by Mark McDermott
Kai Kushner is only 18 years old but his legend as a surfer has been growing steadily for the better part of a decade. He was a ripping mop-haired micro-grom who stood out in the El Porto lineup while still in single digits. By 10, he already had a Ripcurl sponsorship.
Kushner is already in his fourth season in the World Surf Leagues Qualifying Series, the tour-within-a-tour that features the best young surfers on the planet. This week, Kushner will be surfing in the WSL’s Pacifico Surf Open in Cerritos, Baja Sur, Mexico, a qualifying series contest that will include such elite surfers as Alex Cleland, a 2024 Olympian from Mexico who was the International Surfing Association world champion in 2023, and Jhony Corzo, the 2017 world champion.
Kushner is stoked to surf in the event, his ninth WSL contest of the season.
“It definitely pushes my level,” he said. “All those guys are up — like, the level is so high, especially this weekend. So definitely got to go big.”
He has three top ten finishes so far this year, including placing third at the Ron Jon Quicksilver Pro at Cocoa Beach, Florida. Kushner said the experience on the qualifying series has been an education unto itself.
“You learn so much in the series, when you win or when you lose, and it’s definitely more losses than wins,” he said. “And you just learn a lot from all the traveling, and it’s fun, too. You are going to meet a lot of people and experience new places. It’s all a good learning experience.”
The education of Kai Kushner has been a community endeavor. He got his start in competitions almost as soon as he began surfing, when his dad, former South African pro surfer Warren Kushner, pushed him into waves in the “grom assist” division at South Bay Boardriders contests.
Former pro surfer Alex Gray, who likewise began surfing professionally while still a kid, said he saw something special in Kushner when he was still very young, and it was something more than how well he surfed.
“I remember the first time that I met Kai,” Gray said. “He had a big smile on his face, and is the type of kid who would walk up to you and put his hand out, shake your hand and introduce himself. And as funny as it sounds in this day and age. Kai separated himself from other surfers his age in this generation, simply by having a bigger outlook and that kind of old school idea of respect for surfers that had come before him.”
Gray knows well the feeling of being the South Bay’s next big hope in pro surfing, both its ups and downs. And so he took particular note at how well Kushner’s parents balanced encouraging and supporting Kai, while at the same time applying zero pressure for him to pursue professional surfing. He was further impressed when he saw Kai check out of social media early in his teen years.
“I thought it was the smartest move the parents could have ever done for him, to just let him go out and be a surfer,” Gray said. “As adults, and someone like me, on the other side of a career, you realize that we’re just chasing the kind of innocence of that first wave. That feeling of being a kid and allowing that to develop on its own, outside of social media and all that stuff. is so important.”
Local musician, surfer, and family friend Gavin Heaney, who has known Kai since he was 5, said he teaches Kai guitar and his musical skill is nearly as fluid as his surfing.
“Smooth flowing style on board and the guitar solo,” Heaney said. “He has a stability to his surfing that makes it seem effortless. He pulls off the flashy stuff tastefully.”
“Kai has a very mature style, and he always has, since a little kid,” Gray said. “He serves bigger and older than he is.”
This is Cerritos Beach’s first WSL event and was announced only a month ago, because the qualifying series contest scheduled for Acapuco had to be moved due to hurricane damage. It’s an up-and-coming location, however, with another WSL contest likely occurring early next year as well. Both the location and the wave have helped draw the star-studded field of surfers.
“The wave breaks relatively close to shore,” said Axel Gutierrez, the Secretary General of the Surfing Association of Baja Sur. “You are one hour away from two international airports, the same distance from Mexico City as you are from LA , less than a two hour flight. It’s consistent, and there’s always something you can surf, so it’s definitely what a World Surf League event is looking for. It’s contestable on any given day.”
“Good for airs,” Kushner said. “Insane airs.”
Gutierrez, who will also serve as commentator on WorldSurfLeague.com live stream of the contest, said that Cerritos has become a hotbed of surf talent, with 16-year-old Lucas Cassity leading the charge.
“He’s already winning national events on a regular basis up in California, and so he’s probably the next Mexican to reach the world tour,” Gutierrez said. “So I think this is deserving for Cerritos, because it’s the new capital of talent in Mexico. We are regularly sending surfers to Team Mexico to compete in world events.”
Other surfers competing include Sebastian Williams, known for his aerial artistry, and Dimitris Poulous, who is the No. 1 ranked North American in the qualifying tour and arrives in Cerritos fresh off a victory at the La Marginal Surf Pro contest in Puerto Rico two weeks ago.
Kushner is currently ranked No. 28 overall. Gray said that Kushner has been surfing well for so long that it’s easy to forget he’s just at the beginning of his career arc. He won the National Scholastic Surfing Association state championships two years ago, an indicator of just how well he stacks up against the best young surf talent in California, Gray believes Kushner is headed for the uppermost realms of the larger surf world.
“He has a really fierce focus, and he got out of his hometown early, and went to the NSSAs, and put his head down and learned what it was like to go against the best surfers in the nation,” Gray said. “And Kai now has titles under his belt as an amateur and is moving into the World Qualifying Series, where he now has a title as a junior. He’s checking off all the boxes that make you raise your eyebrows and take a now young adult seriously.”
Kushner has also recently joined Team Rivvia, run by Australian pro surfer Julian Wilson, who won Pipeline Masters in 2014 and Quicksilver and Billabong Pro Teahupoo in 2017.
“I look at Kai as not just as the future hope of our hometown, but I think that he is going to be somebody that puts his mark on [surfing] history, as somebody who came from the South Bay,” Gray said. “Of course, it all just depends on if he continues to have love and passion for the idea of being a professional surfer. But I don’t see any of that stopping anytime soon…I think Kai hasn’t even shown us his true greatness yet..”
Tune in to WorldSurfLeague early every morning the rest of the week to watch the Pacifico Surf Open Cerritos. ER
