It was quite a moment when we saw the the video of Kai Lenny and Connor Baxter in a flat water SUP battle. The video went instantly viral and of course many of us asked our selves if there is a hint that Kai might return to the APP tour. The timing would not be bad as we the APP Tour is opening up its season in Santa Monica on June 24th.
Connor is already in training mode and will be traveling to the US mainland pretty soon. So is Kai coming back to stand up paddling? This was the question asked across many news outlets and comments on social media. The scene brought back many great memories to the time when these two guys had a rivalry, I can only compare to Andy Irons and Kelly Slater. We remember great battles at the APP events in Turtle Bay or back at the PPG / Battle of the Paddle in Salt Creek when things even got pretty heated at the beach.
Of course I could not help myself and had to reach out to Kai with the big question if he has any plans. I was told as of right now there are no plans to return to competitive SUP racing but Kai is not ruling it out completely. One thing I am convinced of is, that if Kai would return to competitive SUP racing we would settle for nothing less than a place on the podium. With competitors like Titou, Noic, Connor and many others this will involve some serious training and preparation.
For now we enjoy this epic video of these two legends battling it out for fun: