Spend just a little bit of time around Kanoa Igarashi and the word “professional” should come to mind. He’s a likable, personable guy, but Igarashi’s also focused, groomed, media savvy, and he seems to always be striving to have his body and mind dialed for competition. He’s more like an NBA superstar or elite NFL quarterback than the stereotype of a 1990s Bud Tour professional beach bum.
With all this in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising Kanoa apparently treated 2020 — a year with a canceled World Tour scheduled and no Olympic competition — like a prolonged training session. At the top of his list: refining his skills in bigger, heavier surf. So he spent a major chunk of fall and winter in Portugal, hunting down big tubes in cold water. And contrary to the surfers who claim the only way to train for surfing is by surfing, Igarashi spent a lot of non-surf time in the pool and in the gym.
“I feel like as professionals you’re trying to find every little weakness you can because our job is to be the top level of our sport,” he says. “As soon as I found something I felt like I could get better at, it really excited me. And that was my motivation going into 2020. I realized I wanna be comfortable in bigger waves.”
Of course, 2020 didn’t happen. At least not in terms of competition. So he got to Hawaii for the Pipe Masters in December fresh and ready.
“I feel like you can never do too much training,” he says. “People say hey, you don’t wanna wear your body down. But if you can get up and you can get yourself to the gym, that’s enough energy to put in a good workout.”
