Push Beyond Your Limits: Top Big Wave Surfer on The Art of Challenging the Unknown | Kai Lenny

Kai Lenny (0:00)

I hold myself, I think, to the highest standard.

And I know my imagination goes runs so deep because I've been working on it my whole life. And a lot of people haven't tapped into that side of them, you know, because to them, the best is being better than the next guy. But in my mind, the potential I know that I could reach is stuff that no one's ever done and it's unimaginable.

Michael Gervais (0:31)

Okay, welcome back. Or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Gervais, by trade in training, a high-performance psychologist, and I am so stoked to welcome Kai Lenny back to the podcast for this week's conversation.

What's the quality of life if you're not exploring your edges, you're not taking risks to grow? And on the other hand, what if you've designed your life to risk everything?

Professional surfer and world-class expert on risk, Kai has somehow found true freedom in the powerlessness that comes with confronting one of mother nature's most spectacular monsters, the big wave.

Now known as one of, if not the, best big wave surfers in the world, he started surfing at age four and since has racked up a substantial list of world-class honors and in multiple sports that require operating in consequential environments. Kai has cultivated a masterful approach to mindset. Kai is a master of craft with a passion for, quote unquote, always getting better at something. He has so many incredible insights on staying motivated, adaptable and innovative, all in the face of radical risk and relentless unknowns. Something I believe we can all apply in our own lives. So with that, let's jump right into this week's conversation with Kai Lenny. Okay, Kai, I want to start with this really big and broad question, which, you know, you've got insights and experiences and stories to share that are really uncommon. Like you live an uncommon life in so many ways, but I want to try to make this bridge between you surfing some of the heaviest waves and most consequential waves in the world to like the everyday person that might not ever get in the ocean, let alone surf at any consequential waves. So what do you hope people listening can learn from you and the way that you've approached your life?

Kai Lenny (2:40)

I think the takeaway from riding big waves has always been challenging yourself to the unknown. You know, when you ride big waves, you constantly are experiencing kind of a new experience every time you hit the water. Even if you return to an existing surf spot, big wave surfing is just so unpredictable. And it's having, it's kind of gaining the courage, but the confidence through the experience of doing something in the unknown, something that you haven't personally been through yet, that I feel like biggest growth sort of happens. And that's been my draw to big waves, is it is a fun combination of not only athleticism, but innovation and then meets sort of opportunity.

You can't just go out and get a big wave on any given Sunday. It really tends to happen five or six times per year, if you're lucky, where you're in truly exceptional conditions. And even then sometimes the best swell of your entire lifetime comes in and might be the last time you ever experienced something like that.

And so being mentally, physically prepared, that's on the performance side. And then, you know, thinking outside the box, working on the equipment, working on the details of the session you're going to have, but then also being able to be sort of able to adapt, being adaptable to anything that's thrown towards you. That's sort of that unpredictability of the surf. And everything I've learned doing big waves is totally translated to how I approach my daily life, how I could be more efficient in what I'm doing, you know, when to push really hard and when to back off, you know, because life is all about sort of timing too.

Most successful people end up becoming really successful because they either get lucky with their timing or they're, you know, smart enough to position themselves at the right place at the right time. And that's like trying to catch a big wave, you know? There's so much more that goes into just riding a big wave. It starts, you know, days, if not weeks, if not years before, where I almost, like a couple weeks before, I might be able to predict the exact moment the biggest part of the swell is going to hit this spot. And, you know, thanks to so much technology out in the ocean, as a surfer, you naturally become a meteorologist. You're constantly looking at the weather maps. You're constantly trying to understand how waves move, all the sort of different, you know, ways you can measure waves, you know, from the vertical sea height to the interval between the waves to even the force that the wave's creating, you know, commonly measured in joules.