The Wave Whisperer

Summer, 2026

How Tahitian legend Raimana van Bastolaer became Hollywood’s surf coach.

BY LAURA THOMPSON

THE VIDEOS that keep popping up on your feed have a pattern. Prince Harry, in a wave pool under stadium lights, trailing his hand across a wall of water as he tucks into a barrel. Doja Cat trimming across a wave before squatting into a tube. In both clips, a silver-haired, barrel-chested man enters on a massive board, pokes and prods the fledgling surfers like an art...