There's no greater feeling for a surfer than a nice long ride.
In the ocean, that might mean 20 to 30 seconds. But on an odd
freak-of-nature wave that rolls up the Dordogne River in
Bordeaux, France, every month, it can mean 20 to 30 minutes.
It's called the Mascaret, and it's one of several tidal bores
around the world (created when extreme fluctuations in lunar
tides push a swell from the ocean upriver). I'd been hearing
about a hard-to-get-to bore in the Amazon and rumors of a huge
one in China. But it was the Mascaret that intrigued me most –
riding through French wine country in the festival-like
atmosphere that brings surfers, SUPers, and kayakers to the
Dordogne every month.  "The first time I saw the bore, I
couldn't believe it," says Patrick Audoy, who many consider to
be the French Laird Hamilton, and who has been surfing the
Mascaret and other bores around the world for 16 years. "It was
a surprise because the river is so far from the sea." The
Mascaret is a mellow waist-high roller that can be rid