Surf's up Fiji's first pro surfer on world's best wave

Cloudbreak, near the island of Tavarua in western Fiji, is one of the best waves in the world. For decades, the long, hollow left-hand reef break has drawn surfers from around the globe; later this year, the men's and women's World Surf League (WSL) champions will be crowned at Cloudbreak.

- Kieran Pender

But until 2010, local surfers were forbidden from surfing the wave because of an exclusivity deal with a nearby surf resort.

That year, Fiji's cabinet made a decision, "to liberalise access to any surfing area". Cloudbreak was exclusive no more. A decade and a half later, in no small part thanks to that cabinet decision, Fiji has its first professional surfer.

"I'm so lucky," says James Kusitino, who recently signed a team rider deal with the surfwear brand Former. "It opened in 2010, and I was born in 2009. Cloudbreak is the best wave in the world."

Kusitino has been in the water since he was a baby. His middle name - Wainisomu - means "drinking water" in English. Whenever Kusitino was distressed as a baby, his parents would put him in a tub of water and he would stop crying.