Facebook founder and multi-disciplinary waterman Mark Zuckerberg shares his secret for conquering giant surf: “I train hard so if I’m gonna go out in a 15-foot wave then I’ll make sure we have the right safety gear.”

Extreme sport type stuff.

Loathe him or dislike him Mark Zuckerberg has embraced surfing and surfing adjacents, these jewel in the extreme sport type stuff crown, with bottomless abandon. There he is, on Fourth of July foiling across a lake flying the American flag. Oh look now, there he is with best friend Kai Lenny tow foiling off a beautiful Hawaiian shore.

The world’s 5th richest man, and Kauai local, is passionate about our game and game adjacents shared some secrets to success recently on the very popular MIT professor, artificial intelligence thinker Lex Fridman’s podcast.

Zuckerberg, dressed in a black sweater and leaning into his iconic Caesar haircut, was asked about his own mortality and paused long before answering, “I do a fair amount of, like, extreme sport type stuff so I’m definitely aware of it.”

Fridman told him that he was “flirting with it” a bit, presumably death. Zuckerberg chortled then responded brave and confident, “I, uh, train hard. So if I’m gonna go out in a 15-foot wave then I’ll make sure we have the right safety gear, make sure I’m used to that spot and all that stuff.”

Fridman, still probing, interjected “But the risk is still there.

Zuckerberg, acknowledged, “You take some head blows along the way.”

Very interesting but will this peek give you a leg up next time 15-foot surf steams into your local?

Will you prepare better?

Flirt less?

Watch the whole interview here (surfing conversation kicks in around 1:48).