Big wave surfer Kai Lenny has been all over the place lately.
We’ve seen him take a beating during a wipeout at Jaws, foil surf by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge with Jamie O’Brien as his wingman, and capsize a super expensive sailboat (also with J.O.B. in San Francisco).
He’s also taken to doing tutorials, like the one where he explains how he survives brutal wipeouts and most recently, the one below about his big wave boards.
Red Bull Surfing captioned the clip above:
“What’s the difference between your traditional short board and a board made for Nazare? @kai_lenny breaks it down”
Lenny opens the video explaining to the camera:
“The difference between the boards that you surf for small waves and the boards you use at Nazaré is these weigh a lot more, up to 11 kilos.”
He adds that his Jaws board is almost half that weight at six kilos, aka 13 pounds. It’s 5’11, 16 inches wide, and two inches thick.
He continues:
“A lot of people like tri fins, thrusters. I prefer quad. I feel faster, more in control.
“You want the weight in the tail of the board, it’s way more stable. Foot straps, it’s important to have a big wide stance.
“The entire thing is carbon fiber, it has very good flex characteristics at high speed. It’s very strong. It can handle a lot of abuse.”
There you have it, folks. If you’re ready to surf Nazaré, you’ve got some tips for your next board.
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