August 15th 2004, France, Picardie

Le Crotoy, another picturesque village in the Baie de Somme. There also is a feature that could have some playboating potential, but paddling is not allowed due to security reasons.

(pic from somewhere on the net)

The bay is constantly filled with sand due to the tides. At high tide the water comes in with sand from the see, at low tide the water goes out but leaves some sand behind.

To keep the port accessible for boats, they have created a big basin that fills with water at high tide, at low tide they let the water flush out violently. It's the speed and the power of the water that flushes the sand back into the see.

(pic from somewhere on the net)

On the picture above you see the basin at the top that's full of water, at the bottom you see the sandy harbor. The red and the bleu circle mark the outlets. There the sand is flushed away into the see.

Left here you see the main gate, that's the one in the blue circle. There's clearly marked that the gates open and close automatically without warning and therefore it's dangerous come nearby with any kind of boat or so.

Please note that this article is about wave spotting, checking out potential spots to go playboating. UNFORTNATELY these gates are NO PADDLING ALLOWED, all this is just dreaming 'bout some possible waves.
Unless perhaps somebody would organize something with the authorities to have a specific event at a certain time when it's save to paddle, just a hint hé. But I doubt these waves are of that quality that someone would go through the hassle to do this.

When at low tide the water starts going up, the water starts to flow into the basin forming a smurf surf.

The left gate.

The right gate.

The basin side at almost high tide, the water is still flowing in, but slower, so no wave.

The harbor side

And then suddenly, without any warning, the gates close automatically. And they stayed closed 'till 5 hours after high tide.

The bay at high tide, before the gates close.

(an older picture from March 2004)

Time to check le Tréport, dip your feet on the beach in Le Hourdel, have a drink in Café Les Regattes at the gates in St-Valery and finally 5 hours later...
  

It's almost low tide now, the basin is full of water, the level at the see side is a couple of meters lower. It's time to pull out the plug!

This is the little gate, marked on the second picture above next to the red circle.

The water rushes out into the harbor. Cool, another forbidden playspot. Looks great, start dreaming... Is it deep enough? Can I get in from the eddy? Can I get out?

Too violent? Dangerous? Too much fun? Too retentative? Really paddling not allowed?

Next up the main gate. I miscalculated and I arrived an hour too early. No problem, I 'll go off paddling on the flat water into the bay. But after a while, I thought, way not stay in the boat to experience the opening from the gates on the water. Ok, so after an hour I parked myself on the small sand bank about 200 m from the gates away, to wait there quietly.

But when the time was there, a siren started to scream above the town, loud, really louddddd. At low tide lots of tourists walk across the bay into the 'marees', they all returned fast to get back on shore. 'Cause they knew if the gates open, the water goes up. Only some slower ones didn't make it in time and had to walk all across the bay, a couple of km's.

In the meanwhile the siren goes on at least for a minute or 5 and lots of tourists start gathering at the main gate to witness the opening. Suddenly I'm not so lonely waiting quietly in the bay, but hundreds of spectators pointing there eyes at the guy in the little boat in the bay, oops.

So open the gate goes, a wave rushes into the bay, water goes up in seconds. I started floating fast, the water pushing me further on the sand bank that became flooded. Pretty uncomfortable, the water pushing you one way, the boat still touching the sand. I almost get tilted over, but succeeded to hang on.

Finally the water goes up 40cm in minutes in the whole bay and then stabilizes. It's still low tide at see. After while I pushed myself toward a deeper part and then paddled back to shore to take some pics.

It was definitely a cool thing to witness in from in the boat, but I don't think authorities would promote this.

The wave at the right gate, not retentative, probably too fast and too flat to surf, but nice to pass and get that zambezi feeling.

The left wave, definitely has a big whole, but would it be surfable? How deep? Not too retentative? Possible to get back in from an eddy?

Slip in at the left side? Lots of rocks and steel plates over there.

Les touristes... et les biches.

Right gate after a while the water level changes and this wave appears between the walls. Cool spot, no eddy.

The same at the left gate. Cool spot, no eddy.

I guess after an hour or two, most of the fun is over.

As the sun sets, it all flattens out and the fun is over, although... Somebody has gotten into trouble somewhere in the 'Marees', 4 fire department cars and an ambulance arrive at the gates.

Take there backpack and start running in the water towards the bay, at least a kilometer or so.

It sure takes a lot of time to get them somewhere this way. Hopefully that tourist, fisherman, hunter or whoever is out there is not in serious trouble.
The water is also going up in the bay.

But after 20 minutes the heli arrives, picks up the unfortunate and delivers him at the gates in the back of the ambulance. That's a whole lot of fun for all those tourist on a sunday summer afternoon.

Bye      
  Birdy