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TODAY!
Mr. Consistant-Chasing the World
By Katie Young
You can’t know surfing without knowing the name Kalani Robb. The North Shore resident has been charging the big waves ever since he was a twiggish teenager.
Although Robb has yet to win a World Surfing Champion title, he’s been a top contender on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour for over a decade.
Robb is training hard and is poised to come back strong on next year’s tour, hoping to upset fellow local surfer and three-time world champion Andy Irons.
Irons fuels Robb’s fire to win, as the two grew up surfing the same contests. “We’ve surfed together all our lives and he’s won the most world championships out of Hawaii so he’s the most inspirational to me too,” says Robb, 27.
Robb says he knows he can get the job done — he used to beat Irons all the time when they were younger.
“And I know I’ve improved in my surfing a lot in the past few years, so I’ll be mad if I can’t pull off a world title.”
Personal trainer Rob Garcia says, “I think by far Kalani has the most amount of natural talent for his sport that there has ever been. Just as far as pure athlete, pure surfer — all the responses it takes to be world-class at this sport — he’s got it all.”
Garcia has trained Robb since 1998 and has also trained other big-name surfers such as Irons and Sunny Garcia.
“I expect big things of Kalani in 2005, for sure,” says Garcia. “He’s rejuvenated, ready to go out there and chase the world title.”
Over the years Robb has been on the World Championship Tour (WCT) he’s been ranked everywhere from 5th to 25th.
In 1999, Robb placed second in Da Hui Backdoor Shootout and in 2000, he earned his first WCT victory in the Rio Marathon Surf Pro.
Injuries and illness have plagued the natural athlete and oftentimes kept him from advancing in his standings.
“I’ve had a few things test me where I almost didn’t make it,” admits Robb. “I’ve gotten into a lot of motorcross accidents and broken my collarbone twice, both my wrists, finger and toes.”
Every time something got broken, Robb, who has been doing motorcross since he was 18, was forced to forego the waves while he healed.
“It has kept me out of surfing at certain points in time,” he says. “When I was getting rated high, it would move me back down, so it affected me a lot.”
In the past, Robb has also had serious concussions from skateboarding, and one year got lost in the snow while snowboarding in Tahoe, Nevada.
“I had to get rescued,” he remembers. “I went off the wrong place on the hill and got stuck in the snow for five hours. It was getting dark and I almost died.”
In 1997, Robb also got malaria while on a surf trip to Bali. “I was in the jungle in Bali at this really historical contest they did there,” he says. “It was in the woods and you had to sleep in trees and be careful of tigers — it was crazy. I had really bad luck and ended up with malaria.”
Just this year, Robb gave up riding motorcross on land to focus instead on riding the waves. “I crashed this year and had to miss a surf trip to Indonesia so I figured that [doing motorcross] was pretty much over now. I thought, ‘I’ll just take up golf so I don’t hurt myself.’”
That’s exactly what Robb did too, and even though he says he’d rather be jumping all the golf course hills, instead of hitting a ball across them, at least he’s injury-free for the moment.
Robb says he’s also almost drowned countless times, such as during this year’s Triple Crown of Surfing Series when he got held under at Sunset for so long he thought he was a goner.
“I was thinking, ‘Frick, I’m going to die right here in front of everybody,’” says Robb. “It happens all the time because you’re underwater for too long. I just imagine I’m a fish and I belong down there so I’ll just swim and cruise… Nah, mostly I just try not to panic.”
Danger comes with the territory and getting to surf makes it worthwhile for Robb. It’s a way of life and something he has been doing ever since he was seven.
“I started surfing in Waikiki because my babysitter was a surfer and she would take me down to the beach and teach me,” says Robb. “I learned right there with all the Beach Boys.”
When Robb was 10, he claimed his first surfing victory in a Haleiwa menehune event. From there, his parents, Linda and Richard Robb, who adopted Kalani as an infant, moved from their boathouse on the Ala Wai to the North Shore. Kalani graduated from Kahuku High School in 1995.
Through the late ‘80s, people took notice of Robb’s talents. As an amateur, he reached every fathomable goal: the Nationals, U.S. Championships, OP Junior and the World Junior Title in Brazil’s 1994 World Games.
He shot through the WQS as an amateur and the same year he graduated from high school, joined the big leagues as a 17-year-old on the WCT.
Robb was the youngest pro surfer on tour and joined the ranks with surf heroes like Kelly Slater, Shane Dorian and Rob Machado. After earning Rookie of the Year honors, he rose to seventh the following season.
Although it was exceptional to be surfing the big waves with big name surfers, being the youngest on tour wasn’t always easy.
Robb’s parents often accompanied him on tour and were co-directors of the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) for seven years. In 2001, the couple stepped down when Linda was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. (Robb is happy to report that his mother has since conquered her battle with the disease and now runs her own women’s boutique, North Shore Underground, in Haleiwa.)
“I think the next youngest to me on tour was like 24 or something like that,” recalls Robb, who was often nicknamed “K-Robb” because no one else on tour could pronounce “Kalani.”
“It sucked to be 17. Guys were trying to mad dog me all the time because I was such a young kid and they thought I wasn’t supposed to be in the contest area where the competitors were. I couldn’t rent a car. Anytime I pulled money out or used a credit card, people thought I stole it because I was so young.”
