At 4 years old, Kalānōweo DeSoto loved to skateboard. His mom would take him and his siblings to the Hickam Skate Hangar, where they spent hours skating the mini ramps. But DeSoto was focused on something bigger: the action taking place at the towering 12-foot vert ramp at the front of the hangar.
He would watch teens drop into the ramp again and again. After about eight months of observation, the young DeSoto committed.
“He went up there to the top of the vert ramp, probably a dozen times before he dropped in,” said his mom Mālia Kaʻaihue. “He watched it and looked at it and walked back down, and then finally, one day he just did it.”
He was the youngest to ever do it.
That willingness to study, wait, and then commit carried over the years from dropping into vert ramps at skate parks to riding mountain-high waves at some of the world’s most challenging surf breaks.
Now at 18, DeSoto is the youngest invitational surfer ever to win the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout and the only competitor in event history to win titles in two disciplines at Pipeline: the longboard and shortboard.
At the 2026 Da Hui Backdoor Shootout in January, 40 of the world’s top shortboard surfers gathered at the iconic Banzai Pipeline on Oʻahu’s North Shore for the invitational competition. DeSoto delivered a standout performance, earning Best Overall Performer and Shootout Champion honors, along with Best Barrel Ride.
“The Backdoor Shootout has always been about honoring surfers who truly understand Pipeline, not just how to ride it, but how to carry themselves in the lineup,” said Kūʻiʻoʻokalani Young, who coaches DeSoto.
Hosted by Da Hui, in collaboration with Hui o Heʻe Nalu, the annual invitational is held in memory of Duke Kahanamoku.
“It’s such an important contest that it just meant so much to me to win that,” DeSoto said. “It was a big goal of mine for a really long time. Just to even be in a contest at Pipe was a big goal, and winning one was just crazy.”
It’s an achievement that DeSoto has been working towards since being inspired by his older sister, Puamakamae, a nine-time National Scholastic Surfing Association National Champion.
“At first it was for fun and everything, and then I started taking it seriously maybe when I was like 13,” DeSoto said. “I still love it and have so much fun doing it.” Just being in the ocean, you really can do anything you want. It’s freedom. You can be so creative, you can do so many different things.”
His parents say that the ocean has been a part of their eight children’s lives from the time they were “in the womb.”
Born and raised in Mākaha on Oʻahu’s West Side, DeSoto comes from a deep waterman lineage as the son of world champion longboarder Duane DeSoto, who described watching his son as one who is aligned with the ocean.
“That is always the best surfer, the one who’s able to naturally just do their art on the wave – and the wave is it’s like a relationship right, the wave and the person is totally in sync,” said Duane DeSoto.
DeSoto, who first surfed with his dad as an infant, finds purpose in the ocean beyond competition.
Whether surfing, bodysurfing, paddling, or any other ocean discipline, DeSoto seems limitless. When not training, he is often fishing or volunteering with youth at Nā Kama Kai Ocean Safety & Conservation Awareness Clinics. He also serves as an ambassador for the Smile Wave Fund.
“It’s also like just continuing on my culture and surfing is a cultural practice, not just sport,” explained DeSoto who hopes to achieve a world title. “It’s both – the end goal is a world title and to show the world our cultural practice.”
Part of that practice is displayed in the way DeSoto will kilo (observe). Just as he did as a 4-year-old studying older skaters perform 12-foot drops down a vertical ramp, DeSoto is always studying the ocean.
“His intellectual IQ in the ocean is insane because he’s so observant and is kiloing all the time,” said Kaʻaihue. “Even if he’s dropping into a 30-foot wave, it’s calculated, it’s processed. He’s already seen himself come out of it before he’s dropped in.”
That may explain DeSoto’s quiet demeanor. He’s what Kaʻaihue describes as a “silent observer.”
“He has like very much a kūpuna spirit where he’s not always talking and saying a lot, but he’s thinking,” she added.
And, he’s learning.
“[Surfing] has taught me a lot about respect, like respect for the ocean, respect for the people,” DeSoto said. “You also have to have respect in the lineup to be respected.”
Surfers advance through a competitive qualification system, beginning with regional World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) events, progressing to the Challenger Series, and ultimately earning a place on the elite Championship Tour, where the world’s best compete for a world title.
DeSoto hopes to one day win a world title on the WSL Championship Tour and perhaps represent Hawaiʻi in the Olympics, but his immediate focus is the next QS event.
Another contest is always on the horizon. DeSoto’s approach remains the same: watch, learn, and when the moment comes, commit.
This article is reprinted with permission from OHA's Ka Wai Ola newspaper: "Kalā DeSoto: Watching, Learning, and Committing" by Donalyn Dela Cruz, in its April 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 4. Read more at kawaiola.news.
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