Kalani David, the reigning junior world surfing champion, passed away on Saturday in Costa Rica following a seizure in the water.
The 24-year-old Hawaiian surfer and skater had Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, a very uncommon heart condition that ultimately results in sporadic rapid heartbeats.
Keoni, David’s younger brother, verified the heartbreaking news on Instagram.
‘You are the best brother I could ever ask for,’ Keoni wrote. ‘I will miss you Kalani.’
Due to his medical condition, Kalani experienced numerous seizures, with his first one occurring in 2016. After several instances and worries about a possible unexpected death, the surfer was urged by a doctor to stop surfing and driving months before his death.
‘With these seizures, I keep having, my neurologist said no driving and no surfing until I stop having them. I mean, I could surf, but if I was to have one and don’t get saved in time, I’ll either die or become a vegetable because I don’t have enough air to my brain,’ Kalani wrote on Instagram in June.
‘I keep getting lucky, I had a seizure driving and the other in the water within a couple of months. For the past couple of years been having seizures sleeping, and just Angels watching over me because I don’t know how I keep getting so lucky and living through it all.
‘Time to get this stuff in order so I can move ahead in life – at least I can skate and fish! Been getting asked a lot about my situation, so wanted to let everyone know how it is for me right now.
‘I been putting these health issues to the side because I couldn’t believe it, but doing that has made it worse. My life has completely changed, and it’s not rejection, it’s redirection.
‘Thanks, everybody for the love just stoked to be alive and well. It’s not about what you want it’s about what you have and making the best out of it.’
Kalani was born on Hawaii’s Oahu North Shore and quickly advanced to a “veteran” surfer at the age of 14.
When asked in 2016 to choose between surfing and skating as a career, he replied simply, ‘If it was life or death, and I had to choose skating or surfing, I’d choose death.’