Kiron Jabour. 19 years old. Born in Brazil, but now resides on the North Shore, right near the long rights of Laniakea. Four days ago, Kiron won the Quiksilver Pro WQS event at Puerto Escondido. Turns out, we’re sharing a house with him for the US Open, so, naturally we sat down with him and talked for five or ten minutes.

Firstly, congrats on the win. Can you tell what you were feeling? Except of course elation.

I was baffled, it didn’t actually kick in until I boarded the plane and was leaving Mexico. It a dreamy feeling. I wanted to believe it, but didn’t really believe it. Those are the waves I love. It was amazing.

Describe the setup at Puerto for the final. I heard whispers that about one in ten waves were makeable?

I dunno. The bars have always been the same every time I’ve been there. I first went there when I was 14. It’s the sort of wave that will turn on at one peak and then turn off on another. It’s almost like someone’s playing with a switch. There’s four peaks all going over 500 yards and off every ten minutes. You have to time it right with the 25 minute heat. It’s hard to compete there. It’s random.

Was it a special event for you seeing as though you’ve been there so many times?

For sure, cause it’s a place I can bail in the summer time that has big barrels. Definitely special for me.

Were you going in there thinking you may have been a chance? Or were you playing it by ear?

I was just trying to stay focussed. I wasn’t thinking about winning or losing, I just wanted to make it to the last day. Once I was there, I just focussed on getting big barrels.

I heard there was some heavy stuff happening around Puerto at the time. What sort of stories did you hear?

So much heavy stuff was happening. One week before I got there, three guys got shot on the beach in some mafia thing; a week before that some more mafia stuff happened and this girl was found washed up on the beach [supposedly with a bag over her head]; my friend Cristobal was sleeping one night when people broke in and stole two computers, his passport and money – all while he was sleeping. How heavy is that? Oh, and…two or so nights after that, the Mexican Quiksilver guy got jumped in the middle of the night and got his neck sliced. It was right near the jugular too. I have pictures [Kiron shows us pictures of a neck that's been filleted]. Heavy shit went down. He was so close to dying if it went the wrong way. The next day he was fine. Back to normal

Did any of that intimidating stuff affect your game plan when you were preparing?

No. I was just trying to not walk around at night and stuff.

Going back to the final of the event, talk us through the final?

I just came in from the semi and saw that everyone else was paddling out, looking for lefts. I paddled way down and looked for the rights. It just turned off where everyone else was and turned on where I was. I got an 8.9 or something and was paddling back out, but on the way out I got another one and got a high seven or something. It was a great feeling. I watched everyone else down the beach trying to get waves and saw them getting a few closeouts. I didn’t want to sit with the pack. Everything went my way.

What was the celebration like after?

I was pumped. I went to the Quiksilver party and raged.

What’s the plan for the rest of the year?

I’m going to do a few events, I want to be in a good enough position to get in the Primes for next year and just focus on all of the World Junior events too.