Candidate of season 3 of the star Academy, Édouard Algayon had found his way back to the castle as a musician in the orchestra for the return of the competition. Sunday August 20, 2023, The Parisian reveals that the Girondin finds himself at the heart of a controversial project. Indeed, the musician plans to build a giant surf park in Canéjan, in Gironde, and he managed to obtain a building permit from the town hall. Named “The sliding academy”, the park “could accommodate 200 to 300 surfers per day in two pools of 13,000 m2 in total containing 20,000 m3 of water, capable of creating waves over 1.30 m high.” If the project is intended “energy self-sufficient” with turbines powered by “photovoltaic electricity. It undertakes to ensure only the first filling, half, with drinking water from the network. Then, the closed-circuit basins will operate with rainwater” relay The Parisian. A project that does not pass with environmental associations.
An online petition for the abandonment of the project
The region was placed in a state of natural disaster in the summer of 2022 due to drought. So for the inhabitants, water is considered a very precious commodity. They therefore see this project with a bad eye. “It will not be enough because it does not rain as much as in 1980. It is above all drinking water that will be wasted”, locals reported Parisian. “Surfing is in the ocean! No need to create new uses for water when it will become more and more precious”n says Lionel Cheylus, spokesperson for the NGO Surfrider. The latter, with the Sepanso association and the collective No to club surfingfiled a legal action at the end of July 2023. The town hall, meanwhile, said that“no objective element, falling within the planning regulations, could justify a refusal to sign the permit”. An online petition asking for the abandonment of the project has already collected more than 54,400 signatures.