"Wiping out is an under-appreciated skill," Laird Hamilton once famously said.
And when Jaws his thumping, as it was on January 16, that under-appreciated skill can mean the difference between life and death. Of course, Kai Lenny, a master of preparation, knows this all too well.During the winter of 2012 he suffered a 50-second hold down at Jaws, a wipeout that would have killed most people.
"I went down right on the peak and didn't come up until the rocks. I went from all the way outside to the very inside underwater," recalls Kai. "We went back and looked at the video and timed it. I was down for 50 seconds … but I never felt like I was going to lose it. I felt comfortable."
So, how does Lenny survived nearly a minute of being rag-dolled underwater?
"Legos," he says. "I let my body go limp and let everything just go black. I completely relax every muscle. Then in my head I start building a tower out of Legos. And usually before I'm done building the town in my head I pop up. Or I start thinking about time, and what time really means anyway. What does it mean to be underwater for 50 seconds anyway? Some guys do math when they're being held down, but I was never any good at math, so it's usually just Legos."
Now that you know what's going on inside his skull, check out this latest POV edit of Lenny getting beat down in the impact zone last Saturday:
Kai Lenny Offers Up A Board's Eye View Of What It Means To Get Blasted At Jaws
Jake Howard
"Wiping out is an under-appreciated skill," Laird Hamilton once famously said.
And when Jaws his thumping, as it was on January 16, that under-appreciated skill can mean the difference between life and death. Of course, Kai Lenny, a master of preparation, knows this all too well.During the winter of 2012 he suffered a 50-second hold down at Jaws, a wipeout that would have killed most people.
"I went down right on the peak and didn't come up until the rocks. I went from all the way outside to the very inside underwater," recalls Kai. "We went back and looked at the video and timed it. I was down for 50 seconds … but I never felt like I was going to lose it. I felt comfortable."
So, how does Lenny survived nearly a minute of being rag-dolled underwater?
"Legos," he says. "I let my body go limp and let everything just go black. I completely relax every muscle. Then in my head I start building a tower out of Legos. And usually before I'm done building the town in my head I pop up. Or I start thinking about time, and what time really means anyway. What does it mean to be underwater for 50 seconds anyway? Some guys do math when they're being held down, but I was never any good at math, so it's usually just Legos."
Now that you know what's going on inside his skull, check out this latest POV edit of Lenny getting beat down in the impact zone last Saturday:
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