This summer, “20 Minutes” is going to meet surfer girls who are passionate about thrills and blue immensities.
Sporting feats, surpassing oneself, thirst for adventure… All of them have dedicated their lives to the waves and tried to push back the limits of body and mind.
This fourth episode is dedicated to Marie-Christine Delanne, one of the pioneers of surfing in France in the 1960s.
When we talk about the beginnings of surfing in France, we quickly think of the pioneers of the discipline at the end of the 1950s, such as Joël de Rosnay or Jacky Rott. But among the few at the time to defy the elements, some women also marked the first pages in the history of this sport in France, like Marie-Christine Delanne.
Before devoting herself to journalism, she distinguished herself on the waves of the Basque coast in the 1960s, becoming the first champion of France.
A title obtained six times until 1969. And if it then closed the competition page, surfing has never left it.
“The last time I surfed was six years ago in New Zealand, I haven't done it for a long time.
But it's like cycling: we immediately find the reflexes.
And that made me very happy, ”she remembers with pleasure, from the height of her 74 years.
This summer,
20 Minutes
is going to meet surfer girls who are passionate about thrills and blue immensities.
After Justine Dupont and Léa Brassy, meeting with Marie-Christine Delanne, essential pioneer of surfing in France.
Under what circumstances did you discover surfing?
I started at the age of 12 in 1959, at the start of surfing in Biarritz. We mainly surfed on the Basque coast where there was this famous inclined plane: a platform that went down to the water where the families of the first surfers met: the Barlands, the Plumcocqs, the Reinhardts ... found there, I also went there with one of my aunts whose children I looked after. I was already athletic at the time and when I saw boys my age sharing boards, it really made me want! At one point I asked to get on it and learn, and it started like that. I took my first wave and then I entered the competition until the end of the 1960s. I continued to surf thereafter, but without participating in the competitions.
Did you immediately fall in love with this sport?
Yes, and a big one!
From the moment I started to get up and get a little comfortable, I have always loved being on the water this way.
On a surfboard you have to be very close to the wave because it is the only board sport where you are on a support that moves and changes all the time.
You can take all other forms of sliding, surfing has this specificity where you have to adapt all the time, to be in symbiosis.
And I love the sea anyway, it's really my element.
I was born in Guéthary, on the Basque coast, at home, everyone swam from the age of three.
Today the practice of surfing is very supervised, the equipment very technical… At that time the conditions must have been very different, was it a real adventure?
Yes, it was still a little experimental phase! But we quickly had better boards, first made in Biarritz by Mr. Barland, who improved the technique, then also with the arrival of young Americans and Australians with boards that were more technically advanced. Afterwards, the surfing was much more difficult than today, especially for the girls, because we didn't have a leash [the cord attached to the ankle and connected to the board] which allows us not to lose the board. And they were very heavy at the time! When it was necessary to pass the waves to go out to sea, it was necessary to turn under then to go up. The board could be carried away by the wave, which required us to return to the shore to retrieve it and then set off again offshore… You had to be really sporty and know how to swim well.And then there was the danger of being alone in sometimes big waves, without a board, without anything. Today, when we fall we can hang on to it, it's a security.
At the time we mainly spoke of men in the water and in particular surfers from Biarritz. What atmosphere reigned between men and women?
Rather than men and women, we were mostly teenagers! We were very united. After on the water, if I took a good wave and there was one that did not have priority and wanted to take it too, he would rush on me to sting it, and of course, I would fall ... There was a bit of machismo and sexism, that's for sure ... But otherwise no, we got along very well, we were the beach gang. And then there was no prejudice at all against athletic girls in general, surfer girls in particular, it wasn't my mother's time! After the war, women's sport was still very much promoted. In the 1960s, there were great sportswomen, Christine Caron [in swimming], Annie Famose [in alpine skiing]… Women's sport was nevertheless in the spotlight. Surfing was a men's sport because it was physically tough.Any girl couldn't have done it back then, again because of the leash thing. Today, you don't have to be super hunky, muscular and all that to surf. You have to have strength in your arms, of course, but it's less physically demanding. There were more boys than girls but apart from a few attitudes on the water, we were well accepted and well regarded. There was still a certain respect, we appreciated the girls who surfed, it was courageous.There were more boys than girls but apart from a few attitudes on the water, we were well accepted and well regarded. There was still a certain respect, we appreciated the girls who surfed, it was courageous.There were more boys than girls but apart from a few attitudes on the water, we were well accepted and well regarded. There was still a certain respect, we appreciated the girls who surfed, it was courageous.
You took part in the first French surfing championships, which you won six times.
An incredible track record!
I do not know !
I'm not going to be choosy, I was proud at the time for sure.
But what is interesting is that at the beginning we were supposed to be five or six girls, and before the end of the 1960s a second generation had joined us.
For example, there was my sister Marie-Paule, who is four years younger than me.
Then the movement continued - surfing sites multiplied too - to explode in the 1970s.
So we counted surfer girls on the fingers of one hand in Biarritz when you started?
Yes, there were about ten of us, after that it went pretty quickly anyway, it made other younger people want to get started too.
And today, the number of girls surfing around the world shows that it's a sport for everyone!
So of course it did not start from Biarritz only, but it is a great pleasure to see how this sport has developed for women.
You are one of the pioneers of surfing in France, is that a source of pride for you?
For a very long time I didn't think about it in those terms, but for a number of years when I see how surfing has developed, I have a little pride.
I find it a little impressive to tell myself that in 1959, I was riding a surfboard for the first time.
It's a bit extraordinary, maybe it's the age that does that, I don't know, but I find it a bit extraordinary.
And that it happened to me too!
It's exceptional to be able to say that we were among the first!
Among the great surfers of our time, there is Justine Dupont, whom you particularly admire.
What she does is amazing!
I was a big surfer at the time, and when I say "big" it has nothing to do with the waves she rides, I have a lot of admiration for her.
I would have liked to be Justine Dupont.
Surfing waves like that is extraordinary!
And that's incredible courage.
I also imagine the sensations she must have, it must be fantastic.
Beyond the sporting aspect, do you think surfing is also a state of mind?
A state of mind, I don't know.
I believe that everyone puts in what they want.
On the other hand, for me it was a lesson in life.
When we go offshore and we see this wave coming, which is widening and will break on us, we have to row, even if we are tired.
Sometimes you have to go beyond your strength because you have to get there if you don't want to take it on the head.
And when I have had hard knocks in life, I always thought about this wave that must be passed.
Give a last helping hand to pass it otherwise we are carried away, we dive, we are in the washing machine.
This is something that deeply marked me and made me move forward.
This is what surfing has taught me beyond sport.
Sport
Surf: "I use more the potential that there is around my home", affirms Léa Brassy
Sport
Surf: "Fear is a guide and you make friends with it", estimates Justine Dupont
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Sport
Surf
Women
Culture