October is what this coast is known for. The autumn lows are stronger than September's and the banks have not been wrecked by them yet, so for a few weeks the Landes produces waves at a size and a shape nothing else on mainland Europe matches.
The reason sits under the water. The Capbreton canyon opens about three hundred metres off the beach and drops past three thousand, and its head funnels swell onto the north beaches at Hossegor. On the same north-west swell, La Nord gets the energy concentrated and Capbreton, a few hundred metres further south, gets it swallowed. Two beaches within sight of each other, one perfect and one flat, on one forecast.
The weather helps as well. The continental high sits over France often enough in October to hold the wind offshore through the mornings, and at 19°C most sessions still start without gloves.
