Watch: Keahi De Aboitiz // Dreamland
Like a skateboarder looking for a berm to lean into or a snowboarder blasting a bank, Keahi de Aboitiz brings a pure surf approach to kiting. Riding strapless, and on a regulation surfboard to boot, the lines he takes are familiar: the deep set bottom turn, the vertical lip blast, the John John at Margaret River full blooded gouge - see 3:30 for a few examples of the latter.
Those who know him won't be surprised by Keahi's surfing technique. Hailing from Noosa - though with Hawaiian parents - Keahi was a surfer before all else. That is, he surfed on surfboards. Learnt to ride waves tight to the pocket. These days he surfs on surfboards, kiteboards, stand up paddleboards, and longboards...anything really, but his native surfing approach is the lingua franca that combines them all.
And so, when a wave offers a certain kind of section, it really doesn't matter what craft Keahi is riding, his approach remains the same.
Comments
Very inspiring.
That turn at 2:35 is something else. Beyond JJF.
Surfed with a bunch of kite pros over 10 years ago at lakey pipe doing the same thing. They would also call us in from way up the reef and then kite around us while we were in the barrel with a hoot and a shaka . Was a spinout, cool guys
Best kite surfing I've seen, and the guy can obviously surf and read a wave. As a surfer, though, I still find that there's still something slightly jarring about it - a lack of flow maybe when the wind power takes over where drive would normally do it.
Great music! Gotta love Kashmir.