KAI LENNY: BREAKING THE MOULD

 

KAI LENNY: BREAKING THE MOULD

Words: Kai Lenny & Keith Teboul.

Photos: John Carter, Kai Lenny and Fish Bowl Diaries.

Kai Lenny is a visionary waterman, not afraid of doing things completely differently in the name of progress and innovation. John Carter caught up with Kai to hear about how surfing is influencing his approach to windsurfing.

EQUIPMENT PREFERENCES

The way my equipment has evolved has taken a lot of inspiration from my surf boards. I want boards that I can surf as much as I can on the waves, whilst being able to perform big manoeuvres that windsurfing is so famous for. My boards are completely different. Nobody has anything similar. The boards are literally a giant surfboard. I even have my surfing fins in them. It has taken a lot of testing to dial them in and get the rockers right. Maybe I should be doing something different, but for example, Brawzinho’s boards could not be more of the opposite to mine, in terms of design. Where the wide point exists on the board, how the rocker is, the type of bottom contour he uses and his fins; they are all totally different. But then you watch him sail and he is the world champion! He is incredible at what he does. He is killing it. I think our boards are about personal preference to a certain point. My approach to sailing is quite different compared to his. That being said we are always trying to rip the waves, the best we can.

INSPIRATION

My boards have been designed for good waves. I got the inspiration watching the Cabo Verde contest. I was watching and it was light, the waves were small and almost on the rocks. I was checking how other riders’ boards were working. I decided windsurfing is just missing that ability to get a lot of projection out of the board, rather than just relying on the sail. And sure enough, when the wind is so light, you usually rely on the sail. Most windsurfing boards are great, but they don’t offer the same projection that a surfboard does. After I saw that contest, I went designing boards with Keith Teboul. I wanted to take my surfing style over into the windsurfing on the waves.

SURFING INFLUENCE

I think if I were to go back to Pozo with the aim of getting good over there I would probably use the same boards. Even when I watch the sailors wave ride at Pozo, it is borderline not even wave riding. It is just kind of freestyle in the waves. It is a clew first long transition into the lip rather than a bottom turn into it. It is just the nature of the conditions and the equipment. I always thought you could have a little more surfing influence there. I am literally using my surfing shortboard fins that I surf with. Those are the exact fins that I am using. I just had MFC make the US boxes for them, there is nothing different and gosh, they work so well.

NOT JUST ALTERNATIVE BOARDS

Talking about set ups, my sail is also completely different to Brawzinho’s sail. You can’t say one is better than the other. What I like is completely different. Brawzinho’s gear is designed for him to work as good as possible and win world titles. I would say my gear is designed for trying to surf the waves, the best I possibly can. I am more surfing influenced. My sails are a lot straighter. On the new ones we have been developing for this season the luff curve is way straighter. The draft is way forward and there is very little backhand pressure. There is an influence from Polakow back in the day in my sails. That is where I got a lot of inspiration. Working with Goya, with the sail and board combination, it feels like a dream. Windsurfing is already one of the most fun sports ever and now it gets me so excited because it is just an extension of my surfing. We are just making the gear better and better. I think my boards are about to get a lot better after the last Aloha Classic because I have learned a lot and Keith and everybody at Goya and Quatro are motivated to keep developing.

KEITH TEBOUL – MASTER OF DESIGN

Keith is the sort of shaper that I can come to with a whacky idea and he would be up for trying it. He does not question my ideas because I really think my stuff through and know there is potential. I don’t know where exactly the direction is going, but I am either trying to reinvent the sport or make equipment that will make me even more excited about it. And so with the wave boards, Keith has always been as surfy as possible himself. I think that is why when Kauli Seadi was winning his world titles, his approach was also very surf influenced. Those guys worked on that style heavily. My boards have gotten even closer in terms of actual design to surfing. I don’t know whether Keith was too sure if my idea was really going to work because it was a pretty extreme Idea to change a windsurf board so drastically, and not just the board itself, but the fins as well. But we have made it work. Now we are starting to see the true benefits of it. I think in a years time, my equipment is going to be even better because Keith is such a master shaper.

