When you’re this good at riding switch-foot, is it even switch-foot? Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Kai Lenny is a regular-footer. Kind of, anyway. For most people, riding a surfboard with the wrong foot forward is nearly impossible. But for Kai, it’s actually tough to tell which is the wrong foot and which is the right foot.
Kai is famously known for his ability to surf either way. He’s more comfortable as a regular-footer, but you wouldn’t know it by watching him. If you’ve ever tried it, you know how difficult it is. All those years of built-up muscle memory are hard to ignore. The body wants to do what it wants to do. Kai Lenny is not immune to that, but given how often he rides goofy while kiting or windsurfing, he sure is better at dealing with it.
“Going switch is like trying to rewire the brain, because my arms want to go the opposite way as if I’m regular foot,” he said in 2022. “So I’m trying to relax and slow myself down, stick to the fundamentals, and try to mirror myself. It’s really fun.”
It’d be pretty handy, too, especially when the waves get big. For most people, surfing a left as a goofy or a right as a regular is a little bit easier, so to be just as comfortable doing either one would be pretty ideal.
“When the waves get gigantic,” Kai laughed, “how nice would it be to go frontside or backside depending on the conditions?”
The YouTube channel Surfers of Bali was filming a relatively big day at Uluwatu when Kai paddled out, and they were surprised to see Kai doing a few step-offs, then jumping into switch-stance.
“Kai Lenny excels riding all kinds of different surf craft, but one of the most impressive things is his ability to shred while riding switch-foot,” Surfers of Bali wrote. “Kai ripped into some big frontside turns which made it hard to tell he was surfing the ‘wrong’ way around.”
