Hanging With Xander

Xander Banks is a 15 year old goofy footer from Raglan. His dad, Mikey Banks is one of the our best free-surfers. A rising junior in the late '90/early 2000's Mikey ended up on the covers and spreads of Surf Mags regularly. With the family home nestled behind the lagoon at Indicators, Mikey also earned a repution as being... shall we say... vocal, in the Indies line up. The loveable rouge was always one of my favourites to take on a photoshoot. But this isn't the old boy's interview, it's Xander's. Apples and trees; gezz, Xander shares his dad's cheekiness in spades. Xander is attending the Raglan Surf Academy under the tutorage of Dean Hishon and Larry Fisher. As did Mikey. Xander is surfing beyond his years, especially at he considers himself a late bloomer. It's exciting to think the Raglan grom only started surfing 3 years ago. He's set lofty goals, here's to ya making them grom.

Xander’s Dad, Mikey at G-land 2007, this was a covershot of NZ Surfing Magazine that year

Born; 23/7/2010 Weight; 69.3 kgs

Height; 5'10" 1/2 [I'm taller than my dad now]

My favourite board is probably Zero Fusion by JS Industries 5'8" 27, 28 litres.

Xander on the aforementioned Zero Fusion

I started surfing when I was 12 because my dad was doing the surf school thing. And then I was doing it and I didn't like how I sucked. I wanted to be the best. So Dane Simpson would tow me up the Point. Every single surf, because he was helping out my dad. So he would tow me way up the Point and give me coaching. Dane would force me to go surfing with him out at Indies 4 times a day. That's basically how I got surfing, got good at surfing.

With the Raglan WSL looming large in May, there are already Pro sightings. Last week Ethan Ewing in the Manu Bay line-up. While this question was meant to be who Xander hangs with day to day. Who do you love going surfing with currently?

Oh, Ethan Ewing, Ethan Ewing. No, I'm actually quite like surfing with Copal Mateya and Luca Thompson.

Would you say that you three are little rat bags of Manu Bay?

Yeah, for sure. [laughing]

Goals?

I would like to win a couple comps , and then hopefully try make the NZ Team for the ISA Worlds. But all good if not, because it's expensive anyways, but it'll be cool, cool to do Worlds and go travel somewhere. Then go to Fiji. maybe try to go Indo with Luca, but probably not, because looks too spenny.

Maybe the best backyard in the world for a grommet? Check out this print HERE

Do you get told heaps that you're lucky to live at Indies?

Yes, about every day. But it's pretty cool. I get to surf Indies whenever I want, it's easier to go surf Indies than it is to go surf Manu or the beach. It's right there. I kind of surf it when it's better conditions. Manu, I feel like, Manu handles more varying conditions. Where Indies, when it's Norwest or a little peaky and onshore. It just doesn't really handle it as well as Manu would.

The Xander image that went around the world

In late 2024 I sent Surfline some photos from a Ledge session. One of them was a slow shutter shot of a grommet in a heaving ledge pit. It's blurry but its sharp. Surfline ran with it, using as the feature shot on a post nationwide, Australasia and in their weekly worldwide newsletter. For a week or so Xander was insty famous, sort of the nearest thing to a covershot nowadays.

That was my 1st proper ledge wave. I had got back from Indo and it didn't feel as gnarly as surfing G land. Like, oh, bro, when I was in G land, it was so fucking heavy. There's so much more push behind the waves there. When I got back to Raglan, I thought the waves were way more slow, so I wasn't as scared. Definitely helped my confidence going into it. Yeah, I guess it puts you on the map for other surfers. Because to go from, basically a grommet growing up in Raglan to getting a cover shot or not a cover shot, like, the nearest thing.

The 13 year old, fresh back from G-Land … and not speed blurred out

the 15 year old last Friday

Xander is super focussed on everything surfing this year, backed by his sponsors, Sex Wax, Riual Vision, The Raglan Surf Emporium, Mad Hueys, The Raglan Refinery. He's training at the Refinery 3 times a week. He's working out his airfares with his mum Alisha to get to every national qualifying event he can. It's kind of exciting to see a grom really wanting it. Check out his Insty HERE