The story of Biarritz surfing, and indeed of surfing in Europe as a whole, began with author and screenwriter Peter Viertel. Viertel was born in Germany but grew up in California where he took up the booming sport of surfing. In 1956 and 1957, during the filming of the movie The Sun Also Rises, on which he was the writer, Viertel spent much of his time on the Côte des Basques beach with the precious object he’d had sent over from America – his surfboard. With him was the film’s producer, Richard Zanuck, and the two rode the waves together, causing quite a stir among the locals.
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