“We know nothing and can know nothing but the dance” - William Carlos Williams

My life is a search for beauty and for irony. For hidden waves. I want authentic. I want real. I don’t want all plastic. I want raw. I want nude and truthful, as much as any thing can be truthful. I want thought and beauty even when that beauty isn’t pretty. I want doubt mixed with wonder and awe. I want salty skin and hands sore from fighting or sailing. I want laughter. I want laughter and dancing to the sound of bombs—or is that the sound of waves breaking? I want a balance of extremes. I want kisses at dawn. Pinot noir and poetry. I want everything.

Everything is a windsurfer and waves, a pen and paper, a girl and a kiss, a glass of wine and a warm evening. Windsurfing is sailing on the level of the individual. Every session taps into the energy of Magellan or Odysseus.The life of a traveling windsurfer is the best life I can imagine.

Nowadays, the competition calendar provides a rough schedule for the travels of each year, but my focus is on the secret uncrowded waves of the world, and films, and poetry. I’ve met magic in places like Ireland, Madagascar, South Africa, Japan, the American North West, and Portugal. And especially my home: Hawaii.

I was born on Maui in the middle of an October night, and I grew up in the Haiku jungle, surrounded by books and the beach.

Quickly, windsurfing became a major part of my life, and every day after school, I windsurfed at Ho’okipa Beach, which is the Mecca of windsurfing. This allowed me, even as a kid, to be part of the core of the windsurfing world.

I was lucky that my heroes weren't just figures from magazines but actual people in my life. The guys who inspired on the water also gave me advice on the beach. I'm indebted to the encouragement from Josh Angulo, Mark Angulo, Levi Siver, Luke Siver, Kevin Pritchard, Matt Pritchard, Jason Polakow, Alex Mussolini, Josh Stone, Kai Katchadorian, Sean Ordonez, Keith Teboul, and the list goes on. My father, David Ezzy, is at the top of that list.

By 15, I lived my summers in Europe, mainly training in the Canary Islands and competing. It was at this time that I started doing my first World Cups. I was the youngest wave competitor at the time, and the World Cup riders became a sort of family.

My first year on tour (2005), I met photographer and cinematographer Brendan Pyatt of umi. He became a kind of mentor, pushing my interest in photography and film and encouraging me to bring the Hawaiian style of riding to the modern windsurfing world.

In 2007, I moved to the east coast to attend Princeton University where I studied English Literature (focusing on poetry) and any other course that interested me (lots of math and economics). In 2016, I was elected to the management board of the PWA World Tour.

Anyway, that’s a bit of me. I windsurf; I write.

 

results, ranks, and moves

Sometimes I compete; here are some results:

  • 1st Cabo Verde PWA World Cup Expression Session (2009)
  • 1st Hatteras Wave Jam (2010)
  • 1st Essouira Wave Classic (2010)
  • 1st AWT Cactus Cup (2011)
  • 1st World Performance Event Japan (2012)
  • 1st Defi Wind Rider's Match Film Competition (2013)
  • 2nd World Performance Event Japan (2014)
  • 5th PWA Aloha Classic World Cup (2014)
  • 3rd Aloha Classic (2018)
  • 1st Multivan German Surf Cup (2018)

Sometimes I’m the first to do a windsurfing move; here are a few:

  • No-hand pushloop (and pushloop tabletop)
  • 1-foot pushloop tabletop
  • Carving Taka (and 1-handed)
  • Hangover
  • Backloop-off-the-lip at Jaws