Kai Garcia - The SURFER Interview

Even homegrown prodigies like Bruce Irons, seen here sucking foam behind Kai, have to pay dues.

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Will you still be on Oahu? Will you be back on Kauai?
To tell you the truth, I’ll probably be on Oahu. I don’t think I’ll go home to Kauai until I retire, and I really don’t want to retire without putting somebody in my place here. I don’t want to see this place falling apart. Right now I’m trying to pass on whatever I can for these kids and the guys around me, but there’s still no strong figure to pass the torch to. The guys who would be natural fits, character wise, are only about 5’5’’, you know? What can you command at 5’5’’? You got to be 6 feet tall and two-hundred pounds-plus to handle this job [laughs]. So we’ll see how it goes.

Now that you’re raising your kids in Hawaii, what sort of advice can you give to your children about how to avoid all the bullshit?
Man, that’s a tough one. You just got to be there for them, nurture them, and do your best to put them on the path. But at some point, they’re going to do their own thing…15, 16, give or take…could be after high school, could be during high school, but at some point some kid will pass them an ice pipe and you just hope they’ll be strong enough to say, “Get that thing away from me.” That’s the biggest thing right there.

Are the odds of that conversation happening almost a certainty?
Oh, it’s going to happen. And it’s not like when we were kids and somebody passed us a joint. Like, “Here, try this, Mikey.” Now it’s an ice pipe, which is a completely different story, with much heavier consequences.

You said you feel like a psychologist sometimes. That seems especially true for guys in Kauai’s Wolf Pack. You’re sort of the patriarch of that crew. Does that involve keeping them in line too?
I’ll crack the whip when I have to. You know, I’m not going to let them get stupid. I think this will be a pretty normal year on Oahu. And you know, my number one guy—we all know who that is—I’m always on him about being right with the industry, and people around the world in general, because if you’re not you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Life’s pretty simple: if nobody trusts you, you won’t be given opportunities. Nobody wants to deal with a walking time bomb. So, yeah, I’m a bit of a head shrink at times. I want all those guys to succeed and be able to take advantage of opportunities that are there. It’s like, who is running Quiksilver Hawaii these days? As we speak, it’s nobody…but none of my friends are ready for that yet, and you’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to be able to go around the world and have no problems with nobody. It’s as simple as that.

When the winter crowds start arriving, are you as excited for another season today as you were, say, 10 years ago?
Oh, I love it. I mean, all my friends are coming from all over the world, so it’s like a big buffet. Wintertime is time to work, you know, with the kids, with everybody. I’m watching, learning, observing everyone’s ways, their patterns, so I can pick them apart. The same way any good shrink would.

A Brazilian Jujitsu black belt, Kai obviously knows a thing or two about power and release in the water.