PROGRESSION

When I go out on my best, older windsurf boards, that are similar to everyone else’s. It feels like great windsurfing. I feel safe and controlled, but it is very difficult to go straight up and down and keep speed. Most of my drive if you were watching the Aloha Classic, the sail is there helping me of course, but all my turns are off my fins and my rail. There is no other equipment that I could ride that will allow me to surf that way or to ride that way. In the perfect world the ultimate goal is to be able to go straight up and down the wave at twelve o’clock. Then when there is a big section, do a giant move, like a big goiter, a wave 360, or even a big straight aerial. I don’t want to just keep the wave riding tradition and just do carves; I want to intermix it all.

BOARD OF CHOICE

Normally in Maui when we have strong trades, I ride an 80 litre, the length is 7’4” (223cm), it has more nose rocker and less tail rocker with a single concave to double, with a V off the tail. For the Aloha Classic I was riding an 88 litre, which is just a scaled-up version of the smaller board. Every board that Keith makes me is a little more evolved. The 88 is honestly the best board he has ever made for me  windsurfing wise. We already have a good idea of how we can make it even better just based on what we have learned at the end of last season. That is the beauty of contests. I wish we had more pure wave riding events. Every time you compete, you definitely learn something and you can bring that to the drawing table and between Keith and everyone at Quatro and Goya, they are so motivated on wanting to make better equipment, that simply keeps windsurfing so much fun. We are just trying to find better ways to wave ride as well as everything else to do with windsurfing.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?

For most of my career, especially in competitive windsurfing, everything I rode was production. It has been really fun being able to ride completely custom equipment and ride gear that is completely unique to what I am trying to achieve in my sailing. I don’t know if anyone else would really like my gear. That would be interesting to know. Levi Siver is the only one that has really stepped on my board. The board was too small for him because it was my 80 litre. Normally he rides an 88. It would be cool to see what these other guys could do on my boards, but there is also a part of me that I don’t want anyone else to try because I think they are so good already. I totally think I have an advantage with my boards.

THE ALOHA CLASSIC

The Aloha Classic is one of the events that I look forward to the most every single year. Mainly because you get to sail with the best sailors in the world. The level is so high that every year it gets harder and harder to win. Everyone here is so cool. We are all friends on the land, but then fierce competitors on the water. I like that side of it. It is radical that everyone is so cool with each other. We always give each other a hard time that we are going to smoke one another on the water, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hang out with them after the heat. I kind of felt bad that Ricardo was going for a world title, and I had to sail against him. However, at the end of the day, I wanted to win the Aloha Classic as well. This is competition. That is the art of it. You have to be able to go against any rider and you have to be able to beat them. Ricardo had the advantage against me in terms of his tricks and manoeuvres, but my advantage was the fact that Ho’okipa is my home spot and I think I could manage the light winds a little better than Ricardo. I am not as big as him and I had zero pressure, while Ricardo had that title challenge weighing on his shoulders. The only pressure I had was just to compete and my own personal ambitions. He has been going for a world title for many years, so I felt really bad for him.

FAMILY & THE INDIRECT BENEFITS

It has been amazing having the twins. There is nothing better than having kids. It is like a rebirth; you get to grow up with them again. I have learned so much since we had them. I probably spend a little bit less time on the water because I am obviously spending more time with my family, hanging out with them and playing. I feel like my sailing, my surfing, and all my sports in general, have gotten better by doing less of them. I think my problem before was that I was so into all the sports I would burn myself out on the water. I would be on the water all day and just exhaust myself. I would not have a lot of energy left in the tank for the next day as a result. I did not know how to rest, so It has been a blessing in disguise in a way. The kids keep me rested enough so when I go on the water, I can push really hard. I am tired in different ways now. Since they were born, which is over a year and a half ago, I have pretty much watched every sunrise! I am up at 5am no matter what.

