S - Ep 006 Keahi De Aboitiz

Freddie’s first-ever solo interview (Liam was away in France) — a chat with 4x world-champion wave/surf-style kite rider Keahi De Aboitiz, recorded in the Cabrinha airstream at the Hayling Island BKSA kite event during the brand’s South Coast UK tour. Set up by Karl Cadwallader of Cabrinha UK (per the intro, also thanks to a Cabrinha marketing manager whose name is garbled in the transcript). Freddie frames it as nerve-racking, unpractised early-format territory and admits to being hungover.

In brief

Keahi — Australian by birth, now largely Hawaii-based (his mother is Hawaiian, giving him a US passport; he moved there more or less full-time once COVID made the Australia commute pointless) — talks through his path from kite racing into kite foiling around 2012 in Maui, his long Cabrinha sponsorship, his current foil/board/wing quiver, and a growing interest in downwind foiling. The tour itself (Germany, Holland, France, then the UK) and UK-specific talking points (seaweed, spot names, the tiny-board trend) run alongside the gear talk.

Key topics & claims

• Background (Keahi): Australian, mother from Hawaii, American passport; moved to Hawaii close to full-time roughly 10–11 years ago and permanently once COVID hit; girlfriend also based there.
• Kite foiling origins (Keahi): first tried a kite foil almost by accident on a no-wind day in Maui around 2012 (the year of his first world title) — “got my ass handed to me,” took a few hours to link it together, then got hooked. Credits Kite Foiling’s wider explosion to a rival brand (“Go Foil,” no existing page — see candidate below) making the first thicker, less-efficient foil aimed at small-wave riding rather than performance; recalls his own early attempt towing into a wave on a Cabrinha “Double Agent” foil as inefficient by comparison. Notes that Go Foil has apparently never had a UK distributor.
• Cabrinha career (Keahi): sponsored internationally by Cabrinha since roughly 2011 (~11 years at the time of recording), nationally in Australia before that. Was briefly with Neil Pride for foil gear before switching back to Cabrinha for everything foil-related “a few years ago.”
• High-aspect vs medium-aspect foils (Keahi, echoing a running Freddie/Liam debate): Cabrinha’s high-aspect “ART” line has “taken over” his riding the last year or two; medium-aspect foils now feel “slow and sluggish” to him for pumping/gliding, though he concedes they still suit steeper, tighter-pocket waves where the extra drag helps with tight turning and stops you outrunning the wave. He tells Freddie he’s “completely comfortable” with Freddie telling Liam to write off low/medium aspect for pumping and gliding.
• Current quiver (Keahi): foils — Cabrinha H-series (650/800/1000/1200, developed with a teammate named “Brody,” transcribed only as first name), mostly rides the 800, uses the 1000 in small/light-wind waves and the 650 for towing; was also riding an unreleased ~700 sample at the event. Wings — Cabrinha’s X-series (four sizes, all sharing a 90cm span, chord increasing down the range for user-friendliness); a high-aspect X-series mark 2 is coming, closer to the 1200 H-series geometry. Boards — Code range (beginner/intermediate, down to a 4’8”/58L he uses as a light-wind board, and a 5’5”/78L he was riding while returning from a knee injury); a newer, smaller “Links” range at 4’3” (37L), 4’5” (44L, his usual go-to at 80kg) and 4’7”. Says a modular fuselage/tail system (shims, swappable tails, a “one-piece” efficient tail, and an advanced short-fuse setup he calls something like “Collideos,” name uncertain) lets him retune maneuverability vs drive for conditions.
• Discipline preferences (Keahi): condition-dependent — surfing when it’s pumping, kiting when there’s wind with waves, wing foiling in lighter/lull conditions or when wave count matters most (wing foiling is, in his words, closest to tow foiling and lets you catch a wave “30 seconds before it breaks”). Does relatively little prone foiling now by comparison, and describes himself as still fairly new to downwind foiling.
• Downwind foiling (Keahi): growing personal interest via tow-assisted open-ocean swells and a couple of wing-foil downwinders; describes Hood River as an especially good spot because outgoing tide running against the wind stacks the swell into bigger bumps, and mentions Axis and Armstrong downwind board samples turning up there. Technique tip: unlike wave foiling (where you chase the steepest part of the wave you’re on), downwind linking means scanning for the next bump behind the one you’re on, since it will draw water from the one in front — “heads on a swivel.” References James Casey’s prone downwind paddling background and a reported 200km+ world-record paddle that reportedly started with pure flat-water pumping.
• Pumping technique (Keahi): learning curve involves not overworking it — beginners tend to over-pump and, on high-aspect foils especially, that can actually slow you down. Tips: use the upper body/arms early on to help generate lift, shift front-foot weight slightly further back for better balance on a back-foot-heavy stance, and aim for fewer, more solid pumps that let the foil glide rather than constant thrashing.
• UK tour observations (Keahi): impressed by the standard of UK foilers, particularly at Poole, and by a Devon crew nicknamed the “KFC” (Colonel Foil Crew, said in jest) around what sounds like Croyde/Bantham/Bigbury (place names garbled in the transcript). Comments on UK seaweed being unusually sticky and hard to shake off a foil. Notes the UK trend of riders instinctively sizing boards down to match what they see Hawaii riders posting on Instagram, which backfires in the UK’s typically lighter, gustier wind.
• Other topics: Cabrinha’s co-branded “Drifter” beer with a South Carolina brewery, funding a programme that teaches injured/disabled military veterans to kite and foil; a UK launch tie-in with a Cornwall brewery (transcribed “Blunt Rock,” uncertain) timed to the tour. Mentions duck-starting and boat-wake riding (including riding many wakes back behind a sternwheeler paddle steamer at Hood River) as another accessible way to get foiling time without waves or wind.

