Heairii Williams has dirty feet, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. They are coarse, calloused, swollen, filthy and wonderful. Like most people in the world, Williams walks most places he goes, sometimes with shoes, sometime without. The result of such shoeless journeys have left him with something more akin to a hoof than an actual human foot. But it’s these feet that have earned him one of the most coveted and sought after seeds in professional surfing. You see, Williams is a local Tahitian surfer who won the Von Zipper trials about a week back and has since just taken out Kekoa Bacalso in the opening of round of the Billabong Pro.

So what makes Williams so surf smooth? Without those goliath peds that seem to give hims such an uncanny sense of balance, Williams probably wouldn’t be here today. Perhaps you’re wondering why I’ve just dedicated 160 words to talking about someone’s feet? Well, for one, I was trying to be original, and two, I don’t know what else could possibly make Wiliiams surf so damn well here at Chopes…cause it aint his boards…the man’s only got a one-board quiver.

“Yeah, this is my only board,” he says to me and points to an aqua-toned 6’0” Tokoro. So to get this straight, Williams surfs the same board whether it be macking Chopes or playful Chopes. Which leaves me with one divine revelation: If it aint the boards making his surf so good, it must be his feet. —Jeff Mull