But the tour also took Robb to places most people only read about in classroom textbooks.
“I think I learned a lot about the world, how to travel and about different cultures,” says Robb. “It was all the stuff you see in magazines and in books and I reached it way faster than most people would just by surfing. I think that’s great.”
Robb travels on tour about six or seven months out of the year to every spot you can imagine with great surf. His favorite place to go is Australia. “I love going to the Gulf coast and Bells,” he says. “I’ve been to pretty much every coast of Australia and I’ve liked all the people and the whole vibe of the country.
“They’re real laid back and really into water sports too. They take it very seriously. They give a lot more respect an status to pro surfer, almost like we’re NBA players or something.”
The WCT also takes surfers to remote, almost unheard of locations — hunting out the most wicked waves.
“The farthest away from home I’ve ever been was Reunion Island,” says Robb. It’s off the coast of South Africa. It’s beautiful, but it was so far away, I thought I was never going to come home.
“You know when you were young and you like skateboarded real far from home and thought, ‘Wow, I hope I have what it takes to get home?’ Well, not since I was a kid did I think that, until I went to Reunion Island.”
The trip, says Robb, was a six-hour flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, then another six hours from Los Angeles to New York, then 18 hours to Johannesburg and another six hours to Reunion Island.
Traveling over half the year can make you really happy to come home. And when you live with the North Shore surf right outside your door, it’s even better.
“I can see the whole North Shore from my living room,” says Robb. “It’s the best thing.”
During the winter months, when the North Shore surf is high, you’ll rarely see Robb in town. He prefers to tear it up at V-Land or Rocky Point, where he’s known to be the best on the break.
“The perfect conditions for me are when it’s about 20 minutes until dark and I’m out a Rocky Point,” he says. “I’m at home anytime I’m out there, I think.”
When a south swell rolls in, Robb’s favorite spot is Ala Moana Bowls.
“Even though it’s really crowded and all that, I’ve always like Bowls because it was a treat to surf there when you’re a kid, especially when you make the state competition,” he says. “I’ve always liked it for that reason.”
Wherever he rides, Robb takes along a board by legendary shaper Al Merrick.
“I’ve been trying to ride for him my whole life because he’s the No. 1 shaper all over the world,” says Robb.
In Robb’s quiver, you’ll find a range of boards from 5’9” to 8’4”.
“Right now I like to surf when it’s kind of mid-size waves,” says Robb, whose other sponsors include Fox Racing, Gravis Footwear, Electric Sunglasses, Lei Leis restaurant and Hukilau Cafe.
“I like to use a 6-foot or 5’11” board. It’s perfect for hot-doggin’.”
Don’t count him out of the big waves, however. Robb has no fear when it comes to charging some of the biggest breaks there are.
“I like surfing Pipeline a lot too because that’s the biggest barrel you can find,” he says. “I’ve gotten a lot of good waves at Pipe. Anytime I’ve gotten a 10 [during a contest] it was a great feeling. Plus, it was in front of my hometown and the North Shore crowd. The break is so close to the beach that you can always hear everyone yelling.”
One of the things that was hardest for Robb to get used to is how interested everyone has seemed to be in his love life, especially in his first girlfriend — fellow surfer and model, Malia Jones.
“I think everyone likes to talk about me because I used to go out with Malia and we did that Coke commercial together, blah, blah, blah …” he laughs. “It’s the most amazing thing to me that people actually care about my love life, but I guess it’s kind of a compliment that people keep track of who I go out with.”
Just to set the record straight, Robb dated Jones from the time he was 15 to 20.When they got together to do the national Coke-a-Cola commercial this year, it was the first time the two had talked face-to-face since their break-up six years ago.
Robb says the producers called him and said, “We’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that you got the commercial, the bad news is your ex-girlfriend is in it.”
“I was like, ‘Which one?’” jokes Robb. “It’s hard to do anything when your ex-girlfriend is sitting next to you. Plus, when we were dating we were more or less being groomed as the next ‘super couple.’ But the commercial was good in that it helped us work out a lot of things. It brought closure I guess.”
Robb is currently single and says his type is “local girls.”
“As much as I don’t like local girls, I love local girls for everything that they are,” he says. “They know your style and they’re fiery. I need a girl who can be fiery, otherwise I’ll get bored if she only does what I tell her.”
While Robb is still looking for that perfect woman and building his way back up to the top of the pro surfing rankings, one thing is for sure: no matter where in the world he is, you’ll find Robb surfing at least twice a day. He also keeps in shape by running five miles every other day and doing a variety of plyometric exercises.
When he gets to be at home, Robb’s ritual is to wake up in the morning, walk across the street to the beach and take his pit bull, Sunny, for a walk to check out the surf.
“I still laugh that this is my job,” admits Robb. “Sometimes I think about it when I’m paddling into a wave. Imagine it: I woke up, checked the waves, ate breakfast, and went surfing. I hung out on the beach, saw a hot chick — that was great — went surfing again, went home, went to sleep, woke up and did it all over again.
“Then I flew to Australia, Paris … all these spots that are crazy spots to go, and it’s my job. I’m from the North Shore and when you come from the North Shore to there — it’s pretty far to go.”