Balaram Stack, backside fin-ditch, France

“Balaram was over here for the Quik Pro trials,” says Ryan Miller of New York’s finest, Balaram Stack. “But he didn’t make the main event.” To most, this’d be a real bummer. But all the clouds have silver lining and, really, Balaram is now a young surfer from New York, breezing around a French surf town with no real obligations. Well maybe a few… “Now his sole duty is to pillage the waves, red wine and women of France,” continues Miller. “Not a terrible consolation prize.” Stab agrees!

But, what of the contest? The reason our world currently has its collective eye focused on a the Landes coast? “The waves fell apart and the weather set in so the comp was called off,” says Miller. “But with plenty of swell forecast there is no need to rush though it.” Good things often do come to those who wait, but Hossegor is temperamental and does as she pleases. And so we wait.