Kai Lenny’s latest YouTube post takes us back to the 2023 Molokai 2 Oahu foil race. In it, 250 men and women paddled out across the Ka’iwi Channel toward the south shore of O’ahu in a 32-mile downwind challenge. However, not content to simply attempt the race on his own, Kai challenged his filmer Mark Chambers to try to beat him via land and air.
The impetus for the race was that Chambers found himself unable to fit on Kai’s boat due to space constraints. It was actually a development he was quite relieved by, since it meant he wouldn’t have to spend two hours getting his gear wet and throwing up from sea sickness.
However, Mark wasn’t going to get off the hook that easy, because Kai had something else in store for him. “So then the plot twist is that I thought I had a day off, and then Kai calls me and he goes ‘Hey I have a great idea,'” continued Mark, “and every time he says that, I sweat a little bit.”
The idea was simple: While Kai was foiling across the ocean, Mark would try to beat him there by taking a commercial flight from Maui to Oahu. To do this, kai had procured a McLaren, a Hawaiian airlines ticket, and an Audi. Just like that, the race was on.
The first leg of Mark’s journey started in the McLaren, which took him on a race to the Moloka’i airport. From there, it was a quick air trip to Honolulu, followed by a bag claim mishap and another frenetic land race in the aforementioned Audi. All the while, Kai frantically scratched across the ocean on his foil SUP.
In the end, it came down to the wire, but Mark beat him by 20 minutes. However, in a last-minute twist, it turned out that he left with a two-hour head start, making Kai the winner. Maybe foil travel is the future after all.
