Kai Lenny’s Secret Weapon for Big Wave Surfing Progression

The limits of big wave surfing are continuously being pushed.

Bigger, faster, deeper, longer, steeper, sketchier, heavier, etc. And Kai Lenny is forever on the forefront of that progression, be it at Jaws, Mavericks, Nazaré, and beyond.

But Kai’s got a secret weapon in big surf – one that’s under his feet.

Look at big wave surfing’s biggest names, and there’s something different about Kai Lenny. His boards stand out from the pack. They’re futuristic-looking, perhaps less rockered than most guns, and coated in his signature shade of Yves Klein Blue.

But there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to these giant-slaying sleds.

Kai explains:

“Traditional guns have largely been the same for a long time. Basically, the traditional shape has been a thin nose, foiled to a thicker mid-section, and then a thin tail.

“Whereas these new boards that we’ve developed are actually thicker in the nose, thinner in the tail, and foiled equally all the way through. The benefit of having a thicker nose is that it’s easier to navigate the lineup, easier to paddle into these big waves since it slices these chops, and aerodynamically, it allows you to ride the board a lot flatter when you’re airdropping into maybe the biggest wave you’ve ever paddled into.”

Related: Kai Lenny's Secret Recipe for Big Wave Surfing Success? Taco Bell.

Lenny developed the design with his shaper – the mastermind who crafts all of the Maui waterman’s boards from big wave guns, to hydrofoils, to shortboards – Keith Taboul. And over the years, through trial and error, in addition to a little hydrodynamic research, the two landed on this updated, foam-forward, science-backed structure.

“There is no limit to big wave paddle surfing,” Kai continues, “if we just improve the technology behind it. I think we can go faster, ride bigger waves, take off deeper, get longer barrels, and ride smaller boards.”

Does it work? Pretty sure Kai’s surfing vouches for it.

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