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It’s hard to imagine a more ideal surfing upbringing than growing up as a homeschooled grommet in the Mentawais. Sasha Smirnov was born in the Ukraine but has spent pretty much his whole life living between the Bukit peninsular in Bali and the Ments. He was taught to surf by his single mother, Maria, who is also a keen surfer, from the time he was two. In direct contrast to Sasha’s new age Indo surfing lifestyle his only brother Daniel has just signed up to fight for the Ukrainian army at seventeen-years-of- age. One is hunting hollow bombs in surfing’s Disneyland while the other will be dodging real ones in an eastern European war zone – it’s a bizarre juxtaposition of life journeys. 

Meanwhile, Mum is stuck in the middle. Unable to get back to the Ukraine to see her eldest son because of her Russian passport (despite being born in the Ukraine) Maria is left with no other option but to follow the conflict from afar, completely powerless over any outcome involving her son or country. What she can do, is take Sasha surfing.

At only ten years of age Sasha is already able to ride big waves, get barrelled and do little airs. Right now it seems he has the potential to be extraordinary. His hero is ‘All Day Dylan’ whom he’s spent time living in the Mentawais with (google him).

But the most obvious comparisons appear to be with Andy Irons. Not only does he look just like a young AI, he shares the same sort of competitive intensity. Although his mother talks about a free surfing future for her son, after watching Sasha compete at a big junior comp at Half Way this weekend I’m not so sure.

Not only was he winning heats against ripping teenage surfers in the under 16 division, when he lost he was utterly inconsolable for a fair while afterward. Just seemed like Andy incarnate to me. I’m guessing we will see a lot more of Sasha in the future. I mean he even has the famous surname synonymous with vodka and pro surfing – Vladimir Smirnov created the vodka brand and later changed it to Smirnoff. Between 1969 and 1977, The Smirnoff Pro on the North Shore was one of the most prestigious pro surfing events in the world.    

As his mother busies herself looking after him, she prays for her eldest son’s safety and a return to peace in a homeland where she has lots of friends and loved ones on both sides of the border. The whole situation is tragic and really seems to reinforce just how lucky people who are able to ‘just go surfing’ really are.