"We are so overjoyed to share that Kenji is back in the ocean!! Kenji has made an incredible recovery."
Lifelong surfer Kenji Nonka had a helluva opening day in November when he was hit by a Tiger shark during his habitual morning surf.
By the time Maui police, firefighters and first responders arrived at the scene at Sand Piles, part of Waiehu Beach Park there, Kenji, a handsome and well-preserved sexagenarian but who looks a dozen years younger, was on the beach, one leg completely severed just below the knee.
Shades of the “tough as nails” Kai Mckenzie etc.
After a little tidying up of the stump, Kenji Nonka was back home, face wrapped in his usual smiles and preparing he said to get back into the water.
Well, old Kenji don’t fuck around.
Seven weeks after losing his leg to the shark, and after plenty of rehab at home, Kenji was back in the drink and while he hasn’t got the plastic leg yet he caught a few waves on his guts.
An update on his GoFundMe page, 107k raised of a 100k goal, who don’t love a shark attack etc, announced the news of his first surf back.
On a day when there is much to celebrate (winter solstice, XL NW swell across Hawai’i), we are so overjoyed to share that Kenji is back in the ocean!! It’s been 7 weeks since the shark attack and Kenji has made an incredible recovery, truly. It was his first day back in the ocean, and with the love and support of his amazing wife, Tomoko, he even got some fun waves on his belly. Next up, getting fitted for a prosthetic in the new year and we know Kenji will be surfing again at his favorite home breaks in no time.
Thank you so much again for everyone’s support far and wide in helping one of the most stoked and positive humans! Kenji is continuing to heal and regain his strength, and we’ll always repeat one of Kenji’s best known mantras in the face of hardship: tomorrow mo’ bettah.
On Instagram Kai wrote,
“We back bitches.”
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A support group for shark attack survivors
Dez, you been calling him Kenji “Nonka” from the get-go…I thought it mighta been one of your clever puns but nah, I think lazy.
It’s Kenji Nonaka. Ain’t no Nonka family name originating in Japan. Could be pidgin Hawaii spelling. Or not.
Nonaka. Kenji Nonaka. Or Kenji Noleg. You do you Dez
This makes me feel even more of a pussy. I’ll hit 3 months high and dry at the end of January after my surfers ear op.
Hopefully you’ll be released soon.
You Kenji if you think you Kenji!
Good for Kenji! You go Bru. But another misguided attack on sharks by Derek who somehow missed that butchering is something that can only be done by humans (mainly of meat but also of stories it seems).
Don’t forget language. These groms are butchering English like it’s a Jeffrey Dahmer victim. Sad!
From the non-surfers over at Cambridge:
“Butcher
to kill people in a very violent way or in large numbers:
He butchered thousands of people.
Unarmed civilians are being butchered by the occupying forces”
We need commentary from the shark’s PR folks as they deserve an opportunity to defend this violent yet historically typically act by their species.
Aha I get it now. Ignorant surfers can get away with butchering English.
No, no.. this is what NZ’ers called “town’ and the fins are ‘town fins’ (or “tiwn feens”) for when you are dressing up one’s sled to surf a break nearer to a population of more than 500 people and one family.
Big money in prosthetics ventures right now. Surf adjacent websites not so much . . limping into last place
Just testing if I can still post here. Hopefully FS doesn’t die!
lol it’s been four years since I’ve been on here. Things you do when you don’t have a job.
Haha fuck man. Apparently he has turned his life around.
Xox
Hey, I have a job but I pretend to be unemployed when I stop by BG
Good on him
On a similar subject, I just re-watched the Inaba (Jap) vs Toledo (Bra) 3rd round Olympic heat.
Heck it was worse than I remember, Felipe is an actual disgrace.
Checked a few other heats, some ok, some not so much, forget which was which, though the blond Mexican stood out for guts.
The Medina wave was good (without the ghey kickout).
UNTIL
The Ramzi Boukhiam vs Joao Chianca masterpiece.
Everything else was down hill after their display.
Florence and Robinson heat shitty…
Billy had a good crack against Fil. Would have been a worthy winner of that heat.
I watched the movie Heat again for 10th time last night. Fuck that movies good.
Was a wide eyed surprise of a crazy day of surfing.
he’s featured in TSJ as a guy who can knots…?
to be or knot to be
I’d like hear Kenji’s thoughts on whether Hawaii has reached a “pre white man biomass” of Tiger sharks.
with all due respect… https://youtu.be/di-NTkNxc8k?si=C5eWEkBcmc60znAb
Can this be measured in German legs³?