Gets hollow and holds it. It is heavy shorey when it's on. It is steep at high and can find excellent top to bottom breaking waves both left and right on a pushing tide. Tends to back off and dump with real power at high tide. Recent problems with pollution are supposed to being sorted. It gets crowded and is popular with locals, give them respect and enjoy the early morning when even in summer you can get it on your own. An excellent place to visit and surf as with so much of south west France. The best combination of waves and sea temperature are in Sept/Oct and April/May.
Surfed Bidart twice now, once early august '97 and once early september '98. Water temps are nice this time of year and holds a decent size wave up to 9 feet. Wouldn't recommend this to learners unless confident in your swimming ability as the rips can get pretty strong and there are some rocks near the break.
Rivermouth has some nice peaky waves - keep your mouth shut when duckdiving if you're near the river, probably not the cleanest. Plage du centre gets bigger and also more crowded especially at weekends, when longboarders can get a bit greedy. Watch the rocks and rips (and some of the anglers!) but overall very enjoyable to surf. Boardshorts are an option if you're from the frozen north like me.
This is a class 'A' wave when it works. Have surfed it on a number of different occasions, each time being as good as the last. Also a lot of fun to be had in the sometimes unpredictacble shorey. Again, keep an eye on the tidal flow, it moves in and out very fast and can catch you un-aware.
coldswell.com