Kai Lenny will always be chasing his next wave

KAI LENNY is sitting in the passenger’s seat of his car on his way to Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch when he jumps on a Zoom call with Esquire. If anyone else said this, you’d assume it’s an obviously sarcastic joke. It’s a bit like saying you’re heading to Augusta for a quick round with Tiger Woods, or to the Lakers’ practice facility for a pick-up game with LeBron James. But this is just another day in the life of Kai Lenny, who wouldn’t have it any other way.

If there’s one quality that has defined Kai Lenny’s career, it’s his willingness to experiment. Over the last decade, he has become surfing’s great multi-hyphenate: big-wave charger, foil pioneer, stand-up paddle boarder and all-around ocean obsessive. Where many surfers find one lane and stay in it, Lenny has spent his career darting between disciplines. His first name is, after all, the Hawaiian word for ‘sea’.

Lenny’s upbringing in Hawaii is where he traces his interest in the multi-disciplinary. “A lot of it has to do with where I was born and raised,” he says. “I was always taught to be creative and innovative. I was also just sort of in the right place at the right time to try some of those sports in their infancy and when they were still emerging. Now they’ve just become, really, part of who I am.”

To Lenny, surfing isn’t simply a profession or a competitive outlet. He sees it as something so foundational to his life that he can’t imagine what he’d do without it – kind of like during COVID lockdowns when we all realised how much important mundane things like driving a car, going to the grocery store or walking around a park were to our daily lives. The ocean is both an office and a sanctuary to Lenny, but it’s also, at times, terrifying.

Outsiders might assume big-wave surfers need to have some sort of death wish to be able to do what they do. Videos of them dropping into 60-foot walls of water tend to inspire the same question: why? But as Lenny explains, big-wave surfers are craftsmen as much as they are daredevils. Experience, repetition and preparation are crucial. “I’ve often said that the best big wave riders tend to be the ones with the most experience,” he says. “It takes a long time to actually get good at big-wave surfing. It’s rare that you have someone that comes on the scene and is dominating.”

For Lenny, his mastery look time. “It took probably 12, 15 years to actually feel really comfortable in a lot of situations with big waves,” he says. “Now, having done it for long enough, I feel like I know what to expect. Generally, what scares most people is the fear of the unknown.”

The key for Lenny is to get comfortable with fear rather than trying to eliminate it entirely. As he says, wipeouts are learning opportunities. And even the worst ones are evidence that you will survive. “Over the years, you tend to just have bad wipeouts and you realise that you’ll be alright in those situations,” he says. “Kind of like I’ve been there, done that.”

Still, even after gaining years of experience, not every session goes the way Lenny wants it to. In those cases, the mental side of surfing comes into focus. “The best sessions are in flow state,” he says. “But sometimes you’re out of rhythm and you can’t find it.” When fear creeps in, Lenny chooses to narrow his focus. “The way I overcome fear is I really focus on the goal that I’m out there for,” he explains. “Like if it’s a particular manoeuvre, or a type of wave I’m looking for. If I focus on a goal, it kind of hides the whole wave itself, the fear of it. But there are days where you can’t force it, because you have to live through that day to surf another.”

Lenny’s willingness to embrace new innovations has also made him one of the defining figures in foiling, the once-niche discipline that is no longer an uncommon sight on beaches around the world. Using hydrofoil technology to lift boards above the water’s surface, foiling has expanded what surfers can ride and where they can ride it. For Lenny, its appeal is obvious. “The foil is the ultimate tool for surfing in any conditions around the world. It’s like the great equaliser for bad surf,” he says. “It’s not always good surf, unfortunately. So we have to adapt accordingly. The foil is perfect for that.”

Throughout our interview, a TAG Heuer Aquaracer sits on Lenny’s wrist, glinting in the sun when he raises his hand to stroke his chin. On paper, the watch might seem like an odd choice for someone in the famously laid back and luxury averse culture of surfing, but Lenny sees a connection between the precision of watchmaking and the precision required in the ocean.

“If you’re a professional surfer you’ve got to be really aware of the timing of things,” he says. “When the tide will be good, when the peak of the swell will be hitting. If you’re competing, you need to be in tune with the period between sets.” Beyond the practical reasons, though, Lenny can count on the Aquaracer for its durability. “It seems like one of the only pieces of equipment that can survive the situations I put myself into,” he says with a laugh. “It can handle the ocean, but it also looks good. I think that’s a testament to the craftsmanship and the artistry at TAG Heuer.”

At this stage of his career, you could forgive Lenny for winding down his competitions. But he still has a hunger to compete, fuelled by his passion for the sport itself. “I love competing,” he says. “I’m a professional athlete and I’m lucky that I’m able to get paid to do what I love to do.” But at the end of the day, regardless of whether he’s vying for a trophy or paddling out for a morning surf, Lenny is always going to be at home in the ocean. “If I wasn’t paid to do what I’m doing, I’d still be out there every day,” he says.

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