10 things you didn't know about Kepa Acero: surfing, adventure and life.

If you are a fan of waves, adrenaline and water sports, you probably already know the protagonist of this post: Kepa Acero, a Basque surfer and explorer who has dedicated his life to riding the board and traveling in Search for dream places where you can feel nature and transmit new perspectives to the world. His adventurous spirit has led him to become European Junior Surfing Champion after having participated in hundreds of competitions previously. When he decided to start exploring the world, he did not do it alone, he did it with his drone and his travel camera that have accompanied him on all his expeditions. Thanks to this, it has been able to offer the world a window in which to show its reality more closely.

1. Where did Kepa Acero grow up?

Kepa Acero was born in 1980 in Algorta, Vizcaya (Basque Country, Spain), and despite the fact that his mother was born in Durango, Vizcaya, and his father in the Old Town of Bilbao, they moved when Kepa had not yet born due to his father's work; a philosophy professor who passed a competitive examination in the 1980s and began running an institute in Algorta. Since he was little, he lived surrounded by his two brothers on the coast, and for this reason, his love for this water sport soon began.

2. How did you get into surfing?

In Algorta, where he and his family lived, surfing was always a sport for the rich, for those who could afford the high price of boards and suits, but during the 80s, and coinciding with the childhood of Kepa, surf equipment began to drop in price due to the democratization that this sport was experiencing, and luckily, Kepa and his brothers were able to access it. The first to delve into this discipline was his brother Eneko, who was given his first surfboard at the age of 10. Soon Kepa and Iker, his other brother, followed in his footsteps and immersed themselves in this world.

3. Did you know that his brother Eneko was the first professional surfer in Spain?

Eneko Acero, Kepa's older brother, began practicing this discipline when he was only 10 years old, after receiving his first surfboard. His beginnings in this sport coincided with the opening of a skatepark in Algorta, a place where many children and young people began to polish their movements and then jump into the water. Eneko got on the board for the first time without knowing that he would be good at it and quickly began to compete among top professionals. At that time he managed to be ISA junior world champion in 1996. At the age of 13, he participated in the European championship and won it. After that first victory came many others and he became European champion again two years later, in 2001. Later on, and after having accumulated numerous successes, he became director of the Acero Surf Escola without neglecting the competition, although he did, relegating it to the background. Having had this example at home, Kepa Acero could not be anything other than a surfer.

4. What was the project Five Waves, Five Continents?

In 2010, and after having closely explored surfing as a professional, Kepa Acero decided to create a project called Five Waves, Five Continents which consisted of touring Namibia, Indonesia, Chile and Australia in search for the best waves and the best surf spots and record it all to share with the rest of the world. Despite the interest aroused by this adventure in which Kepa adapted to each culture looking for waves and with which he got more than 400.000 views on YouTube, the surfer did not have the initial support of any sponsor until he saw the success that the project had.

5. Why did Kepa Acero leave the competition?

After having won the European junior championship at just 18 years old, having been sponsored by the best surf brands and having traveled to Australia and the United States to surf, he decided to delve into free surfing and on trips at the age of 25 advised by his sponsors, but he soon discovered that this was not fulfilling either. So, inspired by the pace of life of Australian and American surfers in the 1970s, he grabbed his backpack and board and set out to find places where no one had surfed before to show the world, without guides or sponsors.

6. Did you know that he suffered a serious accident while surfing in 2017?

It was in 2017 when Kepa suffered a serious accident while surfing on the beach of Mundaka, Vizcaya. He hit the ground headfirst and lost consciousness until two of his teammates pulled him out of the water and took him to hospital. He had broken his neck, had a broken dorsal, a displaced cervical, and the blow almost missed the spinal cord, something that could have left him a paraplegic for the rest of his life. He has commented in various interviews for national media that on the day of the accident, January 2, 2017, the surfer was reborn. After the accident, he gave away the surfboard he used that fateful day but he was not afraid to continue surfing, he simply felt that this was a new opportunity that life had given him to continue exploring his passion with more strength than ever.

7. When did you start uploading videos to YouTube?

It was with the project Cinco Olas, Cinco Continentes when Kepa Acero realized that his stories interested people, and also, he managed to connect with Internet users so as not to feel so alone during his trips. When he started, he had no idea how to use a drone or a video camera, but little by little and thanks to the experience, he became a master of the audiovisual. He started uploading videos to his social networks when he was in Namibia, a trip in which he confesses to having felt loneliness very closely, and there he decided to share his journey around the world. In 2010, he posted his first video on YouTube and success gradually arrived. The surfer has accumulated more than 180 videos on this platform and has managed to have more than 15.000 subscribers on his channel.

8. Looking for waves he discovered another passion.

This surfer and content creator in search of the best waves in the world, found in surfing the means to get closer to cultures and ecosystems. This is how this adventurer entered the frozen sea of ​​Antarctica and despite the fact that he could not surf due to the lack of waves, he opted to swim, accompanied by a hundred or thousands of penguins where he affirms, the invader was him. Or also, when he was in the Amazon in search of the Poroca, a wave that sails for an hour in the Amazon river, when he found it it turned out that the wave was small enough to ride it, but in return he spent 5 days accompanying an NGO that works with indigenous children.

9. What journey marked you in your life?

The surfer took a trip in a van in which he toured his favorite places in the Basque Country seeking to connect with his land and nature. He enjoyed this experience so much that he shared it online from start to finish, and also later a 5-episode podcast was launched in which the meetings he had with great fellow travelers such as the navigator Unai Basurko and the mountaineer Alex Txikón were narrated. . On this trip, he proudly contemplated the wonder of the place where he had grown up and realized the importance of valuing what one has without first going to discover the world.

10. Surfing in Africa?

In 2012 Kepa Acero embarked on a new adventure at the hands of American surfer Dane Gudauskaus and together they undertook a trip to Africa from which an exciting documentary called The Delicacy Before Us would come out. In it there are great moments of both surfers in which they fully contact African surfing culture through its gastronomy, way of life and impressive places.The Basque recognized after this trip that it had been one of the most exciting of his life due to the message of conscience that it conveys.

After learning more about the trajectory of the Basque surfer Kepa Acero, we can affirm that his humility, sensitivity and dedication go beyond surfing. He is a person who decided to dedicate his life to adventure, nature and surfing and had the generosity to share his most amazing experiences with the rest of the world. Without a doubt, his projects do not leave anyone indifferent, much less if surfing is one of your great passions.