LYN DEN/ KENNING S
In an era where surfing had turned pro and surfers had begun to call themselves athletes, with strict training at nutrition regimes, Lynden Kennings came along and turned the world upside down as our original party animal. Lynden’s carefree spirit was often the undoing of his success, and he was credited with the title of the guy who should be winning but wasn’t. In free surfs Lynden’s freakish ability in all waves and on all crafts was mind blowing. He is credited with being this country’s first aerial exponent with Lynden being a skateboarder he took the skate attitude into the surf, and many claimed the Lynden could ride a door better than most could ride a surfboard. Lynden was also one of the original watermen, a guy that windsurfed, rode longboards, and was one of the first to surf Stand Up paddle boards. While Lynden could ride anything he couldn’t ride a boogie board which was proven when the NZ Team had a team’s contest in Tahiti and the team had no boogie boarder so Lynden said he’d do it and came up against Mike Stewart and Ben Severson which had everyone in tears as Lynden ran down in flippers. Lynden was also in his time a sponsored snowboarder. In 1990 and 91 Lynden put it all together and won two consecutive National Titles and has won 8 National Longboard titles, in 1991 he was dominant winning the Auckland Champs Canterbury Champs, the NZ Circuit and the Nationals. He represented NZ at the ISA World Champs in England 86, Brazil 94 and USA 96. In the 1994 World Champs Lynden placed an agonisingly 2nd place in the longboard 0.01 of a point off becoming the World Champion. He went on to compete on the World Longboard Tour winning events in France and England and finishing 9th in the World. Lynden is also proud of being one of the first pioneers in surfing big wave spots in Fiordland and on Northland’s West Coast, as well as being the only surfer to ever be banned from competing in NZ. Lynden is also the only surfer on this list to be abducted by aliens which probably explains his freakish ability.