Adriano, congratulations!
I’m over the moon right now! So much
hard work, I’m kinda happy right now...
what have you got for me?
heat I had to win mine too. I had to get
in rhythm, I had to get in his rhythm. It’s
an honour to share a title race with a guy
you’ve always looked up to, who you’ve
always said you want to be like. It’s an
incredible feeling to survive a year like
this, and then come out on top. To put
my name on the trophy alongside my
idols; Mick, Kelly, Andy Irons, Gabriel
... man ... it’s an unbelievable feeling.
Teahupo’o, Fiji, these are all tough
waves. You can actually die in those
places, and especially here in Hawaii.
There was Owen Wright’s injury, and
Evan Geiselman’s accident before the
contest started, so I knew I had to work.
When the waves were 15-foot I was
surfing all day long, and it’s dangerous.
People were saying to me, ‘Hey! You’re
doing too much you need to relax,’ but
I couldn’t, my mind wouldn’t let me!
Finishing the year with the trophy I
know that my hard work has all finally
paid off.
Do you think people understand how
much you’ve dedicated yourself to this
dream?
It’s definitely not easy to win on this tour.
When you have people in the way like
three-time world champ Mick Fanning
and reigning world champ Gabriel
Medina, or someone like Filipe Toledo
who has won three events this year, I
say to myself, ‘I have to run faster than
those guys, I have to wake up earlier
than those guys, I have to do everything
better than those guys.’ A championship
is made up of tiny details. I was lucky
with the draw at Pipe, I’ll admit, and I
thank God for that. I didn’t have to beat
Jamie O’Brien, or Kelly Slater, or John
John Florence, which of course would
have made this all even harder. I respect
every single guy I compete against, no
doubt, but because of the way the draw Can you relax now?
played out Jamie was telling me, ‘You’re No! Tomorrow everything resets to
the man, take it over brah, you got this!’ zero and I need to get back on track to
do well at Snapper. I think I’m going to
Was winning the Pipe Masters an stay here in Hawaii until January. I want
afterthought? Surely all your plans to practise. There are things I need to
were based around the world title?
improve at Pipe. It will be hard breaking
I was only focusing on the title, which it to my wife, but at least now I have a
could have been over by round four or world title I think I can have more of a
the quarters. Every time Mick won a say!
Q&A with adriano de souza