Belharra, Large wave surf spot off Corniche Basque, France

Belharra is a reef and surf spot about 2.5 km off the Basque coast between Socoa and Hendaye, northwest of the bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The shoal lies 14 to 18 metres deep and consists of a rocky plateau with a step that forms an overhang. When a heavy swell meets it, a wave 8 to 15 metres high rises and breaks; on light-swell days the same plateau is a dive site.

Belharra was first surfed on 22 November 2002. The wave breaks only rarely, sometimes not at all in a given year; it ran on 28 October and 22 December 2013 and on 7 January 2014. In 2011 Benjamin Sanchis rode a 20.4-metre wave there. Before a jetty was built at the harbour, the wave sometimes swallowed ships moored at Socoa.

In Basque, belharra means "grass" and itsas-belharra means "seaweed". The wave's name has spread beyond the Basque surfing community and taken on a connotation of modernity and dynamism: it has been given to a clinic in Bayonne, to companies and to a class of defence and intervention frigates (FDI).

Getting close to the wave requires a jet ski, but spectators can watch the action from the clifftops of the Corniche Basque in Urrugne. The best viewing conditions occur during stronger autumn and winter storms when the seas are at their most dramatic.

The underwater plateau creates waves that rank among Europe's largest, rivaling those at Nazaré in Portugal and Mullaghmore in Ireland. This rare geological formation has made the spot globally renowned among adventurous big-wave riders.