Justin Quintal

Justin Quin­tal is a tal­ented surfer from Jack­sonville, Florida. Seem­ingly com­ing from nowhere, Justin cap­tured two first place fin­ishes at the Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invi­ta­tion­als. So who is this mys­tery man and what makes him tick? We caught up with Justin to learn more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Well I grew up in the South­east, Florida, and South Car­olina to be exact and spent most of my time surf­ing when there were waves or fish­ing in the marshes and the inter­coastal when there weren’t.

When did you get your first surf­board?
When I was four. My dad shaped me my first board. Up until then he would push me in on his surf­board. So when he made me a board that was actu­ally “Mine,” I was super stoked and I always had it close by.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood up on a surf­board?
Hon­estly, I don’t remem­ber the first time I actu­ally stood up on a surf­board. I just remem­ber always being stoked out of my mind when I was in the water and never want­ing to leave.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young boy?
My Dad.

Who/what inspires you?
What inspires me are new per­spec­tives and expe­ri­ences as well as peo­ple that draw their own lines in and out of the water. Peo­ple who are will­ing to let go of all inhi­bi­tions and go for what it is that they are pas­sion­ate about and not nec­es­sar­ily what soci­ety asks of them. Surf­ing peo­ple who inspire me are Tommy Witt, Joel Tudor, Jared Mell, my best friend Dylan Andrews, Chris­t­ian Wach, Har­ri­son Roach, Chippa Wil­son, and Craig Ander­son… just to name a few. Out­side of surf­ing, it would be George Orwell and David Bowie.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
The great­est thing I have learned in life is to be open minded, hum­ble (but con­fi­dent), and to mea­sure wealth by the amount of expe­ri­ences gained in this life­time rather than by mate­r­ial goods.

What are you most proud of?
My chest hair.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
The Mal­dives. The sheer beauty and per­fec­tion of the waves and sur­round­ings. When you are out at sea on a boat for two weeks, the sky gets larger and the stars get brighter. Never have I felt so insignif­i­cant yet tranquil.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing means free­dom to me. It’s the best way for me to express myself and gives my life bal­ance. Surf­ing has shaped me into a more lib­eral per­son. It has given me the oppor­tu­nity to travel and to be able to meet so many cool people.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Trav­el­ing and meet­ing out­landish individuals.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
This is def­i­nitely a hard ques­tion to answer because I sup­pose it is all rel­a­tive to your pref­er­ence and inter­pre­ta­tion of surf­ing. But Joel Tudor is open­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for long­board­ers right now with his Duct Tape Invi­ta­tional Series. His series is one of the only pub­lic plat­forms for peo­ple to view pro­fes­sional logging.

In the short­board realm, I think the new school guys like Chippa Wil­son, Craig Ander­son, Matt Meola, Evan Geisle­man, Kalohe Andino along with a slew of other guys are ush­er­ing in a whole new generation.

What is your cur­rent favorite board? Your favorite surfspot?
My board model with Ricky Car­roll – the thing is insane! 9’7 with a 10′ pivot style fin, sur­pris­ingly respon­sive and it noserides for days!

My most recent favorite spot was a lit­tle left in the Mar­itime Provinces I surfed a cou­ple of months ago.

What’s your favorite meal?
Sushi or really hot Thai!

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
La Femme, The Growlers, The Black Keys, Old Crow Med­i­cine Show, and Ray Charles

What are you most grate­ful for?
My health

What’s next for Justin Quin­tal?
Get­ting weird and try­ing to gain as much expo­sure as pos­si­ble. I am going to start a film project in July and I also got invited to the U.S. Open, so right now those are the two things I am look­ing for­ward too. Oh and the next Joel Tudor event is going to be in Spain this August (edi­tors note: inter­view was con­ducted ear­lier this year)!

Photo cred­its: All surf­ing images cour­tesy Chris Klopf. Por­trait by Nick LaVec­chia.