This article was translated by John R. Bopp
American website surfer is, according to Alexa, one of the top 50,000 most visited websites in the world. Lately, they’ve been publishing a series of reports presenting to their readers a list, in no particular order, as they say, of the ten best cities in the world for a surfer.
Thus far on the list are places like San Francisco, Capetown, New York, Honolulu, Tel Aviv, and Lisbon. Their most recent addition, the seventh of the ten best, is Bilbao.
We like how the articles are presented. They don’t just focus on “surfer” aspects alone. They present these cities as the best because they’re in attractive areas for surfers, indeed, but they also analyze such “unimportant” things as quality of life or the job market.
We were impressed by their analysis of Bilbao in these areas. They rate the city highly, especially when you consider they’re writing this from the US. For example:
“Is one of the most competitive and innovative economic regions in the European Union. An industrial center, somewhat economically detached from the rest of Spain, Bilbao weathered the Great Recession much more successfully than many other major European cities. “
That is the image that this Basque city is projecting. And, lest we forget, we are, in good part, the image we project (as individuals, cities, or countries). Prestige is a solid value.
As we always like to explain in these cases, the concepts of “space and time” in the rest of the world does not coincide with the Basques’. What for us is a huge distance, 150km or 100mi, is for the rest of the world a quick jaunt. What for us is a huge amount of time, one or two hours on public transport, is for the residents of the largest cities in the world their everyday commute time. So, for some readers, it may seem like Biarritz, San Sebastian, and Bilbao are almost part of the same metro area, we here find travelling that far an “excursion to faraway lands”. It’s a question of scale, we suppose.
That need to present our country in an integral way has already been understood by, for example, Bizkaia-Talent. This foundation, whose goal is to attract and recoup talent, in its blog dedicated to the advantages of living in the Basque Country, dedicates a whole section to explaining the enormous attraction of the Basque Coast, from Biscay to Labourd, for those who love surfing (and the sea).
Surfers – 16/3/2018 – USA
10 BEST SURF CITIES IN THE WORLD: BILBAO
With a mild climate, abundance of sunshine and central location among a 125-mile stretch of Europe’s best surf, Bilbao is the Basque Country’s largest and de facto surf city. With their golden sand, cliff-backed, beach breaks and penchant for nudity, the nearby beaches are a model of year-round consistency.
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Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country
