“It was an incredible day in the Basque Country,” Manny Resano told DUKE. “Many of the swells are dirty, they come with viruses because the storm is very close and what do I know, one in every five or six swells you get a clean one, the sea comes in with favorable offshore winds, this was one of them.”

“I traveled from one day to the next because I was in California and I saw that Europe was active, in the end I took the plunge and we arrived without boards,” said Manny, who found good friends at Surf Teknika.

After several attempts on days when the conditions were not right, Manny had to change his ticket to bet that everything would be fine on Wednesday. And so it was, first at this French spot and then on the other side of the border in Spain.

According to local surfer Jaime Izquierdo on Surf Teknika’s Facebook page: “At dawn we were in the Les Alcyons car park which was empty. I arrived at night and saw a really big and really good set break. As soon as Manny arrived with the girls, we went into the water without wasting a minute. We prepared all the equipment, boards, suits, life jackets, gear, etc. Before going into the water, I explained to the girls how the spot worked, what safety measures they had to take in case they were in a risky situation, how to position themselves in the line up and above all what they shouldn’t do.”

“We were alone on the peak for a while and although some locals came in, we were still very few and the atmosphere was very good. We caught some good waves, we enjoyed the energy of the sea and Valentina caught a good one. When we got out, it was all smiles,” he said.

Surf Teknika wrote: “We have never seen such young girls, aged 13 and 15, surfing in such conditions. Amazing!”