No Vest? No Problem For This Charger at Thumping Puerto Escondido

The first time I heard of Kyllian Guerin, a 15-year-old French “super grom,” the country’s...

August Howell
•
surfer.com
•
December 20, 2025

The first time I heard of Kyllian Guerin, a 15-year-old French “super grom,” the country’s next big thing, poised to rise before he could legally rent a car. Sure, he’s good, I mused, but it seemed a hyperbolic label. I should have bought the stock back then.

By the time Kyllian ended his teenage years, the young regularfoot was highly proficient in finding tubes all over the world. He’s racked up injuries, broken boards and accrued more time on the road than you’d expect at 22 years old. Nias, Pipeline, Chile, South Africa, Ireland — he’s been there and more. But he had never been to Mexico, until this year.

The video above is Kyllian’s latest impressive body of work, shot entirely during a productive south swell season this August. “Mascaras,” an homage to the country’s ancient tradition of artistic masks, makes no disguise about Kyllian's ability in heavy water. He paddles into numerous proper Puerto Escondido barrels, with no vest or inflatable floatation. Just trunks, a Pyzel Puerto Padi, and serious chops under pressure. Made even more remarkable when you consider it was his first time there.

"It was my first trip to Mexico, I was dreaming of going there to surf those magic right points," he said. "I was happy to make it happen and score some of the best waves I've seen on a beachbreak at Puerto Escondido."

Puerto is not an especially deep wave, but it's extremely powerful and capable of brutal hold-downs. To make waves like this without any floatation says a lot about the young man's nerve. He buckled a 7'4," which he found out was far too short for the sand mixer. But he had a 7'10" from Pyzel that held up in the heaviest spots.

Directed and edited by Arthur Genie, “Mascaras” offers some of the best surfing I’ve seen from Kyllian. After getting spat out of tube after tube in Puerto, he transitions to much more relatable pointbreaks and cleans up on those rights, too.