Zeke Lau has been on the cusp of ‘CT qualification for the last three years now. This year may be the year for the 23-year-old Hawaiian. Photo: WSL/Poullenot/Aquashot
Ezekiel Lau embodies the Hawaiian spirit. In his traditional tattoos, in his calm presence full of effortless aloha, and in his powerful, flowing style on waves of all sizes. He’s a surfer we’ve been eyeing for over five years, wondering when — not if — we’d been seeing this powerhouse on the WCT. After three straight years of barely missing the big show, Zeke is now in his best position to qualify to date, and he is one hungry Hawaiian. We caught up with Lau at the Quiksilver House after his early exit from the Hawaiian Pro to talk story on stomaching losses, the resurgence of Hawaiian surfing greatness, and the road ahead.
Talk me through your pre-heat focusing.
These events may be a little different just because of the situation I’m in with the qualification and pressure of being at home and performing in front of my friends and family who aren’t there at all the contests. It almost makes me a little more nervous because I want to do good when they’re there. But mostly before the heat I’m trying to clear my mind and get myself centered on what I want to see happen in the heat, and get rid of a lot of the self-doubt that tends to cycle in as you get closer to your heats.
Your first heat in the Hawaiian Pro was the last heat of Round 3 on the fourth day of the window, the last heat of that day. Did all that time let the feeling build up more, giving you more to get over before your heat?
It was crazy, I felt like I was waiting forever to surf my heat…having that much time [to think] really made it difficult and it gave more days for the conditions to change and have a lot of things to prepare for. So it kind of made it a little more difficult in the end, but that’s what surfing is. You’ve got to be pretty much prepared for anything. Mother Nature changes pretty much instantly.
Thinking back to how well you did at the Azores, were you feeling a lot less pressure then?
Yeah, it kind of makes it a little easier to zone in because there’s less things going on. These events, that’s kind of the name of the game: there’s so much stuff going on, so much commotion and build-up from the year that’s about to end. Guys are winning world titles and guys are on the cusp of requalifying or qualifying or falling off. So everything can kind of come crashing down or you rise up.
You have the advantage of having grown up surfing the Triple Crown breaks. Does that level of comfort balance things out at all?
Definitely. It helps me out with preparation and just knowing these breaks gives me a little bit more confidence. But again, Mother Nature always seems to throw a curve ball at me, so I’m learning to be a little more open to the conditions and being able to react in the moment. That’s what I learned from Haleiwa: not to prepare for a certain type of condition because it’s going to change and it can change really quickly.
As a top competitor, conditions are the factor that balance the field out for other athletes surfing against you. With wave pools coming into play, do you think that takes away a part of what surfing is by balancing out the conditions factor?
I’m not really sure. I’ve done a wave pool contest once, [Redbull Unleashed 2015] in England. It was a cool concept, but I feel like it turns it into a totally different sport. It almost makes it like skating, where there’s a set ramp and you get your runs and you have a certain amount of runs to do your moves and that’s it. I think there’s good and bad things about it but it’d be way different than competing in the ocean and dealing with the different elements. I think that’s what makes it challenging and fun to watch: to watch some of the best surfers in the world just jump in and embrace Mother Nature for what’s going on right then, I think that’s the coolest thing about it. When the waves get big then small then big again, the person that wins the event is able to overcome all the obstacles. And you take out the physical aspects when you’re in a wave pool: paddling out, getting caught inside, the current, reading the ocean…having all those elements make it a more spiritual thing as well where you’ve really got to be in touch with what’s going on with Mother Nature and inside yourself.
Zeke. All smiles at the 2016/2017 Eddie ceremony. Photo: Kyveli Diener
You went to a very culturally connected school system here. How much Hawaiian blood do you have?
I have 25 percent.
How do you think going to Kamehameha Schools and getting that cultural education shaped you as a person and as a surfer connecting with the water?
Going to Kamehameha helped me get in touch with my cultural side of being a Hawaiian. They were brought up to perpetuate our culture and be proud of being Hawaiian, so I felt like it was really fortunate thing for me to be able to go to that school and learn all those things and then balance that out with my career as a surfer to perpetuate my culture and travel around the world. Surfing is pretty much Hawaii’s gift to the world.
Speaking of perpetuating Hawaiian culture, we can move on to the man who’s all up and down the Kam Highway right now — where were you when John John won?
I was in Brazil doing a 6,000, the Hang Loose Pro. I watched the Portugal contest at home and then went to Brazil and we watched the whole thing when he came home and the parade and it was just awesome to see everyone on the North Shore and Hawaii being so happy for John, and I think it was big for surfing in Hawaii. No one’s really taken this sport seriously here, which is kind of weird because everyone does it, but it was more like a hobby.
What was it like on the island immediately after he got the title?
I was just watching it at my girlfriend’s house. It was late at night or early in the morning, some weird time and I was jet lagged, I’d just gotten back from Europe so I was just awake. My girlfriend was sleeping and I was just watching it alone freaking out, not sure how to act because I’m supposed to be sleeping or whatever. Then I woke up and came to the [Quiksilver] house and surfed the beach the next day and I just remember running into everyone and everyone high-fiving and having conversations and laughing, being stoked for him, so that was sick.
And then there was Keanu and Carissa winning in France, two of your Kewalo’s lineup homies and a huge win for one of your best friends, Keanu. Tell me about that from your perspective.
I was in France for the first part of the contest and I remember watching his first couple rounds and he was looking good. He got flustered in one of his rounds and I just told him to relax and have fun with it and just enjoy where he is, just getting into that zone of doing good and feeling good. Then I came home and I was trying to catch the first Pipe swell, so I was driving up really early in the morning watching it on my phone as I was driving out, then once he made the final I had to pull over and watch the whole thing because I was just tripping out. I remember I tried to call him right after it happened, but obviously he didn’t answer. But Leo was right there and I was FaceTiming Leo and we were talking about it, I remember I was just screaming. I ended up calling his girlfriend and his dad, I was just tripping out. It was a sick moment, I was super stoked for him.
