In situations like two wave set hold downs, which would have most people gasping for air thankful for their lives (I include myself from experience), he apparently comes up laughing and keeps on doing it again and again. Dany just classifies him as fearless, but adds that he does the training to ensure he capable of dealing with heavy situations.
Dany and their crew are with him most of the time when the big swells hit, saying that he’s extremely accurate about swell predictions, meticulous with research about each storm and the waves they produce. He’s not all about balls and bravado either. His small wave act is red hot as well, with his surfing background evident in his low centre of gravity style.
Just recently I went down to Fuerteventura and delivered him a little 6’10 Hipster twin. We went down the beach, or rocks as the case may be in Fuerte, and Iballa was saying to me ‘it’s bigger than it looks’ and lent me an old 9’6 gun she had. I was like ‘yeah right, whatever…’ thinking I was going to be way over gunned. As it turned out, it was a lot bigger than it looked and I needed every inch of the 9’6 that I had But there was Vilayta out on the little 6’10 I’d just brought him. Paddling deep, he basically placed himself underneath the lip on solid 6 footers with one stroke take-offs.
There was one I thought he must have eaten shit on as I lost sight of him as he free fell out of the lip, but when I looked back he popped over the back of the wave. It was pretty nuts. I just got an email with a Twitter feed or something about the exploits of what Kai Lenny is up to at the moment. Not taking anything away from him as he charges harder than almost anyone, but his publicity machine is as polished as they come. Not many people have heard of David Rodal Santiago however, who’s also pushing the limits, just without the trumpets. SUP
