- WSL / Kelly Cestari

Sebastian Zietz (HAW) has had an interesting year thus far. He found himself in a third round rut, finally broke out in Rio making it to the Quarterfinals, then suffered another Round 3 elimination in Fiji. He is a mysterious athlete indeed. But in a recent interview with Stab, Seabass shed light on some of that mystery, offering his ideas on family, Kelly Slater, politics and everything in between.

(From issue 74 of Stab magazine)

Sebastian Zietz (HAW), 2014 Billabong Rio Pro. Seabass had his best showing at stop No. 4 of the WCT. - WSL / Smorigo

Family: I have eight siblings. They're my best friends and pretty much the only people I hang out with at home. They all live in Kauai and it's like I have a different best friend every day. I feel bad for anyone that doesn't have brothers and sisters because that was just action growing up. There are so many different attitudes and it definitely help make you a better person. Family is everything.

Kelly Slater: Coming from Kauai it's pretty easy to be a Slater Hater because he battled with Andy for so long, so hard. Watching those heats, everyone was so into Andy… we were all saying ah, he's getting over-scored! Frick this! He tosses his hands in the air and they give him the score. But I feel like I was naïve in thinking that. Actually being on tour and seeing the surfing that he does, he's definitely the best surfer. It's ridiculous and it's going to be funny to see everyone try to keep up now that they know being the best at 43, or whatever it is, is possible. The guys are going try to hold on into their late '30s saying Kelly did it! I feel like you'd get sick of winning so much. Personally, I can't imagine doing this in 20 years…

Hawaii's Sebastian Zietz winning, 2014 Fiji Pro. Zietz competing at the most recent WCT event in Fiji. - WSL / Steve Robertson

Pine Trees: Heaven. Every different kind of wave, all in one. The training ground for every wave. It's home to me and even if the waves are horrible there I still feel like they're good because it's so familiar. All the boys are there, every day, and if I'm ever lonely I know that there's some other bored soul chillin' there to cruise with and talk to. It's the meeting place, the hangout, peanut gallery spot.

Sharks: I was chased out of the water in Florida one time. It was a seven-foot bull shark and it turned straight towards us. A lot of people say that they're an important part of the ecosystem but us as humans are overfishing the waters now and they have nothing to eat. Now they're starting to eat humans and there's a lot more humans in the water. A world without sharks would be amazing. We could surf without worries all day long and have a lot more fish for ourselves.

Read the full article on Stab.com

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