You and Keanu are like the quintessential best friends. How did it all begin?
We’re the same age — his birthday’s in June, and my birthday’s in November. We were maybe 7 or 8 surfing Waikiki. My dad dropped me off, his dad dropped him off, and we met at the beach somehow and ended up running into each other in the contests and kept running into each other and just became friends. It’s funny because he’s really short and I’m really tall, he’s kind of hilarious and not shy at all and I’m more standoffish, so it’s pretty funny.
You mentioned how big these wins are for surfing in Hawaii — what do you think younger generations are thinking watching a North Shore local win the title and two Kewalo’s surfers from South Shore dominating a CT event halfway around the world?
I think it just gives them another route. If they find that surfing’s kind of their outlet and that they want to pursue that later in life, it’s available and possible for them to do. I know it was kind of hard for me to go to school and pursue this career. I remember a lot of times when I was doubting if I was even going to be able to do this, so my whole goal with this — and that’s why it’s good to see people like John succeed — is to show the younger generation that it is possible. You don’t need to come from this crazy amount of money to actually get through with surfing and the sport is there. I feel like now with more people being successful from Hawaii…there’s actually a route for them to take. It’s hard when you’re kind of the first ones doing it and you’re trying to figure it out. I feel like for a lot of younger Hawaiian generation kids, the local families, are just kind of goofing off if they’re going surfing and just hanging out with their friends at the beach — it’s in that realm of things that they’re doing where they’re being kind of rebel-ish. Maybe when they see more kids from Hawaii doing good in this line of career it’ll open their minds up a little bit to where it’s more of a serious thing and an actual career to pursue.
Which up and coming Hawaiian surfers are you really stoked on right now?
There’s a bunch of kids…Jackson Bunch has been ripping. And that little Hurley kid Eli Hanneman. Josh and Seth [Moniz] have been an inspiration to me, just growing up surfing with them as little kids and now seeing them hit the same ranks I’m trying to hit, it’s pretty crazy. I think they’ve pushed me just as much as Keanu has pushed me. I love that, and I see a lot of the younger kids look up to Josh and Seth a lot because they’re the next generation. I’m kind of the older generation where I looked up to Freddy P and Jason Shibata, so it’s kind of funny to see the generations push and who are the next kids coming up. It’s pretty cool and inspiring and gives me a little kick in the butt that I better get going.
You’ve been on the QS since 2011 and you’ve come really close to CT qualification the past three years. Can you describe that feeling of being right there for so long? What’s your dialogue inside?
My dialogue is just spinning out of control (laughs). If I could tell you everything that’s going on in my head it would just be chaos. But I think that’s the whole game of it is learning to control your thoughts and your feelings and your emotions in these high pressure situations. I’ve been saying the reason I came so close the past three years is I do good in Hawaii but I didn’t do anything during the year to back it up. Now it’s the opposite: I was able to get some results during the year to come into Hawaii with a really high seed and high possibility to do something here. That was my goal going into this year and I think I achieved that. So to be here in Hawaii, where I’ve grown up my whole life, surfing in contests with a chance to qualify and being in a good spot is great. I’m in the learning process of controlling my emotions and my thoughts and how I think and approach these pressure situations. I don’t think there’s a doubt that I’ll make the CT one day, but it’s just being able to enjoy the process and enjoy the way I get there. I feel like the more I want it, the more I push it away. So I’m learning to control that and just learning all these new things about myself as an individual personally and also as a competitive surfer. It’s just a lot of learning.
Give us a glimpse inside the Quiksilver house at Pipeline.
Oh my god. First of all, we’re sleeping in bunk beds. It’s pretty much just a full camping house but it’s really fun. We all love the vibe here, we’ve been waiting for it all year. I remember when we were in Europe just saying how we couldn’t wait to come to Hawaii and just the vibe here. We play music, watch the sunset, and there’s just sick waves out in front of the house, and then at night everyone cooks dinner and washing the dishes, everyone interacting with everyone is great and just puts everyone in a great mood and positive, joking around. We love to just keep it light and have fun. We’re doing the mannequin challenge over here…it’s pretty funny. And throughout the year we’ve made a little series of webisodes called Snaketales: every event we film all the funny moments on our phones or just film heats and show the funny stuff that happens and throw it up online. We’re not trying to make a kine level movie, it’s just a video scrapbook for us to look at and we share it with the world.
How do you stay positive after heat losses?
I’ve got to take my losses like I take my wins. I don’t want to be a sore loser, especially when I’m home and the kids are on the beach, my family’s on the beach, they’re stoked to be there and came down to watch. So I don’t want to be salty when I come in, especially when they’re stoked. I feel like it’s what I owe to them for coming down, so I don’t want to put on a bad attitude. Inside, of course, it’s eating me up, but I’ve got to brush it off and move on to the next one. There’s always another contest. I feel like that’s the key to the QS as well: if you really let your losses beat you up, that’s something that can really kill guys on the QS, just letting losses get to them and then not being able to grow because they took the loss so hard. I just learned that you’re going to lose way more than you’re going to win in this sport and once you’re able to learn from your losses and move on the more successful you’ll be.
In the week following our interview, Zeke had some momentous achievements come together: he hosted his first ever Makahiki festival honoring the season of the Hawaiian New Year, basking in his beloved local culture and sharing it with his friends, family, and community. Oh yeah, and he was invited to surf in the 2016/2017 Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau Invitational, which was saved at the last minute to the joy of wave riders and surf fans around the globe.
