Kolohe Andino interpreting of a nouveau classique, France

Fin shows are old-ish school now. New Classics, if you wanna give ‘em a handle. This clean example was taken on Kolohe’s first morning in France at a sandbar maybe five clicks from Hossegor’s main beach. It ain’t the prettiest part of the Atlantic Coast. Vacation apartments of various hues of brown are clustered around a vast carpark at the bottom of the sand dunes. There’s a skate park with cobbled bitumen instead of smooth concrete. A ‘70s-style carnival with rotating clown heads and merry-go-rounds is just behind. A water park with the world’s most officious lifeguards is behind that. But the waves here, for whatever topographical reasons, can fire. “The day before had been perfect offshore tubes and everyone got up early to look for sandbars,” says the photographer Quinn Matthews. “Just after sunrise a fog bank came through from the ocean that was so dense it literally looked black as it rolled in. It took about 15 minutes to pass although the light onshore breeze stuck around. Then Kolohe, Taj, Nat, Yadin, Kanoa Igarashi and Leo Fioravanti headed out right below the women’s contest. The wave didn’t look like much from the shore but when you got into the water you could see some four-to-six-foot righthand ramps bending around the nice sandbar. Kolohe came in and out of the water three or four times, bringing out a new board to test and find the magic one. He didn’t head in after he started using this one. Kanoa, Leo, and some of the other King of the Groms kids were attempting big, technical airs. Then Kolohe turned on and was dropping these tail throws with a near perfect completion rate and put them in line.”