Kanoa Igarashi has made his intentions known. He’s been making them known for a few years, but in 2019-2020, he really found his voice. He’s always been focused on a world title, and his hunger has reached starvation levels. In Red Bull’s latest offering, we get a look behind the scenes of what the rise to fame was like for Igarashi.
Igarashi grew up in Huntington Beach. He’s Japanese, spends most of his time at his home in Portugal, and speaks four languages. Back in 2019, he won his first WSL CT event in Bali. It was perfect timing — he had just begun filming for what Red Bull calls “an unnamed, fly on the wall look at his life on the road.” It was going to be the first of many.
But then 2020 happened and things went pear-shaped. The world shut down. Travel was nearly impossible. The tour ground to a halt along with the rest of the planet. But as time went on, things began looking up — sort of. The WSL ran a handful of events and Igarashi headed to Tokyo for the Olympic Games, in which he competed under the Japanese flag.
The 41-minute film above is an incredibly intimate look at how Igarashi spent a very strange year. And to it’s pure entertainment.
