Want To Make A Good Surf Clip? Split Your Year Evenly Between Bali And Hawaii

If you want to cook up a solid surf clip, Hawaii and Bali are still the meat and potatoes. 

Since the days of psychedelic paint jobs, drug-packed surfboards and prime-time Gerry Lopez, Hawaii and Bali have been staples of the surf world. There are definitely less crowded locales out there to be sure, but those two always seem to be on everyone’s bucket list. 

Enter Maikai Burdine, an 18-year-old born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, who may or may not be living your dream. Over the last few years, Maiaki has spent nearly half the year in Indonesia and the other half in Hawaii.

He took his first trip to Indonesia in 2021, where he and his parents stayed three months in the Mentawais before heading to Bali. With lineups a fraction of what they are today because of the then-stringent Covid-19 regulations, it must have felt like winning the lottery on the first try. 

“The Bird” above, edited by Josh Herz, reveals the fruits of Maikai’s labor from the two island chains. As his mailing addresses would suggest, Maikai rips. With clips from Bali in from summer 2023 and on the North Shore from the 2023-24 winter, Maikai samples Uluwatu wraps, Pipeline chip-ins(with recond reef roll-ins) and even a Waimea bomb.  

Maikai says he’s committed to the contest scene with eyes on the CT, with waves like this in his two backyards, I can’t blame him if he wants to stick with this program for a while.