Sweep it!
Surfing is the simplest and most challenging things all at once. Catch wave. Ride wave. Enjoy. Repeat.
But we all know there’s more to it than just that, right? A majority of us will devote most of our lives to chasing our own potential in a very specific segment within the surfing experience – a shortboard or a longboard, and hopefully a far off destination wave mission here and there. There isn’t always a ton of room for trying something new and different in our surf lives. But these guys are different. Paddle enhanced surfing is still a pretty marginalized part of the wave riding community, but there are certainly a fair share of talented people making it look easier than it is. Guys like Kai Lenny, who charges the WSL’s Big Wave Tour one day and can be found strapped to a kiteboard or with a paddle in his hand the next. At the very least, these next 7 surfers are changing our ideas of what’s possible on a surfboard…no matter how much foam you’re standing on.
So in no particular order, here are a handful of guys that are redefining what it means to shred:
Keahi de Aboitiz
Backside barrel riding is tricky with or without paddles. Keahi has that down. The first minute of this video alone is enough to make you want to pig dog the next thing that rolls through, but there’s something to be said about this guy’s style in tubes.
Connor Baxter
Connor Baxter windsurfed Jaws at 14 years old. Two years later he decided to get on the SUP surf craze and immediately become one of the sport’s hottest prodigies. Oh, and he was dubbed the “Fastest Paddler on Earth” in 2013. He has one heck of a resume…and he’s still just 20 years old.
Tom King
Tom’s an accomplished competitive longboarder from South Africa who just decided to see what the SUP world had to offer. Since then he’s been splitting his time between both, representing his home country in the ISA World Longboard Championships as well as the ISA World SUP Championship. Just goes to prove if you can surf, you can surf.
Zane Schweitzer
If you’re a Schweitzer, you spend a little bit of time in the ocean. That’s just how it works. Zane travels the world with his brother, Matty, producing videos that pretty much depict every surfer’s dream life -traveling, surfing, surfing and traveling.
Kai Bates
At 19 years old, Kai’s another young’n who picked up a paddled and doubled the volume on his boards after growing up surfing. Bates says SUP is a “futuristic style of surfing,” driving in the idea that guys on his level are ahead of the curve right now. And here’s an athlete who’s jumped in on the ground level.
Caio has a pretty cool story. A multitalented person, not just athlete, Vaz was traveling the world as a model and actor as well as competing on shortboards from a young age. When his dad bought the family a SUP for “flat days,” Caio started having fun in waves that didn’t exactly beg him to paddle out on a shortboard. Then after coming home from a surf trip to Hawaii he noticed his brother was ripping on the SUP, and the rest is history.
Mo Freitas
On a list packed with young faces Mo Freitas is one of the youngest. But he has the most experience on a SUP, having started SUP surfing around the same time most of us started puberty. And just like a lot of other names on this list he tows and surfs big waves, which is pretty much par for the course with kids who grow up on the North Shore of Oahu. But in the grand scheme of things there isn’t much about Mo Freitas that’s “normal” – he’s an out of this world talent. And he won Paddlewoo’s first video contest earlier this year, so there are certainly a few people who agree
