As Daddy Josh Kerr keeps on winning heats on the men's side!

We live in the age of nepotism.

In the NBA, current superstars Steph Curry and Jalen Brunson stand on the shoulders of their daddys Eddy Curry and Rick Brunson; Lebron ‘Bronny’ James Jr. gets more coverage than all his fellow draft prospects combined, despite being a fringe round two pick at best.

In Hollywood, nepo babies Dakota Johnson and Nicola Peltz Beckham enjoy professional opportunities that correlate directly to their parents’ fame and fortune, regardless of any dramatic skill they may (in Johnson’s case) or may not (in Peltz-Beckham’s case) possess.

In music, Miley Cyrus traded for years on the genes, upbringing and public profile of her now less-famous father, Billy Ray.

Politics (Trudeau), business (Trump), modelling (Hadid) – you name an industry and there, near the top, will be a scion fed with a spoon of silver and aided by the velvet-gloved hand of nepotism.

So too, in surfing.

The name Sierra Kerr has been on surf fans’ lips for years now, despite her being just 17 years old and so far lacking the competitive success enjoyed by fellow prodigies Erin Brooks (16) and Caitlin Simmers (18).

The reason?

Well, her hard-won prowess in the air and in heavy tubes to be sure, but the pre-Kerrsor (to borrow phrase from the title of her latest edit) to that prowess was surely the support of her certified ripper of a father.

Josh Kerr needs little introduction to the ardent surf fan, but let’s introduce him anyway.

He came onto the scene in the mid 2000s as the World Air Champ pushing the boundaries of the sport with such innovations as the Club Sandwich and clinching the last ever Airshow Series title in 2005.

Two years later he made the ‘CT and demonstrated his skill in waves, little and monstrous.

After a decade competing at the highest level Kerr hung up his singlet and began a new chapter as a freesurfer extraordinaire, twin-fin advocate and shrewd entrepreneur. Shortly thereafter the first clips of daughter Sierra started to drop and Kerrzy’s other major role as daddy to two young groms took centre stage.

Let us set the scene for Sierra Kerr’s triumph: Day 5 of the Nias Pro, one of the major events on the Asian/Australasian regional Qualification Series. The preceding day was of historic proportions, and the swell had built slightly overnight – not as perfect or consistent perhaps, but a foot bigger on the largest sets of the morning.

The first heat of the day saw the men resume their heroic efforts – Cooper Davies dropped a 16.70 heat total, Made Joi Satriawan 17.50, Shohei Kato 18.03. All threaded thick righthand pits for well-deserved 8s and 9s.

Then the women’s round of 32 started, and the high scores stopped.

Most of the women relied on turns, leaning their step-up boards into the fat tapering walls that follow the barrel section. Forays into the tube were all too brief, often limited by an inability to knife the critical takeoff. Willow Hardy and Piper Harrison pulled in deep, made it out and were rewarded with a 10 and a 9.70 respectively. No one else posted anything better than a 7.83 all round.

It was clear – these were not the ferocious ladies of the CT who made history earlier this year at Pipeline and Teahupo’o, putting reigning Men’s World Champ Filipe Toledo to shame with their heady mix of tenacity and skill. I wondered what barrel maestro Caity Simmers would have authored, had she been in the water.

Then Sierra Kerr stepped up, swung hard and knocked two perfect pitches right out of the park.

Her 10 point ride was a classic. The first wave ridden in the heat, none of the other women wanted to go near it. As they paddled towards the wave and over it, Sierra turned, stroked deep and dropped hard into a thick barrel. A few mini pumps and she was out, looking back at the shoreline.

“I paddled deep because everyone was wide, no one wanted it,” said Kerr after.

 

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Showing perfect composure, Kerr waited 23 minutes for her next wave, a skillful pump-to-highline tubride followed by a solid grabrail cuttie, netting a 6.17.

All her competitors were firmly in comboland, and Kerr had no more work to do.

Except that she did.

With just 19 seconds left she pulled into another six-foot drainer, pumped hard three times and came out nodding like a bobble head on your dashboard as you go over a particularly sharp speed bump.

9.87+10 = one of the highest ever heat totals by a female competitive surfer, a landmark effort that backs up her fans who claim she is the future of women’s surfing.

Daddy Josh was, of course, sitting in the channel about to start his next heat.

Both Kerrs made it through the rest of their matches for the day and have the chance to make the first ever father-daughter event win pairing  in any sport when finals day unfolds.

The lesson?

Don’t hate on nepotism just because the silver spoon isn’t in your mouth. Enjoy it. Revel in it.

Parenthood is a beautiful thing, and so is prodigous excellence.

So much the better when one is entwined with the other.

Jack's daddy Trev, also his coach, told The Australian in 2010 that he was “hand-rearing a racehorse”.

