His biggest professional win to date, DVZ, had an underdog victory after climbing out of a combo situation in the Final and pulling ahead of heat frontrunner Zeek Lau. DVZ became the first international surfer to win the QS3,000 Vans Pro presented by HIC in Hawaii when he defeated a trio of Sunset Beach standouts. In between celebrations and smoothies, we caught up with Davey to suss out the vibe.
Sum it up for us, you made the final and took the whole damn thing!
Ya, the whole day was pretty crazy, I ended up surfing four heats and caddied for Dyl a couple of times so spent most the day in the water. I was comboed for most of the final and then managed to get a couple of waves under priority to take it out. It all felt pretty surreal!
You’re the first international to win it, that must be special and it’s a Vans event?
It’s definitely pretty epic to be the first non-Hawaiian to win the comp. The local guys are so good out there so to have had some of the best in the final was pretty intimidating.
See you got your wings the other day, what feels better the win or that?
Getting my Wings a couple of days before leaving for Hawaii was an epic feeling. Winning this comp wasn’t really something I was expecting. So to have won was pretty crazy. I can’t really say which was better but they definitely were too pretty big things to have happened in my life.
How big were the celebrations, must be good to have a strong SA contingent there?
(Laughs) Celebrations were mellow. We were all pretty fried from the whole day in the sun! I just took it easy and ate so much food. The support for the SA guys was so sick! They were there for every heat and to have them all at the water’s edge when I came out was really cool.
What’s the game plan for the rest of the season?
Just going to cruise on the North Shore for the next month to hopefully get a couple swells for Pipe and Backdoor.
Honestly, everyone back home was talking about it, all my surf WhatsApp groups were lighting up. Could you feel all the love from back home?
The love from back home was insane!! A bunch of people stayed up to watch my heats and send support which was awesome!
