Growing up on the North Shore as a Ho, was it just assumed that you’d be a pro surfer someday?

I didn’t want to even really be a surfer until I turned 9. Before that I was all about dirt biking—I had a sponsor or two for that when I was like 6 or 7—and then before that I just wanted to be a detective. But one day, my best friend, Cheeseburger, got me to go surfing with him and I just loved it. We surfed together every day after that. We’d just walk down to the beach at like six in the morning and, seriously, stay till, like, six at night.

So it wasn’t really your family that even got you started? There was no pressure?

No. Dad would want to take me surfing but I was all about dirt biking. And then when I started surfing, he decided to just let me do it by myself. He’d come down and watch every now and then without me even knowing. I’d come home and tell him about all my waves and he’d be like, “Yep, those were good ones, but what about the ones where you did this?” And he’d tell me what I needed to do to get better. He was always right. It’s still like that. Sometimes I’ll think he’s wrong, like he’ll tell me to ride a certain board in a comp or something, and I’ll be like, “Are you serious?” But I listen to him because he’s right nine out of 10 times.

Now that you’re starting to fill those shoes, do you feel any pressure to live up to the legacy that runs in your family?

I’ve never really stopped to do the math. I’ve always been so impressed by what my dad did that I never really expected to do that well. But now, as I grow older, I want to do what he did. I’m really shooting to win a Triple Crown. And I definitely want to get on tour. I want to make a big push on the ’QS this year and I also want to surf Pipe and Sunset and Haleiwa as much as I can. But I’m just having so much fun that I don’t really feel any pressure. Sometimes, at night, I do, but then it goes away and I fall asleep and then the next day I’m back to surfing and having fun.