French Connection Sparks Waves of Emotion

Bill Sharp referred to it as the French Revolution, and although there was no storming of the Bastille, there was the storming, by a few French surfers, of some extraordinary walls of water raging shoreward off Southern France.

And the result of the March 10 assault -- at Belharra Reef, two-plus miles off the coast of St. Jean de Luz -- was to turn the world of big-wave surfing upside down.

Sharp, director of the Billabong XXL big-wave contest, labeled the 60- to 70-foot waves “the biggest ever challenged outside of Hawaii or California” and last week included unheralded French surfers Fred Basse and Sebastian St. Jean on a list of five finalists for the $60,000 top prize, awarded to the person determined to have ridden the biggest wave of the 2002-03 season. The winner will be announced next Friday night at the Grove Theater in Anaheim.

The other finalists are Makua Rothman and Noah Johnson, both from Hawaii, and Cheyne Horan of Australia. Johnson and Horan are veteran big-wave surfers and Rothman, 18, has been rising in stature.

All three took part in a monumental daylong session at Jaws off northern Maui on Nov. 26, when Mother Nature unleashed a reign of terror so ferocious that injuries and even near-death experiences were the order of the day.

“I was hit so many times, I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to die here,’ ” Horan told an Australian reporter after being thumped by a 60-foot crusher and sent shoreward in a heap. “My body went numb and limp. I was seeing stars and felt as though I was on the other side, like I had died.”

Jaws is the first great theater of big-wave tow-surfing, a daredevil pursuit practiced by a growing number of athletes who are pulled behind jet-powered personal watercraft onto the faces of waves too big and fast to be caught by mere arm power.

And on Nov. 26, Jaws was at its biggest and best. Nobody expected the XXL winner to come from anywhere else -- certainly not France.

But in early March, three weeks before the end of the contest, an intense low-pressure system tracked east of Newfoundland and created a “Perfect Storm” situation in the eastern Atlantic. Belharra became the place to be, a small expedition was launched and Basse and St. Jean, along with a few others, screamed down the glassy peaks looking like little dots, gaining more notoriety with every foot.

“This day was the biggest, the most beautiful and incredible day anyone of us had ever seen,” said Francois Liets, one of the leaders of the assault. “Even a month after, there is still a lot of emotions about it.”

Are there ever. While photographs, to be used for judging, depict the French waves to be just as tall as, perhaps even taller than, the top entries from Jaws, they are not nearly as steep and obviously not as powerful.

This alone has generated controversy, since the contest will be judged largely by height of the peak above the surfer, with heaviness coming into play only in case of a tiebreaker. But throw in political tensions between France and the United States and you have something far more meaningful than a friendly sporting contest.

In the eyes of some, anyway.

“The French have a lot of good things, but military backbone and big waves aren’t included,” read the tamest of dozens of postings on an Internet chat board set up by Surfer magazine.

On another surfing site, an Englishman wrote that he wished he were French after lashing out at all the French-bashers, calling them “a bunch of American [nerds] who’ve probably never been to France and

Which brought this reply: “Your brothers in the Rat Patrol are kicking butt while you post that you wish you were French! I bet the Rat Patrol commander would love to ‘chat’ with you after he returns from Iraq.”

To their credit, the big-wave surfers and industry insiders, by and large, have remained on the sidelines, and refreshingly diplomatic.

“I think we are all surfers of the same planet,” Liets said, adding, “We should show to the rest of the world that even if the competition spirit is still there, we see the surfing community as a worldwide brotherhood.”

Meanwhile, Sharp is beside himself over all the publicity and acknowledges that he could not have scripted this event better if he had tried.

“I’m never afraid of a little controversy,” he said. “What it comes down to is, surfers, when they’re not surfing, like to talk about surfing, and this is a classic opportunity to talk about it and it just happens to be very timely with all of the political issues.”

And this much is sure: They’ll still be talking after the winner is announced. Especially if it turns out to be a Frenchman.

Freshwater Fishing

Robert Lee of Angel’s Camp, Calif., may not be the best fisherman in the world, but there’s no one better on the San Joaquin River Delta. Lee, 35, last weekend won the CITGO Bassmaster Tour delta event for the fourth consecutive year, meaning he has won all four tour events at the Northern California venue.

“I told my dad I can win, but how in the world can a guy win four tournaments in the same place,” he said. “I have a lot of experience, but these guys are the best in the world.”

Lee’s final-day score was five fish totaling 26 pounds, including a 9-pound 6-ounce largemouth that helped him post a tournament weight of 86 pounds 8 ounces and beat his nearest competitor by more than 13 pounds. Lee ranks 90th on the tour.

Saltwater Fishing

* Santa Monica Bay: Phil Hildebrand of Redondo Beach won last weekend’s Marina del Rey Halibut Derby with a 46.9-pounder. Next biggest was a 24.8-pounder. An angler aboard the Redondo Special on Sunday caught a 35-pounder but was not entered in the derby. Top catch in the bay was by spearfisherman Al Schneppershoff, who nailed a 41-pound white seabass Wednesday off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

* San Diego: Yellowtail have been biting sporadically at the Coronado Islands and off the coast, and barracuda are starting to show. These are good signs that a spring bite is impending despite unseasonably cool water caused by a recent long spells of strong winds. Will this weekend’s predicted storm be another setback?

* Long Beach: Pierpoint Sportfishing and Marina Sportfishing in Long Beach are allowing kids under 15 to fish free, as long as they are accompanied by an adult, on their half- and three-quarter-day boats during a “spring break special” that runs April 14-20.

Hiking/Camping

As bears begin emerging from hibernation, overnight campers in Yosemite are being warned that the use of National Park Service-approved bear-resistant containers is mandatory in the Half Dome/Moraine Dome area and includes Little Yosemite Valley Campground and the Sunrise Creek-Cloud’s Rest trail junction.

These areas, according to the NPS, serve as a “training ground” for bears habituated to human food teaching their youngsters how to forage. The containers -- which also are mandatory above 9,600 feet, in the Rancheria Falls area and High Sierra camps -- can be bought in sporting goods stores or rented inside the park. In some cases, metal food lockers might be available and used in places of the containers.

Skiing/Snowboarding

The local season is all but over, but Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra is in full operation with good coverage and announced this week that all three base lodges would remain open through April 27. Canyon Lodge and Little Eagle Lodge will close April 28, but the main lodge “will remain in operation with as much terrain open as conditions permit.” More snow is expected early next week.