Kai Lenny: he rode the biggest wave his life at Jaws | Photo: WSL

Call it a lip drop, airdrop or the world's biggest floater. One thing is certain: Kai Lenny opened a new chapter in high-performance big wave riding.

On November 26, 2018, Lenny proved that the future of big wave surfing is not limited to successfully to trimming and surviving a giant mountain of water.

On that day, the Hawaiian waterman showed there is still a lot of room for improvement and progression. Actually, there are tricks and maneuvers to be performed.

Lenny used his experience in Jaws/Peahi to add another layer of excellence to the art of mastering behemoth waves.

"You're really going against this beast that is unbeatable, and the only way to truly coexist with it is to match power with power in a different way to be smart, to be agile to maneuver," explains Kai Lenny.

The Biggest Wave of a Multidisciplinary Career

When the 2018 Peahi Challenge was called off, the young waterman surfed some of the biggest waves of his life, thanks to the biggest swells to grace the Hawaiian shores in ten years.

"I was straight on the boat, straight out the back, waiting for the big ones. It dawned on me that my entire life up to that point was meant for that moment," reveals the big wave surfer.

"The first day I rode Peahi, which was on a hydrofoil board in snowboard boots with Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama, I knew that's where I wanted to be, and that's what I want to do."

"The years that followed, the progression from paddle-in surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, and tow-in surfing to foilboarding, all those things have led me to where I am today."

"And I have to attribute this last swell's success from the sports that I do every single day. It prepared me for what I was able to do."

When the big ones came, Lenny knew that he was in the right place, at the right time. And that's when he rode the biggest wave of his life.

"I do believe that the bigger the wave, the bigger the canvas. The bigger the lip, the higher you can go, and there's that fine line of what is possible," concludes Lenny.

"And I think with what we're doing now we're only scratching the surface truly. I should be 30 feet above the lip doing a triple cork - that's the goal."

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