Tim Brewster, the Chinese Bamboo Tree of the AVP

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — If you were to plant a Chinese bamboo tree today, it would take roughly five years to see it above surface again. This in spite of that bamboo tree’s constant needs: daily water, regular fertilization, space, lots of space. It’s a high-maintenance gig, growing Chinese bamboo trees, requiring an astounding amount of patience, work, and faith that, one day, that seed you planted five years ago might one day sprout. Yet the reward for all that work? For the daily watering, the constant care, the assuredness that, while you cannot see any physical signs of growth, you know that one day — maybe, hopefully — it’ll pay off?

That tree, once it alas breaks the surface, will grow 90 feet in five weeks.

Tim Brewster should know.

Not that he’s ever delved into the art of arboriculture. He is, simply, the living embodiment of it, the Chinese bamboo tree of the AVP. How else to explain what’s happened to the 22-year-old this year? He made $15,325 in prize money — and counting — in nine events on the AVP Tour, after never having made a dime in the previous five years trying. He won three international medals — one silver and two gold, a number that’s also likely to rise in the coming weeks — after never having made a podium in 18 previous events representing the United States. He qualified for the final five AVP events of the season, Pro Series or higher, despite never having made a main draw. Olympians and AVP champions fell before him: Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander (in Atlanta), John Hyden and Logan Webber (Atlanta), Theo Brunner and Chaim Schalk (Chicago). He flew up statistical leaderboards, finishing No. 1 in digs per set in Chicago, a loaded Gold Series affair.

Many were justifiably surprised by the blink-and-you-missed it growth of Brewster. Those who saw the work he has been putting in — that daily water, the regular fertilization — since he was 12 years old, inspired by the spectacle of the London Olympics, have been waiting for the inevitable breakout for years.

“Jose [Loiola] knew what he was doing this whole time,” Tri Bourne said of Brewster and Loiola, his longtime coach. “I knew what he was doing, putting this guy through the ringer, but at the same time, who else on planet earth is getting these reps? How many times have I said that up and coming players should come watch practice? Tim was at practice every…