Kai Lenny left the 2019 WSL Big Wave Awards with two of the night's top prizes. The American surfer won the Men's XXL Biggest Wave Award and was named Big Wave Performer of the Year. Kai Lenny of Spreckelsville won the Men's XXL Biggest Wave Award as well as the Men's Overall Performance Award at the ceremony, announced during an event in Redondo Beach, California.
A mountain of Jaws, ridden clean
The winning ride came at Pe'ahi, the Maui reef known to the world as Jaws. The wave was ridden at Jaws, Maui, Hawaii on November 26, 2018. Lenny dropped down a near-vertical face on his home break and held his line to the shoulder.
That day is now part of surfing folklore. It produced a full slate of award-winning rides, and Lenny's was judged the biggest of the season. The same swell delivered the 2019 Ride of the Year, won by Grant Baker at Jaws on the same date.
Second straight XXL crown, on his own reef
The award confirmed Lenny's place at the front of big-wave surfing. He was awarded the 2019 XXL Biggest Wave for the second year running. He took the biggest-wave and performance honours from a field that included the sport's leading names.
Lenny has spoken about pushing the limits of what a big wave can hold. Reflecting on his aerial approach at Jaws, he told reporters, "I should be 30 feet above the lip doing a triple cork — that's the goal."
The double win sat within a wider run of honours in 2019. Months later he became the youngest person inducted into the Surfers' Hall of Fame, one more marker in a career built on the water off Maui.
