24: Kai Lenny - To Play and Flirt with Giants

The Portal

Kast Media

Science, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 7.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 February 2020

⏱️ 115 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a world which is often slow-moving and even stagnant, there are always sectors and individuals who buck the trends. In this episode of The Portal, Eric sits down with his favorite surfing hero Kai Lenny who is pioneering a new approach to big wave surfing. By availing himself of the latest technology and dedicating his life to innovation and discipline, all-around waterman Kai Lenny is redefining what is possible with boards and waves. Whether it is kite surfing, hydrofoils, paddle boards or towing into monster waves, Kai is not only riding, but playing in the biggest surfable waves as if they were up to an order of magnitude smaller. Eric attempts to understand Kai's approach to innovation and how he can be so carefree and seemingly casual when he is always flirting with death within some of the most powerful structures and forces nature can through at a single individual from Jaws in Maui to Nazaré in Portugal.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Eric, I wanted to give a small note to say how today's episode fits into
0:04.2	the general arc of the portal.
0:06.4	As many of you know, I'm a critic about what is going on in academics, in science, and
0:10.2	in the economy with respect to innovation.
0:12.3	I feel that we're experiencing some kind of a very broad malaise and slowdown.
0:17.4	On the other hand, whenever you will ledge that something is going generally environmentally
0:21.8	wrong, it is incumbent upon you to check that you aren't in fact in the middle of a
0:25.6	depressive or negative episode.
0:27.6	One of the things that I like to do is to check and see where are the bright spots?
0:30.9	What are the things that inspire me?
0:33.0	Where do I see people actually pushing the envelope, making breakthroughs?
0:36.8	If I can spot those, then I can realize that it's not me who's dead, but in fact a memory
0:42.2	of what is possible that is actually causing the frustration.
0:46.1	And in these circumstances, I sometimes look very far afield to see where people are
0:50.6	actually innovating, and one of the places that I see a tremendous amount of innovation
0:54.2	right now is surfing.
0:56.4	At some point, out of the corner of my eye, one particular surfer caught my attention.
1:01.4	His name was Ky Lenny, and it wasn't as clear as it is now that he was on to something
1:05.1	really special.
1:07.2	As his skill has increased, he's been taking on larger and larger waves, and I don't
1:11.8	know how to say this exactly, but playing with them.
1:14.0	So before you watch today's episode, put in the name Ky Lenny, K-A-I-L-E-N-Y, and maybe
	...

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