Watch: Expert Level Chandelier Negotiation From A Kid Too Young To Buy A Lotto Ticket

You may recall Koldo Illumbe as the charmed trilingual teenager whose father is an OG Mentawai boat captain.

You may also remember him from our Stab High stint at Lakey Peak.

In the above edit, he pools his aero-tubular dichotomy of resources, piecing together a collection of mirror-clean reef maulers and knee-crunching fin throws which resonate far beyond his 17 years. 

“We filmed most of this video last year,” Koldo tells me. “We got really good Greenbush in February, with no one out, for like two or three days — after that, we realized we should probably do a clip.”

One of the standout waves in the edit is the quintuple-chandelier, sideshore tunnel which Koldo somehow navigates at 1:20.

When I ask him about it, he laughs, “That was crazy actually, pretty funny story. It wasn’t a big swell, and there were a few boats there, plus a couple of guys from the HT’s resort. We were sitting in the water for probably an hour, without a single wave coming through. I had priority, and I knew I had to wait for a good one. I saw this set and was like ‘oh my god.’”

“As soon as I took off I pulled in, I didn’t even think about it. And then I couldn’t really see anything — I thought there was no way I was making it. I was so surprised when I got spat out — and then, that was the only wave all day. Nothing else came. All the boys were freaking out. I was happy with that one,” he grins.

After recovering from a minor ankle fracture sustained in Iceland last winter, Koldo has now just received his invite to the Vans Pipe Masters.

“My first time surfing Pipe was last winter. I only got like two good ones,” he says quietly.

That’s two more than the rest of us.

Click above to watch Roots, and envy an adolescence well spent.