Photo: Eric Aeder
Interview with FoilFeed
What’s a quick rundown of your athletic achievements outside of foiling?
I owe much of my success to my family and community support. Today I'm grateful to have over 15 world championship event wins between the sports of Windsurfing, Surfing SUP and more including the ISA World Championship, StandUp World Tour, IFCA Windsurfing World Championships and the RedBull Ultimate Waterman Championship!
What does your training schedule look like?
My average week of training is 6 days a week with daily strength training, yoga/breathing exercises, high intensive interval training on SUP Race board, Canoe or even hydrofoil with paddle to flat water pump intervals, along with technical endurance training which I do mostly either SUP Surfing, surfing, downwind coast runs or bike rides.
The hard part for me, believe it or not, isn't the solid 12-15 hours training a week, it's the 1 day of rest I'm supposed to get!
I always end up spending my rest day having fun, spending time with family and friends in the ocean!
Tell us about your early days foiling
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My first time hydrofoiling I was 12 years old on Namotu Island, Fiji with uncle Mike Waltz and Dave Kalama. This was on a first-gen Rush Randle Hydrofoil locked in with oversized snowboard boots!
Flash forward almost 8 years later in 2014. I remember seeing Uncle Alex Aguera working with my buddy Kai Lenny on a different type of foil and thought it would be fun to try again. I reached out to my uncle who had an old Rush Randle Jaws Foil board and modified it onto my Starboard 7'4". I was out of control with very little stability at slow speed, like when riding waves. I shared a photo with Alex Aguera that showed the long metal mast and Sharp G10 foil flipping up into my chest on a bottom turn- luckily I had a impact vest. Alex included me in his testing from there on and I was so stoked to be flying.
