Meet The Only Guy Knifing Jaws With A PhD

Surfing’s in an interesting place. 

Tim Berner-Lee (the computer scientist who invented the internet) said, “The web does not just connect machines, it connects people,” and in surfing that’s been certifiably true. Connecting the traditional institutions of surfing: the surfing public, the brands, the tour etc to people who it might’ve otherwise trundled along un-noticed. One such person, a scientist himself, is Cliff Kapono. 

Cliff’s far from an unknown to Stab, but in light of a recent 30-minute Vice documentary about Cliff’s life as part of their ‘Let It Kill You’ series, we thought we’d dial Cliff to expand on some themes, fill in some blanks (no Vice dig, they did a fine job, but 30 mins is never long enough, ask Ken Burns), and find out more about the man Vice dubbed the ‘Smartest Surfer in The World’.

“When I seen [the title], I was like, ‘Oh, is this the right guy? They might have embellished a bit,’” Cliff says humbly, from his humble home in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. 

While the world’s “smartest” surfer is subjective, Cliff is certainly the most academically qualified surfer who gets paid to surf (by Vissla, Reef, and Parley for the Oceans), listing an undergrad in Molecular Biotechnology, two Masters Degrees in Biochemistry and straight Chemistry, respectively, and a PHD in Chemistry on his CV. 

One thing you have to give Vice’s film dept credit for is the A-list cast of talking heads they recruited to tell parts of Cliff’s story: Gerry Lopez, Tony Alva, Rob Machado, Arto Saari, Rasta, Dylan Graves and Damien Hobgood (who we’ll get to later) to name but a few. 

People who Cliff is keen to emphasise came into his life gradually and organically, as his path deviates far from that of the traditional pro surfer mode. Cliff didn’t receive his first surf industry cheque until he was 27.

“I was just operating on my own program, and then somehow our paths intertwined,” Cliff says. “I feel really fortunate to have a lot of them as mentors and friends.”

The story that the documentary tells is of a native Hawaiian with a big brain and talent in the water, growing up in the close-knit Hilo community far from both the surfing industry and the mainstream institutions of education. 

Cliff wasn’t a contest guy (he admits that he didn’t have much in the way of guidance when it came to surfing), but he did do well in school. Furthermore, he had people who encouraged him down that path, despite them not necessarily having walked it themselves. 

“I had these very strong male figures like my Dad who celebrated education and science,” Cliff says. “Strong people who were maybe a bit rough around the edges, but were really supportive about school.”

Cliff goes onto to mention in particular his friend Kawika Ahuna (who features heavily in the film) as an influential force in both surfing and science.

“He’s like an older brother to me and was the gnarly slab guy growing up,” Cliff explains. “And then he would always ask me about the new science technology, and for two hours I would talk about genome editing, or chemical structures of different organisms. He was always so open to this idea.”

When Cliff finished high school there were less than 50 native Hawaiians with PHDs in history, and various pathways led to him being able to attend the University of San Diego through a series of scholarships and grants. These same pathways he’s actively fostering as part of the Mega Lab project, a non-profit that focuses on community-based science research (Cliff’s currently helping Hawaiian surfer Crispin Nakoa navigate the labyrinth of obtaining his PhD).

Cliff found transitioning from life in Hilo to SoCal challenging to say the least. 

It’s the moment of conflict in the Vice film and although not overly dwelled upon, Cliff tells me it’s the part of the film that has garnered the most reaction. 

“It’s interesting people’s reception to that moment in the film,” Cliff says. “It’s only like two minutes, but it’s compelled people to create a discourse where they feel uncomfortable: about ‘white privilege’—it’s ‘fake’, or it’s ‘bad’/’good’, but everyone has their own journey and experience, and that’s just mine.”

Cliff goes onto explain that the real Southern California challenge was adjusting to how people operate: at school, in the dorm room, in the surf, all of it. 

“I went there having not learned the rules of how to operate outside of a community-based environment,” Cliff explains. “Individualism was a priority for a majority of people: I was in the competitive space of trying to afford to live there, and I was a part of that too — I was trying to get a PhD.”

The ocean, Cliff’s traditional escape, wasn’t free of the rat race-feel either.

“I understand that those locals from there are getting bombarded by transplants, and they saw me as some student coming there, and I’m taking from their resource,” he explains. “I don’t blame anyone for it, it’s just where it’s at, and I was in the middle of it.”

Enter a surfing soothsayer who features briefly (and somewhat unexplained-ly) us as a talking head in the Vice film: Damien Hobgood. 

“Damo actually was someone who really helped me in San Diego a lot,” Cliff explains. “He just was a legend, an inspiration. We’d surf a bunch together, and he helped me find waves off the map, which led to finding new communities of people that were very inviting. Eventually that led me to making my way back more home, and surfing Jaws swells.”

As well as forming a lasting relationship with Jaws, moving home led to Cliff co-founding The Mega Lab, which dominates the majority of his life, swell permitting. 

The central thesis of his organisation is mapping coral reefs, often the ones we surf, in an aim to collect a reef database that doesn’t currently exist. By recruiting regular people (aka “Citizen Scientists”) to use whatever’s available to them: phones, GoPros, anecdotes etc, to contribute.

“It’s just a group of ocean researchers that have diverse backgrounds,” Cliff explains. “The weirder you are, the more you fit in to The Megalab.

“Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok: their goal is to get your attention, collect data and monetize that — whereas the Mega Lab’s goal is to use data to develop technology to protect the ocean and communities who may need it the most. We’re trying to figure out how to play the evil game to find trends in what’s going on, and uncover stories about reefs around the world.”

The brief for getting onto Cliff was supposed to be to sprinkle some colour on the Vice film and provide an update on what he’s been up to, but we ended up speaking for well over an hour. 

In parting, after covering much ground re: the nuances of where we’re at currently as a species, I ask whether in general he feels “powerful or powerless”, in the light of the current climate change situation. 

“I don’t think it should be reserved to just environmental climate change, as we’re looking at economic, social and geographic change,” Cliff explains. “What I’m most hopeful about is that change is giving people who maybe have not been seen before an opportunity to feel what it’s like to be valued. We need creative solutions and we need creative people to start speaking their voice and it’s allowing more people to join in. Before it was a lot more restrictive in who has an opportunity to fix things.”

When it comes to people who’re smart, creative and good at speaking (not to mention able to handle the drop at Jaws) then we’d certainly trust Cliff Kapono to create solutions. He’s quite literally a Doctor.

Follow Cliff on the gram and enter the Mega Lab.