Scary Good

I reckon the best thing about this year’s Vans Pipe Masters is that we get to see a bunch of surfers, who under ordinary circumstances would struggle to get waves at Banzai, in the best conditions of the Dec 6-20 window. 

We also managed to convince Craig Anderson to wear a jersey. 

That’s huge.

19-year-old Tahitian Eimeo Czermak is my darkhorse pick if the waves get scary big (Spoiler alert: it’s not looking that way currently). The guy is so comfortable in big, girthy vortices he experiments with variations of finger guns, arm folds, no grabs, lookbacks and laybacks. Importantly, all while looking quite handsome and unflappable. 

He’ll be in Heat 7 on opening day, against three absolute brutes in Billy Kemper, Mikey Wright and Eli Olson. 

Can the French Polynesian ride the wake of France’s World Cup victory over England to a W himself?