Patty Gudauskas rides the sunset, France

Now, before we bounce to Portugal there’s a few loose ends that need tying up. This is something that must be addressed: There is magic in a French sunset and on this day, Patty Gudauskas danced with that magic! When the Quik Pro, France was called off at 5pm after a few hours’ holding time on the second last day, John John Florence (who’d been sitting around waiting for his quarterfinal) wanted to head south and search for waves. He and photographer Damea Dorsey found a fun-looking spot and ran into Patty G, who fell to Joel Parkinson in round three but knows better than most how to enjoy a culturally-rich coastline. Patty was, unsurprisingly, ready to surf. “We drudged over the sand dunes and the boys got into the lineup,” says Damea. “Slater must’ve got wind of the potential froth fest and he ended up slipping into the line up as well. The boys had to deal with a crowd of no-etiquette frothers and it brought the froth-O-meter to a much lower level. The waves ended up looking better from the beach and not so great in person. But, after nothing much happened, the sunset decided to steal the show. Then Patty squirmed past a few of the masses and threw this thing up into the pink fluorescent backdrop and almost made it stick.” Hey, he might not have landed it, but that’s fine – this is performance art.