SCOTT SANCHEZ

When it is flat, and I have more time to go to the gym, I work with Scott about five days a week. We are constantly talking and he has become a real integral part of my big wave team. He has been running all of the Sea-Doo Hawaii jet skis. Scott has been instrumental in helping me move away from my old jet skis to the new Sea-Doo’s. He was also been helping Ricardo out with his title quest this year, which was really cool and I have been lucky to have a great coach in my corner. At the end of the day, I want to leave no stone unturned. If you have someone you can really bounce ideas off of and someone who can spot easy changes that you can make to improve your performance, then that’s a big advantage. A lot of the biggest changes are quite easy to implement, but if you don’t see them, there’s no way you can make those adjustments and you just become so focused on your own world. You have to be willing and be completely prepared to change your approach – both physically and mentally. How you train, what equipment you use, how you approach your heats etc – It is a mindset.

COMPETITION

I am in a happy place right now. The only thing I wish, including competitive sports in general, is that the events are not as big as when I was growing up. When I was a kid the events all seemed huge. There are very few big wave events anymore. Very few pure wave riding events. If I really wanted to, I could chase big waves on my own. I would like to be competing more, so maybe when my kids get a little older, we can travel together. Even with windsurfing, I feel that this year I have got to go to Cloudbreak, I’ve got to go to Peru and these other sick wave spots. For me I love competing with high frequency. I like to go from event to event. You gain momentum that way. At the moment I am just competing at the Aloha Classic in windsurfing, and I get so psyched about it, but it is such a long time between competing like this, so it feels like a different lifetime by the time the next one comes around.

TRAVEL – SHORT AND SWEET

Even after Covid I was still travelling a lot, however, when you have a family, and especially a young family, my kids are under two years old, I think it is extremely important to be at home during this critical age. It is very difficult to travel with them at the frequency I once did. Big waves are still pretty easy to chase though as when I know they are on, I usually go and it’s on for forty-eight hours. So, I go and charge big waves, and when I’m done, I fly home immediately. The longest time I was in Nazaré in the last couple of years was a day and a half. I land, surf a day and a half and then I’ll be on a plane home that night. When the kids get older and I can travel with them, we are going to be travelling a lot. Then when school comes, I guess I will be able to travel a bit more then also. This time in my life it is super important to be at home with my family. Fortunately, where I live here in Hawaii, still works with my job really well. I think about travel all the time. I want to go score epic conditions and go on those strike missions for windsurfing. I want to do big wave strike missions. It would be cool just to go places and score really good conditions. I think this year will be a lot easier once the girls turn two.

JAWS

When Jaws is really good and barrelling, I usually want to surf. I always have my windsurf gear with me, but I do love getting in the barrel. The windsurfing is actually quite tough to score waves as there are usually so many good sailors as well as all the tow crews and kites. I have a decommissioned coast guard boat that I use now as a base when I am up there. It goes sixty knots, so it absolutely flies and it is faster than our jet skis. It has a closed cabin with suspension seats. I have all my equipment on there at all times, which covers five sports.

KEITH TEBOUL ON KAI’S BOARDS

Kai’s boards are definitely more along the style of a surfboard at the moment. It’s something I’ve been working on in my personal boards for some time, so to transition to Kai was natural. If you watch his sailing, it’s all about the rail and finishing turns. We definitely went a bit extreme on the first test boards and have dialled back on some of the surfier outlines and rockers since.

It is difficult to find the balance between drive, pivot and turn while still keeping the board planing and moving around. We’ve settled on a simpler single with slight double concave… higher entries and lower tail rockers with little more outline curve through the stance. This has been in combination with fin development, and placement, as these are so critical and interrelated to how a board feels, turns and drives through, and ultimately finishes turns.

The project is still a work in progress as always and I think we are really just starting to tap into the boards being closer and closer to surfing the waves. It is also allowing us mere mortals to be able to use these boards as Its important to move around and have a sense of ease and neutrality in the way the board works all around. It is amazing to work with Kai and the team to develop these boards. I am also working with Levi and Braw on boards suited for them with these concepts as well, so let’s see where this goes.

 

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