Hossegor, Day One: Four Hours At The Quiksilver Festival presented by Swatch
A leisurely warm-up.
The first album is always one written in hunger, before the managers arrive, before the tour bus reeks of cigarettes, spew, and cheap groupie perfume.
It’s usually followed by diminishing returns. A follow-up written on planes and hotel lobbies, under the relentless pressure of knowing a judgmental audience is waiting and ready to pounce on the first misstep.
Year zero of the Quiksilver Festival couldn’t have been more successful if it tried. Beachbreaks were as good as they’ll ever get, and the only variation was in size, not shape, perfectly suited to the format and each day’s predefined “themes.”
After a week of near-perfect conditions, the sandbars around Hossegor failed to deliver today. Even the best bands sometimes play a bad set.
This morning, contest director Miky Picon pressed the trigger on the proverbial starting gun for the third edition of the festival, aka the Le Jeremy Flores Invitational. The theme for the day: “biggest turn.”
The format is simple, deliberately so. No cutthroat tactics nor priority kerfuffles, just a straightforward probing of what each surfer can do when you strip away the extras: one wave, one turn, one potentially high score. And then, naturally, you head to the afterparty.
Noah Beschen put up the day’s first near-excellent score, a 7.5 for a turn that I missed, though by the sound of it, the rest of the beach didn’t. He surfed alongside Kai Lenny, who somehow seems more impressive than our conventional minds think he should be on small, playful waves, as well as Stab Highway alumnus Kylian Guerin and Europe edition winner Zoe McDougall.
Today’s theme seemed almost tailor-made for Conner Coffin. A bonus occasion to unleash Coach Gerr’s elusive “secret turn.” On his first scoring chance, he launched into a full-bore carve, carrying speed all the way through. An outstanding turn on what was, at best, a mediocre wave with little scoring potential, but still the kind of approach that made the whole beach (and his opponents) take notice.
Remember Ace Buchan? He looked as sharp as ever on a delicious little unstickered quad. Surfboard nerds would have also loved following Lungi Slabb, strolling down the beach with a Burch Picklefork underarm, a board that suits his silky smooth rail game, though he struggled to find enough open face to fully apply it.
And because one Central Coast goofyfoot isn’t enough, Wilko made an appearance, family in tow, sans the surprise wetsuit reveal. His forehand layback was close but not quite there, otherwise it could’ve easily been a contender for best turn of the day.
Vahine Fierro stuck to the rights, surfing them like she was taking scalps on the Challenger Series. Her body was in Hossegor but her mind must have been in Ribeira d’Ilhas. Another of the morning’s oddities was seeing Jai Glindeman on a traction-free compact quad, choosing mostly lefts. How good is seeing non-comp surfers comping every now and then?
By lunchtime, the beach was packed with civilians “trying to breathe in the same air” as their favorite surfers, as eloquently put by event announcer Ben Mondy.
Event owner Jeremy Flores (whose documentary Dos Au Mur premieres for free on Monday) served up a club sandwich to a raucous local crowd, while Eithan Osborne took to the air on lefts that were slowly replacing the rights on the higher tide. Coco Ho, meanwhile, still found some long, rippable ones for her forehand.
Marco Mignot surfed with all the confidence you’d expect from a WSL Rookie of the Year in front of his home crowd, and Marc Lacomare, who won the event last year, did visible damage on the lefts now closer to the beachgoers in the high tide, and posted up the day’s top score — 7.57. Super teen Tya Zebrowski showed incredible maturity and consistency but failed to deliver a desirable one-turn wonder.
A sudden gust of south wind ultimately forced Miky Picon to call the event off for the day, postponing three heats to the next day of competition. And when is that, you may ask? As per Monsieur Picon, “Tomorrow we will have a call at 9:00–9:30 am. If we start, we have to do the 3 last heats and the next round. If not, we won’t start.”
The official event-opening party takes place tonight at Place des Landais in Hossegor, with cloudy skies and a 100% chance of excess.
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