11-Year-Old Surfs Giant Waimea Bay with Breaching Whales in Background (Video)

Dashel Pierson
·2 min read
10

How young is too young, in terms of surfing? How old is too old?

Surfing, unlike other sports, has an interesting relationship with age. Depending on how you practice the sport – from big waves to small, longboards to shortboards – you can pretty much do it from the day you start walking until, well, the day you stop.

Will you be charging the whole time? Probably not. At least not like 11-year-old young gun Kalama Jedidiah Stratton at Waimea Bay, as seen below.

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A post shared by Vans Surf (@vanssurf)

Stratton, who hails from Puerto Escondido, Mexico, is absolutely sending it in the couple waves above at the legendary big-wave spot, Waimea. And not just for someone who just entered middle school. That goes for surfers across the age spectrum.

“Is there a @TheEddieAikau invite in @Kalama_Stratton’s future?” Vans Surf captioned the clip. “TBD, but at 11-years-old, he seems to be on the right path. Last session in Hawaii before heading home to Puerto Escondido. Breaching whales in the background for added bonus.”

That’s a double-check on the collective surfing bucket list for young Stratton: 1) surfing XL Waimea Bay; 2) getting photobombed by a breaching whale while surfing a wave.

Related: 11-Year-Old Surfer Pushed into Puerto Escondido Bomb (Clip)

Safe to say he’ll be going home to Mexico with a smile.

And speaking of which, the last time we saw Stratton was at home charging another legendary big-wave spot, Puerto Escondido (aka the Mexican Pipeline). That time, he had a push assist in getting into a sizable, dredging lefthand tube.

Keep an eye on Kalama in the years to come; spoiler: he’ll be the one charging.

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