Could a Longboard World Champ Surfer Win the Vans Pipe Masters? (Video)

The 2023 Vans Pipe Masters is nigh.

And the contestants are pouring in with profiles, courtesy of Vans, to get a better picture of the field. (See Frankie Harrer, Balaram Stack, and Coco Ho.)

It’s a diverse crowd, no doubt, and a different, perhaps controversial format. But there’s no doubt we’ll be watching. And the latest profile comes from Jacksonville, Florida native, world champion longboarder, and fishing world record holder, Justin Quintal.

Last January, Quintal caught the wave of his life out at Pipeline, which absolutely influenced his invite into the 2023 Vans Pipe Masters. It was a bomb. And he got kegged.

But Quintal is most known for his longboarding – so, how does he correlate that to riding a gun out at a wave like Pipeline?

“When you’re noseriding,” he said, “you’re essentially just riding the pocket. So, it’s a very similar feeling to barrel riding. It’s just on a smaller scale. Instead of standing there in the tube, you’re standing on the nose, floating through the section.”

As for his outlook on Pipe:

“Pipeline is my dream wave. I feel like it scared me a lot when I was younger, and maybe the more I get to know it, maybe scares me even more. It’s big and blue. It’s everything you look for in a wave. It’s just right there in one place.”

And back to that January wave:

“The inside of Pipeline sounds like a diesel engine, just rumbling and grumbling. When I got that one big wave, I could hear everyone yelling and whistling on the beach, and it sucked all the sound in. That was really loud and crazy. One of the craziest experiences.”

How about his approach to the end section at Pipe?

“Just hang ten, soul arch through it.”

Sounds a bit like Gerry Lopez.

The Vans Pipe Masters will run December 8th-20th; stay tuned.

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