Dave Reardon: Kai Lenny ready for new ocean venture

It’s been years since Kai Lenny, now 29, became the youngest inductee in the waterman and surfing halls of fame on his way to building a following of more than a million on Instagram.

He made his mark partly by challenging the limits of nature and the instincts of self-preservation, hunting down and attacking the world’s biggest waves — anytime, anywhere, and by any means available.

But he doesn’t excel at only the most extreme. When other kids his age were learning t-ball, Lenny’s parents taught him to windsurf on Maui. That evolved into a love for just about any activity having to do with ocean or wind.

He’s extremely gifted, versatile and courageous.

Those attributes should continue to benefit Lenny as he prepares to compete in a more traditional surfing format. He will be among those trying to climb a rung on the ladder at Ala Moana Bowls this month toward the World Surf League’s Championship Tour.

Today, the WSL announced the Priority Destinations Pro, presented by First Hawaiian Bank and Mastercard. It’s the first event of the 2022-23 Hawaii/Tahiti Nui Regional Qualifying Series season. It is also the first WSL-sanctioned event at Bowls since 2016. Three days of competition are scheduled for a June 17-24 holding period.

“Somebody in this contest is going to be well on their way to the world championship tour,” FHB senior vice president Raoul Magana said. “And it’s local surfers.”

A total of 13 men and women will advance to the Challenger Series, with the next step being the WSL’s Championship Tour.

“There will be some world-tour athletes, up-and-coming surfer kids testing themselves against the best and local ringers,” Lenny said in a phone interview Friday. “It will be great competition, and such a perfect little amphitheater with the hotels and the park.”

Lenny has been honored by the WSL for his big wave prowess, and has previously competed in qualifiers. Earlier this year he accepted a wild-card invitation directly to the CT’s Hurley Pro at Sunset Beach.

But it wasn’t his time.

“It pained me to miss that,” he said. “I got the flu. It wasn’t COVID, but I was bed-ridden for two weeks and it was horrible.”

He said he’s 100 percent healthy now, and ready to take on the waves — and the other surfers.

“I’ve always been competing against myself, the elements, the (limits of) the equipment,” Lenny said. “This is a more subjective form of competition and more traditional. You’re being judged by other people. So you have to kind of wow the audience and figure out what the judges want.

“The mistake that has been made many times by many surfers many times over is to surf how you want to surf,” he added. “But you have to remember you’re putting on a performance for them. Later on you can go and surf how you want.”

That’s not to say instincts and individuality aren’t important.

“One way to wow them is with unpredictability,” Lenny said. “It can be difficult to do in smaller conditions, but in smaller surf you’ve got to be creative, do something different, something they’re not expecting.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone characterizing such a versatile athlete as predictable. Of course, he said, he’s training for this event with the famous left break at Bowls in mind. But he won’t obsess over any aspect to the point of turning training into a joyless grind.

“Backside attack, throwing spray, integrating any aerial game I might have,” he said. “But my preparation is different than other people. I do my best surfing when I’m doing five other things, too. I’m also riding my hydrofoil and other different kinds of apparatus. It takes my mind off it. Doing that, I won’t ever feel stale, and it will reflect in my body movements for the judges.”

It seems crazy, or at the very least ironic, that a member of the Surfing Hall of Fame has to advance through qualifiers to get to what is considered the highest level of competition. It doesn’t seem to bother Lenny at all — he speaks with nothing but gratitude for the opportunity.

Fate took away the wild-card chance at Sunset. Maybe now it’s his time.

“I think it all comes back down to being a product of my environment, being very heavily influenced by people around me growing up,” he said. “I was surrounded by all these multiple sports. It led me to my own way, and not the normal competitive surfing route.

“Traditionally, surfers start off as a young grom and eventually retire from that into other things,” Lenny added. “I’m doing it sort of backwards. But there’s no one real right way.”