Only Combos Allowed In Hossegor
We’re one day out from crowning the winning team at the Quiksilver Festival presented by Swatch in Hossegor.
After a lengthy breakfast, Miky Picon pressed send. A short dispatch to light up a few dozen screens still facedown on bedside tables around Hossegor.
Good morning guys
We will start at 11:15 am
30 min heats
Waves are small, it’s clean
Theme is “Combo”.
You can ride any board you want.
And so the horn went off for the first five-person heat of the morning. The beach was packed from the start, naturally. Big fans of le surfing, the French.
Hossegor local Noah Dupouy eased into the day’s theme and put on a head-turning performance, as he did on the first day of the festival. Michel Bourez followed up with power and flair, opting for lefts mostly. The rights were there, but less interesting.
The heat between Ace Buchan, Clay Marzo, Zeke Lau, Al Cleland, and Jaime Veselko was one of the busiest and most entertaining of the day. Though Mikey Wright was in attendance, he has been willingly giving his spot to younger Quik team riders — Rocco yesterday, Jaime today. That, or he’s running a child labor camp to keep the paychecks coming in with minimum effort.
Competition was briefly interrupted for a paddle-out to pay respects to Bern Page, WSL’s Global Safety and Security Director who recently passed away. The beach, so loud a moment before, fell completely silent when the human circle in the lineup finally closed for a last send-off.
When competition resumed, Noah Beschen hucked himself into a massive frontside full rotation. One of the best airs of the entire event. But the score came back 6.83, because today was about combinations, not single maneuvers.
By the end of the day, Thomas Debierre found a rhythm that looked almost mechanical in its consistency, an 8.17, highest score of the day. A feat he also achieved yesterday. Bede Durbidge would’ve been proud. In the same heat, Marc Lacomare and Sam Piter reminded everyone that Hossegor was their backyard.
European surfers have run the table so far, three teams sitting at the top of the ranking. The only break in the pattern: Zeke Lau, teamed up with Leonardo Fioravanti, holding onto first place with enough margin to make tomorrow, the final day, a solid chance to take out the whole thing.
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