When Kolohe Andino was faltering midway through his fourth round heat of the Men's NSSA National Championships on Friday, his father Dino, watching from shore, tried desperately to comfort himself by floating a trial balloon. He muttered aloud something about the world not ending if his son didn't win this year. But his good friend Mike Parsons, standing nearby, immediately shot him down on the apparent show of weakness.

"No way!" Parsons spat back, smacking fist to palm. "This is it...This is the moment...There's no more waiting."

While Kolohe's situation remained in jeopardy neither Mike or Dino was holding up very well. Knowing both of them for longer than I care to mention, seeing them in such a high-stress state was--I confess--pretty damn amusing. The intensity, drive, and determination that earned these two former rivals their own national titles as amateurs and pros is all being channeled into something and somebody else now. That they had zero control of this moment was utter torture for them. And frankly, there's something funny about watching two capital "A" Alpha-males grapple with circumstances beyond their control. Watching nervous parents live and die with every turn is one of the better parts of the NSSA Nationals.

The evolution of the Parsons-Andino dynamic takes some explanation given their history, but understanding it is crucial to knowing what makes 15-year old Kolohe Andino tick. Kolohe is one of the most highly-touted grommets in surfing today. He has been for a few years. But that hasn't made raising him any easier for Dino, who grew up fighting for every scrap of an opportunity when he was Kolohe's age. Dino was raised largely unsupervised.

"I remember seeing him when he was ten years old out at Uppers," recalls Parsons. "He was this loud obnoxious little kid who was being raised by guys on the beach." Much of Dino's education was learned on the street. So years later, when as a father, his own son started seeing opportunities he would have killed for, Dino's survival instincts were the driving force of his decision making. "I grew up never saying 'no' to any opportunities...because they just didn't come easily. It was a survival thing for me."

As Kolohe's surfing progressed, the father son relationship was complicated as Dino suddenly found himself playing the same coach and manager role that he was playing with some of the best surfers in the world through his jobs at Oakley and then Billabong. "That's the toughest part of being a parent of a kid with talent," says Parsons, who became a father for the first time just over a year ago. "All kids want from their parents is love and support. But when you're playing all those other roles like coach or manager the message gets mixed because in those roles you have to ride them from time to time. There were a few times when I had to tell Dino to back off."

"We struggled at times, for sure," says Kolohe. "But we got it figured out. It's funny, because he's been way mellower ever since he stopped drinking coffee. And now Snips [Parsons] is the one playing the coaching role. Yesterday, Mike pulled me aside for about a half an hour and we just watched the waves and visualised exactly how I was going get up on the podium and celebrate. And what's crazy is it happened just like we planned it."

The pressure on Kolohe to live up to all his bright-light billing
might seem cruel, but it was there. "Our job is to sheild him from it, and just give him the information he needs," says Parsons. "But he's a smart kid. He knew what was expected of him this year, so to come through the way he did says a lot about the strength of his character." It's a fine line between highly-touted and over-hyped, and even Kolohe knows the difference. This past weekend, he did far more than
deliver on expectations. He smashed them. Kolohe netted $6000 for winning the Open Men's and the Air Show
divisions, but far more in the respect category. With his victory, the Andinos became the first father son combo to win NSSA National Championships.

Of course, Kolohe's most enduring memory of Nationals will likely be watching his stress during the closing minutes of the Final. "It went flat for a while. When I looked in I saw him pacing back and forth on the beach and just started laughing, watching him. It was pretty classic."

I'm just glad I wasn't the only one getting a kick out of it.

More coverage of the Nationals to come...so stay tuned.