Forget the hand of God – what about the hand of Sea-Bass! Pic: ASP/Cestari
“I feel amazing and it’s going to be hard not to have a drink right now, even though I’ve got another heat later,” quipped Kauai’s Sebastian Zietz [aka Seabass] after winning the Vans Triple Crown of surfing yesterday. He also became only the second ever non-WCT surfer to win the prestigious Hawaiian series.
Although it happened in the shadow of a monumental world title race, Seabass’s victory included one of modern surfing’s finest sideshow moments.
As soon as the announcement was made, Rico Jiminez and a crew from Kauai were waiting on the beach with a giant green gun that they insisted Seabass stand on while they chaired him to the podium. Seabass played right along, mimicking surf moves as he rode a six-foot human wave past screaming fans. It was the most ostentatious podium arrival ever but great for surfing because instead of being ‘cool’, having fun was the primary consideration. As he literally hopped off the board on to the stage the Kauai boys led a chant of “Sea Bass, Sea Bass.” “Lucky the Kauai boys are nice and buff and got me down the beach safely, ” the lanky natural-footer later chuckled.
Seabass made special mention of Andy Irons, after the presentation ceremony. “It’s definitely special having it here in honour of Andy. He’s my hero and favourite surfer of all time. He use to wake me up at 4 a.m. just to go surfing and I was just a grom stoked to be going surfing with him.”
Seabass surfs his way up the beach on a finless magic carpet. Pic: Zenla
For his win, Seabass earned a $100,000, a $30,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle and a $10,000 custom Nixon watch.
Talking to Tracks about the new ride the notorious prankster stated, “ I’ll try not to crash and kill myself before the CT even starts.” However, apparently his Kauai brethren have already insisted he sell the bike.
When we asked Seabass if the secret to his success was knowing when to have fun and when to take things seriously, he replied, “Definitely. In my first couple of years on the WQS I messed around and was drinking before my heats. Now I know you should get drunk the night before your heat, or the night before that. Ha Ha… I’m just going to have a good time, take the bull by the horns and hopefully win some heats … I’ll turn on the little professionalism in the post-heat interviews and stuff. If you see me anywhere else, I’ll be cracking jokes and dancing up a storm.”
We’re not sure if Seabass had that one beer between heats or not but everything he did for the rest of the day turned to gold. He comboed John John Florence and Dane Reynolds in his next two heats and strolled straight into the quarter finals of the Pipe Masters. He also won plaudits from Slater later in the day. “I don’t think a lot of the air guys have a good carve game but Seabass can really put it on rail and carve a good line.“
With his Triple Crown win and WCT qualification, Seabass has well and truly landed in the top tier of professional surfing, and given his momentum right now, none of the world title contenders will want to come up against him at Pipe.
Brought to you by…
Book your flight now – HERE
