In a conversation with The Inertia earlier this year, Ian Walsh referred to 17-year-old Eli Hanneman as a “blank canvas.” Of all the proverbial weapons in the Maui prodigy’s bag of tricks, that’s what Walsh says is so special about Hanneman when compared to other up-and-coming talents. It’s what Walsh is most excited about for the young athlete’s future: he’s a teenager with as much world-class talent in heavy surf as he is in small surf, as much presence in big barrels as above the lip of onshore ramps – and he’s still in front of his athletic prime.
“He’s so young, he’s gonna have so much growth as a surfer the next 10 years,” Walsh said in that conversation.”It’s been fun to watch. I’m looking forward to where his mind puts him on a surfboard because he has a really unique approach to the way he rides a wave.”
At the time, when asked to describe what that “unique approach” to riding waves looks like, Walsh — who Hanneman credits as one of his mentors —said it’s all in the timing of pretty much everything Eli does: “When he clicks off an air, when he’s projecting through a turn, when he’s hanging at the top for just a fraction of a second before getting down the face and into a bottom turn, lining up the timing with the lip.”
Watching a highlight reel of Hanneman’s past winter from that lens gives this fresh five-minute edit some added intrigue. Everything from how far Hanneman will fade down the face of a wave at Pipe before setting his rail down the line to just that extra punch of rotation when landing airs feels slightly (yet profoundly) different from most high-performance styles.
…All this for a guy we technically still considered a grom.
