I met Zeke Lau when he was 12 years old. It was my first trip to Indo and it was his first trip to Indo too. I was much older but he was 12 and looked 8. He dragged a coffin of 4’11″s aboard and opened the bag the first day of the trip and discovered one broken fin in the bag. Tears welled up a bit and he fought them off as we all scrambled to let him know we’d do our best to fix it. And as odd as this is: I knew I was going to like this kid right then. He was so talented but had a young heart of gold. He had just recently given up soccer to keep pursuing surfing more seriously, and it’s good news for us all that he did. He’s go on to win NSSA titles and his power game and style are now unparalleled.

I feel like not a lot of people really understand him quite yet — as he qualified by the skin of his teeth thanks to Kanoa Igarashi — but this new vid helps a lot. He’s the tour’s new power source, and the chances of him being on there for a long time are very high. —Travis