Kalani Lattanzi belongs to the knuckle-duster-in-your-face school of surfing!
A Brazilian bodysurfer, Kalani Lattanzi, has stunned the world by taking on Maui outer-reef Pe’ahi, aka Jaws, with just a pair of swim fins, a hand plane and a tight-fitting pair of trunks that barely contain, let’s be frank, the hatbox that is his loins.
Lattanzi, who is twenty-seven, and who now lives on Maui, gathered all his virile strength to swim out on November 2, a little after lunch, on the first real Jaws day of the season.
Lattanzi rode three waves before entering and, importantly, exiting the void on the wave filmed below.
He describes the experience as “beautiful” and says it was the best barrel of his life.
When BeachGrit called, Lattanzi was deep in construction work, three hours or thereabouts to go before he might engage in conversation, although in other interviews he has described Jaws as being a little easier to ride than the devil that is Portugal’s Nazaré.
Last year, Lattanzi released his biopic Kalani: Gift from Heaven, which follows his adventures there.
“Kalani goes into the ocean where fish are afraid,” says one fan.
More to come.
Chris Dixon and Frank: please email [email protected] from the address you'd like your BeachGrit login on.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Just watched this footage, sick shit. Jamie Mitchell got whaled, he shouldn’t have bailed he was gonna make it
I’m calling that the most environmentally aware surfed wave this century
Gonna be a sequel to that nineties cinematic surf dud….. “In Gods Hand”.
Lord Mike Stewart, what say you sir? Is tis nobler in the mind, to suffer the slings and arrows of brazillan hand board dominance, or take arms against a sea of giant barrels, and by opposing the hand plane, end them?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Here’s an account by a Bruce Jenkins writing about that January 1998 day the Eddie was called off because Waimea was too big:
About a half-hour before the contest was called off, we witnessed the surreal vision of a man heading down to the shorebreak, flip-flopping his way along in a pair of fins. It was Glenn (Redwings) Whitford, one of Hawaii’s most accomplished and best-known bodysurfers.
Later that day, police would actively restrain anyone from hitting the water. But here, in the early hours, Whitford was granted free passage out of respect. Although some considered Redwings a bit of a flake, he was the man who saved Terry Ahue’s free-floating jet-ski on the hectic day of Donnie Solomon’s death at Waimea in ’95. Between the North Shore and Kauai, Whitford had 27 years of big-wave Hawaiian experience.
The lifeguards seemed to be saying, “Let’s see what he can do.”It wasn’t much. Incredibly, even with his deep dives and powerful kick, Whitford couldn’t even penetrate the shorebreak. He was drifting toward the perilous south corner when he let the waves push him to shore.
Less than a week later, Redwings Whitford was dead. At home in Waialua, according to several friends and reliable sources, he grabbed a shotgun and blew his head off. During the ceremony held at Waimea two weeks later, Whitford was described as an amicable but troubled fellow, given to alcoholism and depression. As someone said, “If he felt that way about life, I’m surprised he didn’t end it at Waimea that day.”
Hah, I’ve got many small kid memories of my McDonalds trayboarding at Makapu’u. I still have my classic Redwings cleaver that I bust out when the conditions are just right. Redwings was a pioneer handboarder here on the north shore. Here’s a TSJ cover of him before he blew his brains out with a shotgun soon after. RIP Wings https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Redwings Memorial Contest Point Panic 2011
https://youtu.be/e13EwhsF1X8
So sick. I like this guy because all his videos are raw/no soundtrack. Not just bodyboarding/surfing. Posts some great video of pipe.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Ok, I’ll give him an A for effort, BUT he isn’t Jonah Hill…NEXT!
His Nazaré documentary is pretty cool.
I’m a full on bodysurfing VAL these days.
Fuck it’s good.
More please.
Wsl sponsor said NO
This guy woke up and decided to have a go “Fucking legend”. No inflatable vest. No flotation stitched in his wetsuit… We used to steel the small food trays at an ocean front MaDonalds and slide into the shore pound cylinders. The lip of the trays was curved just right to press your thumb holding the tray under your for arm. Switching hands to go right or left. I’ve always been a legend in my own mind through my fourth decade of riding waves. Entering my fifth epoch now and the surf ego, like a large ballon starts to shrink in the continuous sunlight. This brazo just pokes a hole in it to finish it off!
Fully. We would take plastic trays from one of the many ‘…bertos’ mexican restaurants (Adalbertos, Robertos, Rigobertos, Filbertos, Albertos, Rolbertos) to do some tray sliding. They work perfect cause you could get your forearm on the flat part of the tray and really get your body out of the water. Way better than any hand plane I’ve tried.
We used to put those trays under the rear wheels of a front wheel drive car pull the e brake up and do fake donuts.
Balls to the Jaws!
If forced at gun point to chose my weapon and go out at Jaws I would go with my Churchill’s and when I get smoked I could at least kick for the surface before drowning.
A Brazilian paddling out by himself??
C’mon..
Thanks for morning laugh!
hand-planes are cheating
Handboarding is not bodysurfing.
He’s just a Brazzo booger. Nice Peahi footage though
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
That’s not a plane…that’s a BOAT!!
Ohh and his film crew
Jeezuz! that’s pretty much a perfect bodysurf ride in my book – rigth over the massive foamball and all – hats off dude!
Wonder if he gets a submit in the big wave award?
Or a hefty Prince Albert
Ha!
Keep the Gorilla Glue away from VONR.
well, that was pretty fucking wild.
Okay that was super sick.
If body boarding is “dick dragging”, is body surfing “dick foiling”?