Editor’s note: We bought Quinn a ticket to France Sunday, right in the face of an Air France strike, making our purchase more expensive than we’d like, but the show must go on and the youth must run and Quinn must experience. Since then he’s landed in France. He’s hanging with the Hurley crew, waiting for the rest of our squad to arrive from Italy, Indo, Australia and California. Let’s see what Quinn got up to on day 1. Bon appetite Pinny! —Travis

We flew all day yesterday. I left LAX with Hurley Team Manager Brandon Guillmette Sunday afternoon with 3 board bags, an additional 4 checked bags and 4 carry-ons. The first flight to Munich was minor. I had some sleeping pills and dreamed of France the whole way. The next flight to Bilbao, Spain was a bit rough with the jet streams or whatever, but the cute stewardess’ made up for it. Lastly we drove 2 hours up to Hossegor and arrived at the lake house shortly after the sun had set. I slept like a baby. At least until Luis, Miguel Pupo’s filmer and my roommate showed up and started snoring. I couldn’t block it out so I got up at 2 a.m. to find Michel Bourez also up, so we watched a French documentary on Tupac.

A few hours later, but still long before the sun came up, Kolohe, Nat, Dino, Noah Alani, Brandon and I headed to a café and downed a few expressos each. We checked the surf. We didn’t find any sandbars anywhere; so we got grindy and surfed knee high waves for longer than anyone’s supposed to. Still jet lagged we all went back to sleep when we got home. Woke up a few hours later hungry, so we went to a buffet, got lost on the way, and ate ourselves into another food coma. We did the only reasonable thing and went back to bed. Woke up a few hours later tired and got another round of expressos, checked the surf. We couldn’t even find a wave to grind, but we did find Taj. Best thing ever. Again we did the only reasonable thing and went back to bed. Woke up a while later, and ate ourselves into another food coma. They’ve all gone to bed and I’m writing this. But I’m somehow still really tired so I’m trying to finish this fast since I’ve rambled on a bit. That was our first day.

France is a lot colder than I thought. —Quinn Matthews