Aspiring surfer and skateboarder Kalani David died Saturday in Costa Rica after suffering a seizure while riding the waves. He was 24 years old.
The Inertia was the first to write about the news. Keoni, David’s younger brother, seemed to confirm it when he wrote on his Instagram story, “You are the best brother I could ever ask for. I will miss you Kalani.”
David was born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii. He was born with a surfboard in one hand and a skateboard in the other. When he was 14 years old, he was described as a “seasoned veteran” in his X-Games biography.
Who Was Kalani David?
In 2012, he received one of his first major awards when he won a gold medal at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in Panama. This was the first of many awards he has won since.
The 24-year-old also had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a congenital heart condition in which an extra electrical lead can cause an abnormal and sometimes dangerously fast heartbeat. Some people may experience seizures, which are not always fatal, but usually involve loss of consciousness, which is especially dangerous in the ocean.
In August 2016, Kalani David had his first seizure while skating with friends at a park in Oceanside, California. He later wrote on Instagram that when he was 18, he “fell on his face and woke up in an ambulance.” His heart stopped for a short time, and he had three more seizures in the hospital. David wrote, “I am so happy to be alive!”
Just before Christmas, months later, David had another seizure in Oahu, Hawaii. The seizure occurred in the middle of the night, and he later wrote on Instagram that he was “lucky to be alive” because he had been having seizures for about six hours before his friends found him.
He was placed in a coma by doctors and remained there for two days. A few weeks later, during a surgical procedure, he had an extra muscle removed from his heart, or “burned,” as he put it.
David could never have done without either of the two things he loved. In 2016, he told Stab magazine, “If it was a matter of life and death and I had to choose between skating and surfing, I would choose death.”
As news of the young star’s death spread Saturday, people flocked to see him. Peter King, a surf photographer and filmmaker, was one of the first to remember David. “I will always remember how excited you were when we shot skate n surf and how hopeful you were about your future,” he wrote.
Freesurf magazine wrote that David was “indeed a prodigy” who had “hundreds if not thousands of trophies.” In a Facebook post, the magazine wrote, “We’ve followed his career for at least 15 years. Maybe since kindergarten?”
“Kalani was one of the best surfers and skaters to ever live,” surf legend Kelly Slater wrote in his Instagram story. “Every time he was on his feet he pushed the limits further and further.”
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