18-Year-Old Kala DeSoto Becomes Youngest Ever Backdoor Shootout Winner

Last winter on the North Shore was relentless. Battered to death by swell, spines going every other day, a proper season. Good conditions for every contest, including the 2025 DaHui Backdoor Shootout. No other way to say it: it was positively fucking firing. A team of Japanese assassins won the team event, while Koa Rothman won individual bragging rights. 

This year ran differently.

“The holding period was very hard to decipher,” says Kuio Young, coach to event winner Kala DeSoto and, as it happens, progeny of former longboard world champ Duane DeSoto. “We were down there every day trying to pick the eyes out of it, find windows, but most of the time the forecast didn’t match what actually showed up. We ended up with just two days of competition.”

“The second day ran more like an expression session,” Kuio continues. “You could surf as long as you wanted between 12:30 and 4:30. Everyone could battle it out, stay out there, and try to get whatever wave they could.”

Kala got the wave of the day on day one. By finals morning, though, Kuio found him deflated, ready to paddle out for the sake of it, but mostly thinking about going home.

“They weren’t going to count the first day, and given he’d had the best wave, yeah, he was a little disappointed,” says Kuio. “I saw him on the shoreline and asked what he was doing. He said he’d jump in, then probably go home. I told him, fuck that! We went back to the house, came up with a plan, where to sit, what to wait for. I said, give me two hours. Once it stops being fun, come in.”

“He went out, sat where he was supposed to, and got four or five good waves, with one standout right,” Kuio continues. “He made it all happen. I knew when he came in that he’d won. They handed out two awards — wave of the day and performance of the event. Kala got both.”

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With the win, Kala becomes the youngest surfer ever to take the Backdoor Shootout. Add last year’s longboard title and he’s now the only surfer in the event’s history to win across multiple divisions.

“He’s a full-fledged, no-joke waterman,” says Kuio. “I know that term gets thrown around a lot, but he can do everything — paddle canoes, steer canoes, body surf, boogie board. He grew up in Mākaha, so down there you just ride whatever’s in front of you.”

Heard much of the kid before today? I had not. Kuio assures me this is only the opening salvo on what will doubtless become a very long list of achievements for the young lad.

“I think this is just the beginning for him. He’s a really, really talented surfer — I’ve seen it with my own eyes. He’s got a unique style and a natural connection with the ocean. Having a moment like this to get the recognition he wanted, not just personally, but as a young, up-and-coming Native Hawaiian surfer representing his family, where he comes from, and the Hawaiian people in general, is going to be really huge for him.”