Professional American surfer Sebastian Zietz has been taking on the waves since he was just four years old. Now in his early 30s, he’s led a fascinating life and is rightly regarded as one of the sport’s best, having won a dramatic World Surf League event in 2016 and finished highly-placed in many more. Along with his wife, he also runs a gym on Kauai, the Hawaiian island that he grew up. His optimistic outlook on life has seen him dubbed the happiest surfer on the World Championship Tour.
Zietz was born in 1988 in Florida, but his parents moved to Kauai when he was a toddler. One of nine siblings, he grew up with an undiluted love of playing outdoors and on the beach. If life on the island seemed somewhat idyllic, it covered the fact that Zietz’s family were often homeless — he thought they were just camping. Having developed a promising amateur career, Zietz’s momentum stalled as a teenager when his parents moved the family back to the States to find a family inheritance, a trip that ultimately turned into a four-year wild goose chase. Zietz eventually split and moved back to Kauai, at one point living in fellow surfer Dustin Barca’s closet!
In 2012, Zietz qualified for the World Championship Tour for the first time, having won the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. In 2015, he failed to qualify for the tour, but he caught a lucky break when he was allowed into the 2016 tour after another surfer dropped out. He won the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro event in Australia and became established as a tour regular.
