Story by The Inertia.

Kai Lenny has a certain view of what he wants to turn his big wave surfing into. He wants to do big snowboarding tricks on waves. "It's been my goal in big wave riding," he said. That's why he enlisted the help of Maui's pro snowboarder, Lyon Farrell. "Lyon and I have been talking about what we could really do to change the game with foot straps," Lenny continued, "and bring snowboarding tricks into surfing."

Farrell, Lenny, and Kody Kerbox (whose father, Buzzy, is all too familiar with being strapped to a surfboard), headed out to a few outer reefs to learn a few new things.

"Utilize the nose a bit more," Farrell said about what they were planning on doing. "I feel like surfers don't utilize the nose that much because you're usually not strapped in. So, maybe some weird butter tricks on the wave. Strap surfing and all of this is so much easier in my brain. It's never actually panned out, so it'll be difficult. But these are all concepts; it's all experimenting, but once we get a couple of big tricks that we can take from snowboarding into surfing, I feel like it's just going to start a full progression."

Of course, as with all things, strapped surfing does have its detractors. But Lenny and the crew don't care - they're just trying new things and having a blast doing it. And with progression in mind, there are certain things that just aren't possible on a surfboard without straps.

World Surf League
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