Gear / brands mentioned

Cabrinha (H-series foils 650/800/1000/1200 + unreleased ~700 sample, X-series wings and upcoming mark 2, Code boards, new “Links” boards, Double Agent foil, “Drifter” beer), Neil Pride (brief prior foil sponsor, no page), “Go Foil” (credited with pioneering slow/thick surf-kite foils, no UK distributor — no existing page, see candidate below), Axis and Armstrong (downwind board samples at Hood River), SIC paddleboards (Cabrinha reportedly distributes these; longstanding Hawaii downwind-paddling heritage).

Notable quotes or takes

• On high-aspect foils dividing opinion: after a year on Cabrinha’s ART, riding a medium-aspect foil left him feeling it was “slow and sluggish” (paraphrased) — though he still rates medium-aspect for tight, steep-wave turning.
• On downwind bump-reading: described it as almost the reverse of normal wave foiling — instead of chasing the steepest section under you, you’re already watching for the next bump behind it, because it draws water off the one you’re on (paraphrased).
• On barrel-riding on a foil (referencing a Jeremy Wilmot clip): impressive, but not something he’s rushing to try himself — for him the appeal of foiling is turning average, unremarkable days into fun ones, so deliberately seeking out barrels felt like the wrong risk/reward trade (paraphrased).

Mentioned

Keahi De Aboitiz · Freddie · Liam · Cabrinha · Axis · Armstrong · Hood River · James Casey · Kite Foiling · Wing Foiling · Prone Foiling · Downwind · Pumping · Boards

Upgraded from the earlier description-only stub to a full transcript-based summary. Auto-transcribed (faster-whisper, unreviewed): the transcript consistently renders “tow foiling” as “toe foiling” throughout (interpreted here as tow-behind-boat/ski foiling, not literal toe-steering); UK place names are garbled (“Camasans” likely Camber Sands, “brank some Dean” likely Branksome Dene, “Big Brea” and “Dama” uncertain, possibly Bigbury and a Devon/Croyde-area spot); the Cabrinha UK marketing manager’s name and the teammate “Brody” are given only as partial/uncertain names; the advanced fuselage system nicknamed “Collideos” and the UK-launch brewery “Blunt Rock” are uncertain transcriptions; speaker turns are unlabelled throughout and were attributed by context (interviewer Freddie vs guest Keahi), with the whole interview being a single continuous back-and-forth that is occasionally hard to split cleanly.