Heff
through. We both have to make a living and we’re fighting for the same thing. If it was him and I man on man in a heat, it’d be the same thing. Competition is not going to ruin a friendship, we put it all out there and leave it in the water. Kanoa, on the last day of the Pipe Masters, were you pumped up and motivated to see your goal through? Or feeling the pressure?
W
Well, I wasn’t expecting to compete that day. The night before we were cruising at Lei Lei’s, and I went to bed at 1 am, woke up and the waves looked bad. I went back to bed and got the text, started getting pumped up and surfed in the heat with Kelly and Jordy and I made it through, and I was thinking ‘wow I didn’t even think we were going to surf and now I’m into the quarters’.
Talk to us about the Jordy Smith Quarterfinal heat, Zeke. All Kanoa had to do was beat Jordy, who has having an excellent winter season, having already won the Vans World Cup. If Kanoa did that, your lifelong dream would be fulfilled. I was sitting on the couch, the same place where I was sitting when Kanoa won his heat earlier, and I didn’t want the cameras to see my poker face. I saw Jordy get his first wave and I don’t know if I fell asleep or blacked out or what but the next thing I know I was jumping and cheering. I don’t remember watching Kanoa’s wave live. I was tripping, shaking and I couldn’t control my breathing. Kanoa got his second wave and I said this is really happening and when the horn rang, I was so stoked for him, he was looking at me pointing. It’s crazy when you rely on your