Good sand. Good swell. Offshore wind. The holy trinity of a European autumn day. Photo: Marie Pfisterer

Come For The Surfing, Stay Until 3 AM

The Quiksilver Festival presented by Swatch is about to start — and Kelly Slater says he’ll be there.

news // Sep 19, 2024

Words by Brendan Buckley

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Click here to read our interview with Quik Fest defending champion and host, Jeremy Flores.

Five years ago, Jeremy Flores won the Quiksilver Pro France and the mayor of Hossegor closed the road running through the heart of town for an XXL swell event of a party.

It was the perfect storm. Overhead waves. Light offshore winds. Sunny skies. Warm enough air temps. It was the weekend, and the beach was packed. The crowd very much favored Hossegor’s adopted son as he rampaged from the Round of 16 to the Final.

It felt like the town won with him.

“My favorite win was the Quiksilver Pro France,” Jeremy told us. “That event used to really mess with my head. It meant a lot to me, but I always did terrible. To finally win it on my last real year on tour, in front of my family, my friends, all the people that had my back since day 1… it was special.” Photo: Damien Poullenot/WSL

Thanks to COVID and a reconfigured WSL schedule, that was the last Quiksilver Pro France we’ve seen (for now). But it turns out you don’t need the Woz to get people together for some good surfing and great fucking times.

Hence, the Quiksilver Festival was born last year. The surf pumped. The nightlife pumped. Jeremy Flores pumped through tubes — he hosted the event, then won it. A flex like no other.

This year’s edition runs from September 21 – 29. As it’s about to kick off, we took notes for you.

This will be a different surf spot when the 4-meter/13 foot tide pushes in. Photo: Marie Pfisterer

How does it work?

This year’s surfers include Jeremy Flores, Kelly Slater, Bobby Martinez, Kai Lenny, Josh Kerr, Sierra Kerr, Coco Ho, Clay Marzo, Dimity Stoyle, Michel Bourez, Joan Duru, Macy Callaghan, Lucas Chumbo, Tya Zebrowski, Billy Kemper, Hughie Vaughan, Kauli Vaast, Jackson Dorian, Shane Dorian, Marc Lacomare, Noah Beschen, Milla Brown, Sam Piter, Vahine Fierro, Kyllian Guerin, and Annette Gonzalez.

That list includes an Olympic gold medalist, the GOAT, a big wave world champ, a future world champ, and Clay Marzo, who remains impossible to categorize.

The twenty-four surfers will be put into 12 teams using the most sophisticated artificial intelligence models in the world (pulling names out of a bucket).

Euro-lord, former CT surfer, and now comp director Miky Picon, will cherry-pick the best four days of the waiting period to run. It’s a no-loser format, meaning every team will surf every day.

This year’s comp site is Les Gardians, just south of Les Estagnots. “It’s a really fun bank,” says Miky. “On high tide, there are really rippable left and right peaks. Then it’s a long right out the back on low tide. If it gets big, there should be some crazy rights out there.”

Each round will have a theme like twin fins, best tube, best air, best turn, best combo, depending on the conditions. 4 surfers of different teams will share the line up. Each surfer will keep their top wave from each round, which will factor into the team’s total on the leaderboard. Ex: If both surfers on the team get an 8, they’d get 16 points on the board for that round. That’s just math, baby.

After four days of surfing, the team with the most points wins and the mayor will have to decide whether or not to close the streets.

Not only a hard paddle out, but also a hard act to follow. XXM shit from last year. Photo: Marie Pfisterer

Will there be waves?

The first few days of the waiting period look great.

Well, great for visiting folks from [insert land-locked European nation of choice] in militant-looking vans who become agents of chaos at any lineup they occupy.

Maybe not so great for the world’s best.

There’ll be small, mostly clean waves for the first few days. A solid swell shows up on the 24th or 25th, but it might bring wind with it, according to some models.

“It’s been changing every day. The forecast looked really bad last year, and it ended up being really good,” says Miky. “The end of the waiting period might be really good this year — it’s like 50/50 at the moment. But I think we’ll at least end up with some really rippable waves.”

We’ll keep you updated on IG.

What else is on?

A fuck load!

They’ve set up a music stage at Place de Landais, just south of the La Graviere. The opening night will feature concerts from Ch0se and Skegss. The closing night will feature a lineup of Club Azur DJs. There’s a skate comp. A shop signing. Film premieres, including Stab Edit of the Year entries from Kael Walsh and Milla Brown. And a string of parties all week.

Saturday 21st: Ch0se, The Last internationale, and Skegss (written skegss not skeggs)” for Saturday.
Wednesday 25th : Concert in the city center with Gurls and The Lottery Winners

All of it is free.

Scope the full agenda here and keep an eye on this IG.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Quiksilver (@quiksilver)

How can I watch?

No webcast this year. Does that sound like bad news? Well then let me remind you that a study on the entire 2019 WSL season revealed that live-action only accounts for about 4% of a heat, and the average wave score that year was 3.03.

In other words, it takes a daunting amount of screen time to watch a good wave or two in real-time.

Now here’s the great news: Baguette TV is back, hosted by Lungi Slabb and Stab High broadcast star Hughie Vaughan! The best surfing. The funniest moments. All killer. No filler, unless you fancy your baguette with butter, ham, and cheese.

We’ll have daily updates right here when the comp runs, and keep an eye on Quiksilver website or on Quiksilver Festival Instagram page for latest news.

À bientôt !