For nearly 10 years, the world’s elite surfers from men’s professional surfing have landed each year in France in September to compete in the Quiksilver Pro France, the only French event and the first European leg of the elite ASP Men’s World Surfing Championship (10 events in total).
The stars of the shortboard Kelly Slater (USA), Mick Fanning (Australia), Taj Burrow (Australia), Dane Reynolds (USA), and the new wave represented by Jordy Smith (South Africa), Jadson Andre (Brazil) and Owen Wright (Australia), not to mention the Europeans Jérémy Florès (France/ Reunion), Michel Bourez (France/Tahiti) and Tiago Pires (Portugal), will absolutely electrify the famous Landes beach breaks rightly considered by one and all to be world class spots, especially at this time of year when the big swells are common and promise ideal conditions.
This year, the show featuring top names of international surfing will be spiced up by a race for the title of World Champion that will be incredibly intense and suspenseful, the introduction of the new ASP regulation restricting the elite World Tour field to 32 athletes, without forgetting the implementation of new judging criteria, in effect since February that support aerials and innovative manoeuvres ...
But not to worry, if the Bay of Biscay remains true to its reputation, a festival of tubes is to be expected. The musical line up for the 2010 edition of the Quiksilver Pro France is just as exciting. Quiksilver is proud to present in concert JAMAICA, the French duo produced by one of the founders of Justice (Xavier de Rosnay) who have been shaking up the electro / rock scene since the release of their debut ‘No Problem’.
Jamaica will perform live at the free concert at Place des Landais, Hossegor on September 25 as part of the Quiksilver Pro France 2010 events.
A GREAT BIG PLAYGROUND
The towns of Seignosse, Hossegor, Capbreton in the Landes region, not to mention Saint-Jean de Luz in the Basque Country, are all likely to see the best surfers in the world show up on one of their beaches, at any time between September 25 and October 5. And coming in close on their heels, the inherent infrastructure to support the organisation of an international event, followed live by millions of web users and thousands of spectators from every continent in the world. With a fixed site to be determined closer to the competition, the Quiksilver Pro France is also equipped with a mobile facility that can instantly move the competition venue to the beach which offers the best conditions within a radius of 80 km. A logistical and human challenge, which is driven by the golden rule of the event: to provide for the best conditions for the best surfers. And all of this to be accomplished while demonstrating the greatest respect for the environment.
ORGANIZATION OF THE QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE
A window of 11 days is granted to the organizers by the ASP to organize the event whose actual duration is only 3 days. Within that interval and subject to weather forecasts relating to surfing conditions like swells, the competition director, the Landes native Charley Puyo, must effectively put together all the pieces of the timing puzzle in order to launch the series at the right time so as to allow the surfers to take advantage of the best waves and express themselves in the best possible manner.
NEW ERA, NEW STATUTES AND REGULATIONS
The Quiksilver Pro France 2010 will be a date to remember because this will be the first edition of the event in the new era of the ASP World Tour. With the field narrowed down to 32 competitors (instead of the 45 during the last five title rounds of the circuit), the world elite now labelled “ASP World Title Race” will pull out all the stops to score big points. Indeed, after the initial cut down to 32 athletes at Trestles, only the top 22 surfers of the ASP World Title Race at season’s end will be in a position to maintain their spots amongst the ranks of the elite for next year. Moreover, changes in judging criteria that henceforth favour and promote, among other things, new school moves, should also result in more exciting performances and spectacular shows.
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE, AS IF YOU WERE THERE...
This year, the Quiksilver Pro France has once again established live production facilities for high quality, high definition programming, to allow millions of Internet users to follow the entire event live. In addition to the competition results in real time, commentary will be provided in many languages by specialists and
pro surfers, with other features including the ‘Heat on demand’ - best of the best waves of each series - and the distribution of ‘broadcast’ images for television feeds.
JAMAICA IN CONCERT AT THE QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE
After Jack Johnson, Keziah Jones, Luke, El Presidente and Yuksek whose live electro performance delighted and excited more than 10,000 people in 2009, this year Quiksilver is presenting the electro / rock group JAMAICA live in a free concert at Hossegor. JAMAICA (formerly Pony Pony), a duo comprising of Antoine Hilaire and Florent Lyonnet, familiar faces within the Ed Banger connection (electro label founded by Pedro Winter former manager of Daft Punk) have assumed his rock and pop influences as well as an affiliation with leading stars of the made in France electro genre such as Phoenix and Justice. Moreover, none other than Xavier de Rosnay (Justice) has produced the excellent debut album from Jamaica, ‘No problem’. Visit Place des Landais, Hossegor, on Saturday, September 25, 2010 for the live concert performance by JAMAICA presented as part of the Quiksilver Pro France 2010 events.
THE INTERNATIONAL FINAL OF THE QUIKSILVER KING OF THE GROMS
While the world’s elite in men’s shortboard will come together in France to participate in the 7th event of the ASP Tour, the cream of the crop of surfers 16 and under will simultaneously compete in the Quiksilver King of Groms International Finals. The top competition for this age group category for over 20 years, the event will bring together the 18 best young international surfers who have qualified through the circuit’s various qualifying events held throughout the year. Jeremy Flores, Danny Wills, Taj Burrow, Mickey Picon and most recently Maxim Huscenot and Gabriel Medina have all won this prestigious event that has become a rite of passage for anyone
aspiring to a career in professional surfing. Since he won the European Final in Zarautz on July 30th in front of 16 years old boys, Italian prodigy Leonardo Firoavanti - 12 years old ! – will be the one to look at during the International Final.
