One of the top longboarders in the world, Kevin Skvarna burst onto the kneeboarding scene in 2022 by taking 2nd in the Open and winning the Pro Jr Division at the US Kneeboard Titles in February at Huntington and taking 3rd in the Open and winning the Pro Jr Division at the Kneeboard World Titles in September at Costa Nova, Portugal.
photos by: @profarazzi_surf and @viana.flavio (The Blue Trip)
On February 17th Kevin was crowned Champion of the 2023 US Kneeboard Titles and also won the Pro Jr Division. We spoke with Kevin to ask him four questions:
Kevin, congratulations on winning the 2023 US Kneeboard Titles along with the Pro Jr Title! What do these Titles mean to you?
I’m ecstatic, it’s definitely something I wanted to do after going to my first US Titles last year. Last year I didn’t have any expectations but really just wanted to see where I was at in comparison to everyone else. Similarly, with the World Titles I knew that I was young and would maybe be exciting, but I didn’t know where my skill level was compared to everyone else. So I didn’t have many expectations going into it except seeing where I was at. As I started advancing through heats something inside of me switched when I was winning all of my Open heats early on, with a second place in one of them, and I realized I was on the better side of things. Then it became something where I was just going to see how far I could go and I would’ve been happy with any result there, making the final or even just progressing through several rounds of the open, so making the final was a big bonus. After last year where I had no expectations, this year I came into it knowing that I could do well, knowing that if I got the right waves and surfed them the way I knew I could surf them and kept myself in the contest, that I could do well. So for it to come together is really nice and I feel very good about taking home the Titles, and hopefully having a run of defending them.
photos by: @brad_colwell and @kevinskvarna
It was a long day for you surfing in 6 heats. How would you describe the effort required to win the US Titles?
It was a long day, for sure, and I felt really tired by the end. I haven’t surfed a full day of comp surfing like that since I was in college, but there still wouldn’t be nearly as many heats, and maybe I would surf four heats in a day. So it was tiring for me and I’m a lot younger than everyone else. I was definitely pretty gassed; It takes a lot out of you surfing that many heats.
What was it like surfing in the final against 3 former US Champions with 10 combined Titles between them, any pressure?
Yes! I knew they were the best guys in terms of being from the US and having a reign of dominance, where among themselves, one of them had won the last 10 years or so. Knowing that going into it I knew that I had to start early and be on the right waves because you weren’t going to be able to win being on the wrong waves. Wave selection was something that I was trying to focus on going into the Final, just knowing that the waves weren’t as good as in the morning but there were still some out there. And not just paddling for every single little wave that I saw, but really trying to get lucky and get one of those more open faced, wedging rights was really important. So it did play a factor knowing that those guys have been so dominant for so many years, but it’s also exciting for me because that’s exactly where I want to be, going up against the best guys. To me it’s really just fun.
photo by Wayne Kopit
What are your kneeboard and longboard surfing goals in the next year or two?
Longboarding, I have a couple of contests coming up. I’m doing the Mexi Log Fest at the end of April and I’m doing a Duct Tape Invitational in Brazil in May, and when I go to those contests I’m definitely trying to win. I’ve come in second in the Mexi Log Fest twice now so I’d really like to win that one. So that’s my big focus right now. Also, the WSL this year. They only take the top 8 surfers to requalify and I’m number 11 so I have to go and do a contest to try and requalify. That’s my biggest goal for the year in longboarding, to requalify for the WSL, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.
photo by @kevinskvarna
Kneeboarding, I just really want to keep learning and experimenting with equipment. I have a couple of new boards that Infinity is making me right now that differ from what I’ve been riding the past year or so. A swallow tail, a step up, and then what I’ve normally been riding but as a 5-fin set up. So, I’m going to start trying a lot of boards, trading them in and seeing what I can learn.
As for contests, the US Titles was the big contest for the year for kneeboarding. I’m really looking forward to the next World Titles and I’m hoping that it’s sooner rather than later. I feel that the US team is in a really good spot right now in terms of momentum and growing, and it would be nice to go to South Africa with the team and do well over there, because I know that we can do super well. I’m really looking forward to that. So, just learning and meeting people is really what I’m interested in right now in terms of kneeboarding.
