A young, fresh-faced star has been pushing the limits of what’s possible during a North Shore summer. This may be the first you’ve heard of him and we won’t blame you because he only recently made his presence known to the world on social media, amassing nearly 5,000 followers on Instagram in less than a month. His name is Kimo. And he surfs, nay, he charges the big stuff.
What do we know about Kimo? Only what’s important, and that’s that Kimo clearly owns whichever lineup he enters — even one as intense, as intimidating, as high stakes as knee-high Backdoor and Pipe during the summer months. Spongers putting in their offseason work fear Kimo. They dare not contest when he jockeys for inside position or even blatantly runs circles around them as incoming waves approach.
Kimo goes when Kimo goes. Kimo takes what Kimo wants. And Kimo wants waves. Big waves. Waves that would pummel any other human alive under 18 inches, given their relative size, because a two-foot wave breaking over Pipeline’s razor-sharp reef in June is no ordinary two-foot wave to Kimo. To Kimo, that wave is 30 times overhead. That closeout is no simple walk in the park, yet somehow Kimo brushes off rides through that torturous washing machine with ease, never even falling off his board. Is it magic wax? Velcro? Straps? Who cares? Kimo is a god living amongst mere mortals. And Kimo owns the North Shore right now.
