Dane Reynolds had been warning us about Parker Coffin for a while. Today's standout. Photo: Arthur Picard/Quiksilver

The Quik Fest Finds Its Nord Star On Epic Opening Day

La Nord cooks, Parker Coffin gobbles it up, and the beach crowds are still digesting it.

news // Sep 19, 2026

Words by Pedro Ramos

Reading Time: 5 minutes

TL;DR

La Nord swoons in her Quik Fest debut appearance
Parker Coffin spreads aura all over its big blue walls
Local boy Sam Piter isn’t fat, but sang convincingly before curtain call
CT crowds show up for non-CT event

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After a virtually waveless summer that every local has been calling horrible, a noticeable shift.

In the darkness of the early morning, a couple of kilometres inland, the ocean made itself heard. A sound that had been absent this far since spring.

Arriving at the beach, the air was still chilly and crisp. Out front, La Nord was large and peaky, confirming what the forecast had been promising. Hossegor’s premier big wave spot had turned on for its debut appearance at the Quiksilver Festival.

Contest director Miky Picon wasted no time waving the go flag, and by 8:00 AM the first heat was in the water.

As in previous editions, each day is assigned a theme. Today’s was “Biggest Turn.” Surfers pierced through a gnarly shorebreak for 40-minute, non-elimination heats. Not really surfing against each other, they had only one job.

This year, for the first time in the event’s history, the winning team will have their names inked on a €10,000 cheque.

Aritz Aranburu’s massive reo on a right that wouldn’t have looked one bit out of place on the North Shore of Oahu was the opening heat’s best answer to the brief and a significant score added to his team’s tally throughout the event — 7.00.

Aritz’s morning routine. Photo: Bastien Bonnarme/Quiksilver

An hour in, the beach was looking as packed as any CT could want. In the water, Kai Odriozola swung and went on a large left, laying into it with the pace he would on a QS 2,000 and the confidence and authority of someone who has looked well overhead lefts in the eye more than a few times. A mistimed end section closer kept him from going excellent, but it was a valiant effort in his first ever heat at the Quik Fest.

Kai is teaming up with his brother Hans, the event’s only sibling pairing and, at least by nomenclature, its most German.

Sharing the lineup with Matt Wilko and Michel Bourez, Parker Coffin brought finesse, timing and flow to the chunky yet clean lefts peeling north towards La Gravière. Among his nooners and swooping carves throughout the heat, it was a stylish tail drift into a closing section reo that put his team in the lead with an 8.33.

If you don’t believe us, go ask uncle Robbie. Photo: Romain Laffue/Quiksilver

Back on the sand, the first thing he heard was “I love your surfing,” followed by a handshake from none other than Robbie Page. “I gave it a 9.5,” the fellow goof said. “That made my trip right there,” Parker said of holding the hand of the former Pipe Master.

On paper, one of the most anticipated heats of the day was between Jeremy, Nate Fletcher, Clay Marzo, and Alana Blanchard. Early on, Jeremy found a left that linked up with the shorebreak and packed a thick closeout for giggles and a little show.

The event’s spirit animal kept entertaining his people on the sand until Bruce Irons, sporting a mohawk, walked down to the water’s edge. Aside from J-Flo, no other surfer today had warranted so many selfie chasers and autograph poachers. The memory of his final here against his late brother was not forgotten by the French, who have clearly been keeping tabs on those who have done well on their shores in the past.

It is Jeremy’s *boulangerie* after all. Photo: Romain Laffue/Quiksilver

In the water with BI, Coco Ho and Holly Wawn, Mikey Wright entertained the crowd most with an eye pleasing and (kind of) signature layback for some instant beach noise in a Romance language.

Joan Duru is only a year younger (37) than the combined ages of Milla-Coco Brown and Hughie Vaughan (38), raising the question: Was he surfing the three-person heat against one or two surfers?

The light onshore by then didn’t really smear the pretty picture La Nord had painted throughout the morning. Faces were still clean and size was never an issue.

It was Milla, the youngest surfer in the heat, who stood out from the boys early on and finished it with its highest scoring wave.

With plenty of swell and clean, offshore days in the coming days, the comp was put on hold after the final heat of the round.

Interviewed by the beach announcer while one of the day’s biggest sets detonated out the back, Jeremy Flores called the event “the Woodstock of European surfing.” The crowds streaming through the So Me designed temporary beach porticus suggested that the metaphor wasn’t too far fetched.

The event site this year sits just between La Gravière and Place des Landais, a place of cultural and debauched significance in modern surfing history. Home to Rock Food, Dick’s Sand Bar and, God forbid you’ve ever made it to Le Bakoua, the geography is perfectly suited to a seamless transition from watching people get tubed and/or rinsed to some responsible day drinking, dancing, and interspecies mingling.

Photo: Remi Bedora/Quiksilver

Sky Brown, Kash Brown (no relation), Francisco Ordonhas and Sam Piter made sure the day ended on a high note.

Kash, who won King Of The Groms in Hawaii in February, looked at ease and in tune with La Nord’s tempo.

Local boy Sam Piter treated big La Nord like a one-foot rip bowl. He tagged a section that most would have fled from, and got the day’s second-highest score as a thank-you present.

With a 7:30 call, it’s highly likely the comp will resume tomorrow. At night, when we tuck into our sheets, we shall say a little prayer for those souls who will attend the opening Ed Banger party and have to surf their heats tomorrow.

Bisous.