The Ocean Could Reciprocate His Relentlessness

May 27, 2022 2:43 AM

And yet Kai ended up going right. He later said that he had misjudged the takeoff, and let the left get away from him. But it was breathtaking, seeing him run against the grain of the swell on a very large wave. He accelerated, now low in the face, then hit a stack of small wavelets coming off the cliff. It was like running over speed bumps while going eighty on a highway. His fins began to cavitate. His board flipped in the air, bucking him off, and the whole wave landed on him from a considerable height. He later said that his jersey was pulled over his head, so that he couldn’t get to the rip cords for his inflation vest. He was underwater for quite a while. From Kai Lenny Surfs the Unsurfable by William Finnegan [New Yorker; Archive]
posted by chavenet (4 comments total)

Thanks! I love Finnegan's writing, especially about surfing (Barbarian Days and previous New Yorker articles) so I read this immediately. It's funnier than usual, at least to me.

Above fifteen or so feet, waves require a board known as a gun—longer and faster-paddling than a modern shortboard. Most surfers, including very good ones, make a point of not owning a gun, in the interest of avoiding poor choices.

posted by kingless at 6:20 AM on May 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

That's a terrific profile, and Finnegan's long personal experience of surfing really makes it work. I imagine that was key to him getting that level of access to Kai, and it pays off.

And... as much as I'm a words guy, the video links in the piece are just astonishing. Six minutes into the first one, and that giant Portugal wave. Unreal.
posted by martin q blank at 8:37 AM on May 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think Kai Lenny is a great surfing bio choice, seems like a great guy, and Finnegan can write like heck. But it’s sad that he’s so close to the subject that he can’t really examine the relationship between privilege and access in surfing, because this would be a great place to do it. It’s hinted at when talking about some of the judgement thrown Lenny’s way, which on the surface is about sport but has a class undercurrent - windsurfing and kite surfing being very much a rich man’s beach activity.

But yeah, those videos are insane and I was glad to learn more about the guy.
posted by q*ben at 7:42 PM on May 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yes, thanks, excellent read.

It did make me wonder about risk.
I recently watched the Riding Giants big wave surfing documentary. One of the striking things in that was the interviews with the support team, the extent to which they accept the risk they are in when helping the surfers get the waves. The shared risk and shared support is clearly hugely meaningful to them.
It is one of the things my surfer friends are critical of the big wave surfers, that they put others at risk.
posted by Zumbador at 12:52 AM on May 28, 2022 [1 favorite]