Dave Kalama

I’m pretty pleased with the progress I’ve made with shaping boards that do what I think a great SUP surf board should do.  Here’s a video of how a few of my latest shapes perform.

Visit Dave’s site: A […]

My exit from Naish has been getting much more attention than I expected. There seems to be a lot of conjecture–some of it is pretty dramatic–so I feel motivated to give some insight as to what would make me walk […]

You’re invited to participate in my backyard playground. What? I’m partnering with the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea to host a Kalama-style Maui Surf Camp. You can find the skinny of the play date here. […]

When I was in high school I did a lot of ski racing and was fortunate to have some very good coaches work with me.  One of the things that always intrigued me was how the right combination of words could have a profound effect on a person’s understanding and visualization of a desired movement. So much [...]

My good friend Pat Myers has been in town the last few days, trying to collect some footage of me, and threw together this little piece of some fun south side action. Hope you like it. Also a quick congratulations to Connor Baxter for doing such a great job in the Molokai to Oahu. I [...]

Before there was $50,000 awarded for a single drop, before anyone won a Big Wave World Championship , and before high school freshmen started towing in at Jaws, there were the pioneers. They were big wave surfers who used new apparatus to see just how big they could go. That crew included the likes of Darrick Doerner, Buzzy [...]

I’ve offered quite a bit of technical information over the last year playing with this blog. Hopefully some of it helped you. But I’m continuing to learn new things myself, both about my own approach to challenges and about coaching. One thing I’ve discovered is how important mind set is. I guess I’ve known it all [...]

As my coaching efforts increase, so does the necessity to be creative with my explanations of what I’m trying to convey. You can only say “Reach, Dammit, Reach” so many times before your student only hears “blah, blah, blah”. So I came up with a simple paddle exercise and a drill that does all the explaining [...]

Costa Rica here we come. In just about two months the Kalama Kamp crew and I will be hosting our first camp in Costa Rica. I’ve been to Costa Rica a few times myself, but I have a feeling this will be the best one because we will have one of the best surfers in [...]

It seems that everybody around at the beginning of stand up wants to claim that they were the one that started the whole thing. Who cares, no one is giving away awards for the one that is responsible for it all. There’s no cash bonuses being handed out, even if we all did agree one person [...]

Photo Darrell Wong So you’ve read all the technique articles, watched all the videos on you tube, maybe even attended a clinic from one of the pros. You’ve spent countless hours processing all the information and tried to integrate it into your stroke. Maybe you’ve even gone as far as having some one video tape you so that [...]

It seems that everybody around at the beginning of stand up wants to claim that they were the one that started the whole thing. Who cares, no one is giving away awards for the one that is responsible for it all. There’s no cash bonuses being handed out, even if we all did [...]

It seems that everybody around at the beginning of stand up wants to claim that they were the one that started the whole thing. Who cares, no one is giving away awards for the one that is responsible for it all. There’s no cash bonuses being handed out, even if we all did [...]

I would like to say how proud I am of Kai Lenny for winning the wave riding stand up world title. I had a chance to work with him a little bit on his wave riding technique and style prior to the event, so like any self respecting coach, I would like to take more [...]

Many of the technical parts in a good stroke come from canoe paddling because canoe paddling and canoe strokes have been practiced and refined for hundred, perhaps thousands of years. Extending your arm all the way forward, twisting the upper torso towards the extended arm, bending at the waist slightly to extend all the way [...]

A couple of weeks ago we had a very nice surfing day here on Maui. Here are a few shots from that day. Aloha, Dave

Photos by Jerome Houyvet

Visit Dave’s site: A Waterman’s Journal: Dave Kalama

Once upon a time when I was young, I was attending a small community college outside Sacramento. I was trying desperately to be a ski racer. At the beginning of the season we did a time trial to determine everybody’s position on the team which would determine starting position at races. I was second fastest on [...]

Like a lot of groms from my era, I idolized many of the great surfers from the seventies, especially the guys from Hawaii. I loved Larry Bertlemen’s cut back and rubberman style, Button’s incredible creativity and playfulness, and most of all Gerry Lopez’s style and grace. Even more though was Gerry’s persona and the way [...]

Nose riding looks easy, all you really do is stand there, but for many it seems like a mystery that’s unsolvable. With a couple of simple tips you can not only have a clue but most likely find yourself logging some serious tip time. You can noseride on almost any SUP board, but there are certainly [...]