"Go big or go Hugey!" — Nicolas Dazet. Photo: Romain Laffue/Quiksilver

Hughie Vaughan Prematurely Ends Contest Final Twice In A Few Months

Hughie Vaughan and Kash Brown win the 2026 Quiksilver Festival, and nobody’s arguing with the result.

news // Sep 27, 2026

Words by Pedro Ramos

Reading Time: 5 minutes

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Quik Fest fatigue is a real ailment.

Around the comp site, everyone from surfers to organisers to media is coming down with a little flu. It’s going around, some say. Almost certainly unrelated to eight consecutive days of a gluten based diet, immoderate alcohol intake, and a sudden, collective adoption of a polyphasic sleep cycle.

That routine seems to have suited Juliette Lacome, who put up the highest score of the morning’s first heat. Aritz Aranburu, seen at last night’s apotheotic closing party at Place des Landais followed suit by taking the highest score of this heat with a carve unanimously applauded in the competitors’ area.

Today, judges were once again scoring single best turns.

Zoe McDougall, Coco Ho, Jack Freestone and Justin Becret all put together eye pleasing exhibitions, though all their teams were pretty much out of contention by this stage.

We’d all be a little happier if we surfed like Coco Ho. Photo: Arthur Picard/Quiksilver

To make leaderboard shifts more appealing, surfers in teams ranked lower surfed four 30-minute heats earlier in the morning, while the final four heats featuring surfers still in contention ran for 40 minutes.

Perhaps the most impressive feat of those morning heats was Matt Wilkinson’s sprint to the water across soft sand, considering his turbo cowboy form over the previous seven nights.

In the first of the 40-minute heats, Mikey Wright got busy early and found his best wave for a forehand grab-rail carve and a semi layback hack on the end section. A 6.67, which wasn’t enough to move his team up the leaderboard.

Best gal, Zoe McDougall. Photo: Arthur Picard/Quiksilver

Teaming with Joan Duru, Marc Lacomare stayed in contention with a 7.87 for a massive frontside hack on a walled up left, not far off the 7.47 his teammate had already earned. That combination put the all-goofyfoot Landaise team in first.

Clay Marzo was finally completing his laybacks, to no significant scores. Noah Beschen launched into the air on his forehand for an 8.20, not quite enough to bring his team from fourth to first. After his heat, he gifted his board to a local grom. A slightly overgrown grom saw Noah’s backup board and asked if he could have it because he had no money to buy one. Noah’s filmer told him he was old enough to get a job and buy his own.

Noah “The Benevolent” Beschen. Photo: Romain Laffue/Quiksilver

Nothing was settled until the final two heats hit the water, both stacked with contenders: Kash Brown, Michel Bourez and Parker Coffin in one; Hughie Vaughan, Jeremy Flores and Eithan Osborne in the other.

Kash Brown spent the heat failing to connect and finish his turns, until a 6.93 for a stylish frontside hack gave him just enough to drop his weakest score from day one (the format tallies the four best individual scores) and get his team back to first.

Kash Brown blew his King Of The Groms $15k prize on an early 2000s Land Cruiser. The extra $5k should cover the Ferrari Boy(z) makeover. Photo: Romain Laffue/Quiksilver

Before the final heat hit the water at La Nord, Parker Coffin held the highest individual score of any surfer in the event, an 8.30 for a club sandwich he stole from Jeremy.

The super final opened with the field botching airs and hacks, until Hughie Vaughan landed a big air reverse in front of a heaving crowd for a 9, prematurely wrapping a neat bow around a $10k wad of cash, in similar fashion to his perfect 50-point air at Stab High Virginia Beach in May.

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Mathematically, Jeremy Flores and Michel Bourez were still alive. J-Flo resorted to club sammies and layback hacks to win the judges over. He failed to ride out of either.

Noah Dupouy paddled out mid-heat to join teammate Sam Piter in the water, landed an air reverse on the left and got the day’s highest score, a 9.03, to put his three-man team in second. No one really understands how the Quik Fest format works. No one’s complaining either.

In tribute to the fairest, most deserving winning team, Sam Piter and Jeremy took to jet ski assisted step-offs on the bigger, pointbreak-style lefts breaking outside and a little south of the comp bank. The speed at which they kicked out of one wave and into the next, unbroken one, made for excellent live viewing: a wild wild (south) west approach to a contest.

Sam Piter landed one best airs of the day and we still don’t know if it was even scored. Photo: Arthur Picard/Quiksilver

Hughie and Kash were the clear standouts, and the most watchable pair at La Nord all week. Hughie finished with 34.83 points to take top male performer, and Zoe McDougall led the female contingent with 23.71.

After four successful editions, the Quik Fest has dug its roots deep into the dunes around Hossegor, fast becoming one of the most singular, legendary invitationals in surfing.

A daily recap can’t do it justice for anyone who couldn’t make the trip. A webcast might fix that one day. Until then, a flight to the nearest airport and a summer rental will scratch that itch better than anything else could.

Merci et au revoir!