This isn’t the first time we’ve brought up Red Bull and its relationship with the Basque Country, as they’ve sponsored many activities here, including skating, jumping off bridges, and surfing.
Today, we’re bringing them up again thanks to a series produced and directed by Jon Aspuru, dedicated to the world of surfing in the Basque Country, and surfer Natxo González as the host and guide. There are three episodes in the series:
Bizkaia
Gipuzkoa
Olatu handiak
Basque Coast, map of the Red Bull surfing stories in the Basque Country
We loved everything about it, especially the quality and beauty of each episode. And we were thrilled to see the map of the Basque Country (which used the term “Bay of Biscay”), the music, the images of the people and the clips of the dantzaris, starting the first episode with an irrintzi, using Basque, the images of traditional Basque sports…and best of all, the Ikurriña on display. It would be hard to tell the story, as seen by those in the world of surf, of the Basque Country better.
We can’t help thinking about how this series will be watched by thousands and thousands of surf lovers, and the visual beauty that this sport invariably brings to the whole world. Over the years, we’ve brought you many references to surfing in the Basque Country, and we’ve always been convinced, and today even more so, that this is one of the best windows we have to show ourselves off to the world, right up there with gastronomy.
We’re truly lucky, since we have this beautiful coastline that’s so well adapted to this sport and, especially, for having surfers, both locals and tourists, who share what our country is to the world.
These three episodes can be found on Red Bull’s website, and the first up them has already been uploaded to YouTube.
In addition to congratulating and thanking them for their amazing work, we must also encourage them, Natxo González, Jon Aspuru, and Red Bull, to ad a fourth episode, dedicated to the Labourd coastline, where surf has a long history and is quite important (even economically). Plus, they could then talk about the epic Belharra reef.
We’d also like to mention how Biarritz has always considered itself the first place in Europe to start surfing, in the 1960s. However, we might actually have to go a bit further back, if we recall how Araban Ignacio Arana came back from Hawaii at the beginning of the 20th century with a couple of souvenir surfboards, which we’re quite sure were never meant to be a wall decoration.
We’ll leave you with the links to the three episodes and an interview by Jeremías San Martín with Natxo González which was published on the Red Bull website.
Dirigida por Jon Aspuru y producida por Red Bull Media House, Made in Basque Country es una realidad! La esperada película sobre la vida del joven crack del big wave surfing Natxo González, ya está disponible sobre estas líneas. El documental, que repasa las tradiciones autóctonas vascas y las olas más alucinantes de la costa de Euskadi con participación de leyendas, amigos y personajes representativos del surf y el deporte, está dividido en tres episodios que puedes ver sobre estas líneas.