The jaw-dropping physique and rodent good looks of the man dubbed by surf fans as Australia’s John John Florence have again come into relief following a photo shoot for the Australian franchise of Gentleman’s Quarterly. 

Jack Robinson, a twenty-six-year-old daddy of one, Zen, and husband of model wife Julia Muniz, appears in the magazine alongside fellow Australian surf Olympian Ethan Ewing whose baby face and “overwhelming ass” have long thrilled surf fans on both sides of the gender divide. 

 

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The mesmeric pull and fascination the world has for the two men is evident in a long profile by GQ, although it is Jack Robinson who steals the show and, as previously noted, his surf-honed deltoids deliver a raw sexuality generally only noted in big-dicked black guys and rarely seen in white males. 

Let’s read a little. 

By the time Robinson was 12, he was already being called the next Kelly Slater. At that point, he had won the West Australian state championship in the under-12 division—when he was just eight—and made the finals in the under-12, under-14 and under-16 divisions. He had surfed 10-foot waves at Hawaii’s famous Pipeline, could land aerial moves some pros couldn’t, and had signed a deal with Quicksilver before he was even a teenager.

But underneath the bleached-blond bowl cut and big smile, Robinson was dealing with the pressure from his talent, from his sponsors and from his father Trev, also his coach, who told The Australian in 2010 that he was “hand-rearing a racehorse”.

Examine the full spread, as they say, here. 

It isn’t the first time the world has thrilled to Jack Robinson’s “awesome abs and belly button”.

Two years ago, Jack and wife Julia appeared in a cover story for London-based fashion magazine Man About Town, channelling the iconic 1983 Bruce Weber shoot of a then teenage Laird Hamilton and movie star Brooke Shields. 

Unfancied C-grade surf contest delivers as surfers rain ten-point rides in perfect six-to-eight-foot waves!

Ah, the Qualifying Series. The endless succession of four-man heats, populated by so many unknowns. The crappy conditions, the janky webcasts, the ‘who cares?’ of it all.

This is competitive surfing at its most disposable, unremarkable, instantly forgettable.

Forgettable, that is, apart from Day 4 of the Nias Pro 2024.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 11 June, Lagundri Bay and the enviable surfers of the Asian ‘QS put on a real show. The legendary Sumatran right cranked, producing relentlessly consistent and super-chunky six-to-eight-foot barrels.

It was late in the round of 64 when the absurdist heat totals started rolling in. Finely feathered cylinders of cleanest glass turned over on the reef and the QS boys made the most.

Unknown battler Shohei Kato had a king-size heat total of 18.83 and came second to Australian grom Saxon Reber, who had 19.43.

Two heats later, former child prodigy Kobi Clements got himself a 10 and an 8.

In the next heat, Aussie junior Tane Dobbyn got knocked out of his heat with a measly total of 18.10. Ahead of him were super rhymin’ compatriots Joh Azuchi (19.77) and Jin Suzuki (18.60). Then Aussies Axel Curotta (19.63) and Kyuss King (18.70) took out another bonkers heat.

Forty-year old CT legend Josh Kerr, now better known as daddy to superstar gromette Sierra, snuck through his heat with a relatively pedestrian 15.80. Kerr surfed all the way through from the Round of 128.

Honestly, is there any other ‘QS event on the schedule where a surfer of Kerr’s standing would bother putting himself through that kind of competitive surfing meat grinder? Oh, and Kerrzy came second to Tully Wylie of Jan Juc (VIC), who had 18.90.

Still, Lagundri Bay and her lovers hadn’t yet done their best work.

Heat 4. Lennix Smith, 16.30. Dylan Moffat, 16.80. Zane Assink, 18.90. Xavier ‘Double X’ Huxtable, perfect 20.

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Now, to be fair, these were not exactly Championship Tour 10s. I’m sure the CT head judge Luiz Pereira would have adjusted the scale pretty quickly after things started heating up, and I didn’t see much of the ruthless foamball wrasslin’ and rodeo that was required for high 9s and 10s at the recent Teahupo’o event (although that might’ve been in part due to lacking the camera angle looking into the tube on some key rides).

 

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And unfortunately (because this is the ‘QS after all) there’s no highlight reel, no condensed heat replays, and not even individual heat videos. If you want to catch all the action you’ll need to tune in at 5:57 and watch through to the last heat of the day 5 hours later.

The only truly skippable half hour is Heat 15 from the Round of 64.

Still, across those 10 heats there were 16 surfers with heat totals of at least 18 points. Four 10s. Twenty-seven 9s. You could do worse things with an afternoon than watch a succession of talented surfers get the waves of their lives.

Day five has started and the swell still looks pretty damn good

Will you tune in and brave the shame of following third-tier professional surfing?