There’s no doubt that Kai Lenny is a freak of nature, but seeing him surf switch-stance really hammers it home. Switch-stance surfing is hard. All the muscle memory you’ve built up from every wave you’ve ever surfed protests as you push your body to stand the opposite direction. In the above video, Kai makes switch-stance surfing look easy. He’s a regular foot, and while his goofy-foot surfing isn’t going to win him any world titles, it’s pretty incredible to see how much progress he’s been able to make in going the “wrong” direction.
“Going switch is like trying to rewire the brain, because my arms want to go the opposite way as if I’m regular foot,” he said. “So I’m trying to relax and slow myself down, stick to the fundamentals, and try to mirror myself. It’s really fun.” And Kai being Kai, he’s already thinking about how he can apply it to big wave surfing. “When the waves get gigantic, how nice would it be to go frontside or backside depending on the conditions?”
