness of taking a bomb, the fights with the Australians who came to the Basque coast a little too much in conquered territory, the trips that end in pujilat, their madness - they burned all the furniture of a house they had rented in Australia to warm up, including the fence - insolent behavior (Tcheuch urinated on a judge's table), exclusions from the France team.

And addiction.

- 'Taste everything' -

"At the time, we were told: don't smoke a firecracker, it's not good. You smoke a firecracker: how's that not good, are you kidding me ?! And there it is, it started like that" , book Joël Darrigues, says Nabo.

"Me, I went a little far with another who is not there, I fell into the meanders, I got up thanks to the surf, the hard drugs hurt me. I had a brain that was greedy of sensations, I wanted to taste everything and I got fucked. That's all, it's not complicated ".

"What I was looking for was to prolong the pleasure and the sensations that surfing gave me," Nabo explains in the film.

"But look at Michel, he found that adrenaline in Hawaii surfing ever bigger waves."

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Kikette, himself, was exiled to the Canaries where he served in prison.

Armed robbery to pay for your dose.

He drank three liters of whiskey a day.

All have now returned "to the fold", and are - almost - all well.

They still travel, share sessions and dream together of a trip to Tahiti, to find their childhood friends.

"When you live with a passion you live happier, there is nothing to shit": concludes Nabo at the end of the film.

© 2021 AFP