Kai Lenny Walks On Water

Or So It Seems. The 24-year-old From Hawaii Is a Multiple-time World Champion of Stand-up Paddling, a Dominant Wind- and Kitesurfer, and One of the Most Fearless Big-wave Riders on the Planet. His Combination of Talents Would Seem Impossible if He Didn’t Make It All Look So Easy. Susan Casey Drops in on the Aquatic Savant to Find Out How He Plans to Get Even Better.

- Susan Casey

HURRICANE MADELINE had just spun off and Hurricane Lester was hard on its heels and the skies over Maui’s north shore were brooding and restless, with fierce clouds casting the ocean a surly shade of slate, but Kai Lenny thought the conditions would be “epic” for a downwind coast run on his stand-up hydrofoil board, so he drove to Maliko Gulch in his black Ford F-150 truck, towing a matched pair of jet skis behind him on a trailer. This convoy of stoke and gear rolled up the Hana Highway and hairpin-turned into the gulch, bouncing across washboard ruts and through giant mud puddles. At the edge of the launch ramp, Lenny backed up the truck and tipped the jet skis into the water. “Look, it’s already breaking up,” he said, scanning the horizon. “It’s windy though. There’ll be bumps out there for sure.”

Nothing about the day looked overly appealing. I stood ankle-deep in storm debris— leaves, sticks, mud, rocks—wrestled on a wetsuit, and zipped up my flotation vest. Standing beside me, Victor Lopez, one of Lenny’s mentors (and the brother of surf legend Gerry Lopez), did the same, and then we waded into the murky gulch and climbed aboard the skis. Rain fell crankily. Lenny, however, was buoyant and cheerful.