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| Le Touquet in northern France started life 180 years ago as a speculative housing development to which a whole range of sporting facilities were added as an extra sales attraction. No less a figure than Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the inventor of the
modern Olympics, was hired as Le Touquet's sports director. Sporting activities of all kinds were soon available and in one in particular, Le Touquet has remained supreme: sand yachting, which is essentially high-speed dinghy-sailing on wheels.
Surfing, the other classic beach sport, has two world centres: Bell's Beach, Victoria, Australia, and North Shore, Hawaii. Surprisingly, the Australian scene is the more commercialised. The two big Aussie surfer brands, Rip Curl and Quiksilver, began as cottage industries but are now major international manufacturers. The nearby town of Torquay is where both are made and Bell's is where their goods are put to the test. The low cliffs around the beach have viewing platforms where thousands can be accommodated for the big championships. Hawaii's facilities are much simpler, but it does have one advantage: Banzai Pipeline is the world's most famous surfing break, where all those miraculous pictures are taken of surfers riding the tube.
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