This might sound like hyperbole, but perhaps the biggest travesty in surfing right now is that there is no Quik Pro France on the WSL Championship Tour. And yeah, I know we just lost J-Bay, but still…spending an autumn in France has long been a right of passage and a quintessential trip for young surfers and my heart aches for those who haven’t experienced it. The best part was that EVERYONE went. Not just the guys on tour. You’d be sitting in a van covered in baguette crumbs on your way to surf sitting between Chippa Wilson, Andy Irons, Nathan Fletcher and Danny Fuller.

We all love France.

When my dental hygienist or someone from the Midwest sitting next to me on a plane asks of all the places I’ve traveled to surf what my favorite is, I usually shock them when I say France. But it’s the easiest question I get asked.

It’s well-documented in our little core surf world why France in autumn is where it’s at and I don’t need to burn your retinas telling you about the beachbreaks and sandbars in front of WWII bunkers as far as the eye can see, ever-changing and begging to be stumbled upon with no one out. The joy of pulling your boards out of a rented Peugot at a lonely sand bank you found is one of life’s peak experiences.

Let’s save the word count here as I could go all day, and I’ll just send you to go watch the France section of Modern Collective for a glimpse at the good livin’ that France in autumn is. Picture this: Dane Reynolds and friends sipping little green bottle pony beers and Old World red wine in the evening after launching themselves at massive air sections all day. If you’re young and exploring the finer things in life, you should make sure you become well-versed in this region in this season. The nightlife would be a whole other essay…but Dick’s Sandbar and Rock Food on the beach in Hossegor are always there to make it difficult to dawn patrol.

This week the WSL released the 2024 Championship Tour schedule to much uproar because J-Bay was gone, but more importantly, still no France and no Gold Coast events. Just as I was cracking my knuckles to write a rant about how peeved I am about that, we got a call from Quiksilver saying that they were bringing it back — as a surf festival. The Quik Festival France is a week of surfing, music, skating all happening right there in Hossegor.

Umm, yes?

You can imagine our surprise when on the same call they told us about it, they invited us to come check it out, like today! “There’s a Roxy party Saturday night for Caroline Marks,” they said. “You can’t miss it!”

So we won’t!

As you read this, we’re on our way (well, Brandon is because I am both injured right now and a dad to a 6-month old and we’re heading out there ourselves in a few weeks anyway…) — but Brandon, like the good surf documentarian he is jumped at the chance and is probably sipping an airport beer on his layover in Philadelphia right now before boarding his flight to the southwest of France to see what Quiksilver is up to. Stay tuned, this is gonna be good.—Travis Ferré