Xavier Huxtable grew up surfing Bells, a wave famous for many things but not its barrels.
A home break without hollow tendencies proved to be no handicap for the lanky natural footer in the Nias Pro.
In his round of 32 heat, Huxtable opened his account with a ten. After a beyond vertical drop on a meaty eight-footer he travelled through a barrel that stretched across a bay of swaying palms, shook off the foam ball and exited standing tall. The board caddies in the channel delivered their best attempt at a standing ovation.
The Roman numeral for ten,X, neatly matched the first letter of Xavier’s name.
The commentators were quick to label him the X-man as they searched for suitable superlatives. Their raw responses were pretty good actually. ‘If you haven’t turned this webcast on you’ve kooked it’ someone boomed over the broadcast. It was refreshing to hear Indonesian and Aussie voices instead of Californian twang.
The waves were all-time at the original ‘ perfect wave’ – Lagundri Bay on the island of Nias. The wave found by Kevin Lovett, John Giesel and Peter Troy in 1975, made famous by the movie ‘Storm Riders’ and a Coke Ad, and thousands of red-eyed surfing tales. A wave remade by violent seismic activity in 2005. The earthquake was a tragedy, but many say Lagundri got even better after the renovation.
Mid-way through the heat Xavier had an eighteen-point heat total but later said he didn’t feel safe. ‘It still felt like the boys could gun me down.’ With a few minutes to go Xavier, who has also played elite level AFL and cricket, dropped into another stand-tall cavern and got blasted into the channel. After some delay the judges were unanimous with their tens.
The perfect heat had been surfed at the perfect wave.
The other competitors still alive in the third tier event felt like the world had been turned upside down. The CT in El Salvador looked good but nothing like this. Who was really winning?
Xavier Huxtable now had a double XX to match his name. After the heat you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face with a hard-pitched coconut to the head. “The most perfect waves I’ve ever seen in a surf contest… it was amazing,” he beamed beneath his ginger mop.
The commentator, Mark Clift, pulled three Beng Beng chocolate bars from his pocket as a prize – maybe the best event sponsor ever. He assured Xavier he’d just made history. Xavier wondered out loud if it was ‘Palmy night at the Torquay hotel’ and everyone would be watching from the pub. He was a day early but it didn’t matter, he could dine out on two tens at Nias for the rest of his life.
Finally Mark Clift couldn’t contain himself. He gave Xavier a bear hug and bellowed ‘You bloody ripper’. Pro surfing doesn’t get any better.
