Photo: Kai Lenny // YouTube
There’s a tendency towards specialization as one climbs the ladder in surfing. Not only do pros dedicate themselves to the sport itself, but they hone in on increasingly specific aspects of it. Big wave surfers, competition machines, longboarders, novelty wave hunters – everyone finds their one very small corner of the ocean and sets about trying to master it.
Kai Lenny is one of the exceptions to that rule
The Maui native is perhaps the most multi-hyphenated of ocean sports multi-hyphenates. Every year, he seems to cast an ever-wider net. Of course, he’s never far from his big wave surfing comfort zone, but has also branched out to foiling, kite surfing, and even sailing. In his latest video, he took that tendency to its most extreme conclusion, by doing a whopping seven sports in one day at Jaws.
“Just when I thought that the season was done and dusted, I had one more shot at it, one more big swell.” explained Lenny at the top of his latest YouTube offering. “When we showed up, the swell was north and the wave was big and chunky and borderline evil.” Despite that ominous outlook, Lenny took that as the perfect opportunity to try out a front flip, of course. From there, things only escalated. He decided to go for broke and see just how many different watercraft he could ride that day.
It’s quite the journey. After the initial stab at tow-in surfing, Lenny went on to wing foiling, wing surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing, parawing, and finished out the run with a twintip kiteboard. Check out the full video below.
