Cliff Kapono has made waves as a professional surfer and as a professional scientist. He holds a doctorate in chemistry and runs a nonprofit in Hilo called the MEGA Lab.
He’s also the first alternate in this year’s Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational – a special slot whose recipient is chosen by the Aikau family. Kapono was recently featured in a mini-documentary from Vice called “The Smartest Surfer in the World.”
The Conversation spoke with Kapono about bridging the worlds of surfing and science and new research looking into a live reef surf break in Fiji.
Kapono shared that growing up, he was told he would have to choose between surfing and school, but by focusing on time management, he prioritized his energy into both, which led to the creation of the MEGA lab.
“It's trying to create a safe space for people who have dedicated significant amounts of time to the ocean, whether it's through surfing, fishing, diving, sailing, or really anything art, and have sort of achieved a high level of efficacy in those different disciplines, in addition to having a high merit in science,” he said.
He added that the MEGA lab promotes the idea that not all scientists need a Ph.D. It instead provides a space for surfers, skaters, and artists to develop technology that protects the ocean and share it with the world.
The lab is based in Hilo and the group shares what science looks like through their lens through community events.
Kapono told HPR that they are working on a goal of mapping a million reefs by 2030.
“Our small group is not going to be able to visit a million reefs over the next five years, so we're trying to train people in their community that they can take photographs, write down observations, make videos of what their reefs look like, (and) upload it onto a website that we've created called map2adapt.com,” he said.
By doing this, Kapono explained that they can begin to examine the state of reefs and start implementing better management and restoration efforts for communities.
Kapono recently published a report on his research into mapping surf breaks. The study combined GPS surfer track data with structure-from-motion photogrammetry to map surfer behavior on high-resolution, orthorectified reef models.
“One day we're surfing, and we're looking at the reef, and we're like, no one's really ever looked at if surfers like different kinds of reefs,” Kapono said. “So with the help of a footwear brand called Reef, for the first time that I know of, a company gave resources to be able to start studying the reef and ask these kinds of questions of surfers. And our question was, do surfers prefer a certain type of reef around the world?
“We ended up going to Fiji, this world-class wave, where they've had so many amazing contests and titles and everything,” he said. “We looked, and we saw that certain structures on the reef actually do correlate with the presence of different surfers. And as far as we know. … No one's ever mapped human behavior through GPS devices across reef spaces. We're able to see that indeed, surfers prefer a certain reef structure.”
Kapono hopes to collaborate with other researchers and scientists to contribute to the field of surf science.
This story aired on The Conversation on Dec. 23, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
