Special coverage presented by Surf City - El Salvador Travel 

Kai Ellice Flint was in El Salvador last year for the finals, but she was accompanying Soleil Errico's entourage, who arrived in El Salvador ranked number 1.

He and CJ Nelson work alongside Soleil and traveled to assist her during the finals.

Ellice Flint had even been left out of the reclassification, in 11th in the ranking (10 reclassify), with a ninth in Bells, a fifth in Huntington and a 17th in the Abu Dhabi pool.

This is a bad sign, if you will, for the surfing of good fundamentals that he has and that many people follow, especially in the countries most passionate about longboarding worldwide.

In other words, if the discussion about good fundamentals is already specific to, and a concern for, a few in the shortboard world, it's perhaps even more so in longboarding. Perhaps it concerns more, but only a few… like Joel Tudor.

Last year was all about modernity with a victory for Taylor Jensen and his Firewires, and this year it was a mixed bag.

But speaking of radically turning things around, it's worth mentioning that Ellice Flint had fallen even further behind the 2023 finals, ranking 12th.

And prior to that, he was hardly known.

How this human being reinvented himself to go from being outside of definitions and finals to winning the most is, first of all, surprising.

But it's also a question worth asking, or rather, asking him.

Yesterday he was talking about his lack of self-confidence and how much of a perfectionist he is. Maybe that's the issue; he relaxed a bit and let things flow.

What is clear is that Kai Ellice Flint went from being a teacher respected by few with poor results in championships to being a teacher respected by all with the best result he could ever have dreamed of.

From one year as a co-driver to the next year as world champion.

A story worth telling.