Underneath the stormy skies of San Sebastian however, there remains one focus: the waves.
When in San Sebastian, it’s best to do as the locals do. The lazy Basque beach town located on the Atlantic coast of Northern Spain receives its fair share of inclement weather. Every storm comes with a silver lining though – big surf. Torrential rain and street runoff flowing into the Atlantic don’t deter the locals here, but rather indicate that it’s probably a good day to hit the beach.
Although the sunny postcard panoramas depict what appears to be a warm, tropical Hawaiian or Tahitian cove, the water here stays relatively cold year round. Although a few thick skinned locals can tough it out without a suit, I’d say that a 4:3 would be the minimum, at least during the larger, colder, swells from the North of the winter and spring.
My surfing experience in San Sebastian took place in the midst of one of these chilly rainstorms. Looming dark clouds poured down on the shivering black suited bodies bobbing up and down on the horizon. Regardless of the bitter cold, I figured there could be no better way to try to fit in with the locals than to take a dose of their own medicine.
Although the localist vibe here isn’t quite as strong as in California, it still exists. Regardless, any time I paddle out anywhere other than my home break in Del Mar, I feel like I’m partially invading someone else’s sacred space. It’s always necessary to treat the place and it’s people with respect, but little intricacies in local surfing etiquette seemed to differ with what I thought was basically universal surfing code, which I’ve learned growing up in Southern California. Locals here generally don’t have a problem with new additions to the lineup unless visiting surfers violate these rules of conduct in the water. Physical violence will not ensue, but seeing me as a new face in the water the locals had no problem cutting me off and telling me to get out of their way. Although I may be a gringo in their town, I know my way around the water quite well and eventually gained enough respect to catch a few waves without the hindrance of other surfers.
Through my sessions of trial and error in the water, I learned that the lineup here is more of a sanctuary for personal meditation. Very few conversations occurred between surfers in the water and certainly no one was interested in having a conversation wish someone who only spoke Castilian Spanish. Surfing in California provides more of a social forum in which interaction between surfers is quite common in the lulls between sets. Underneath the stormy skies of San Sebastian however, there remains one focus: the waves.
