Those in for the long haul on day one of the J-bay coverage would have been watching when Kelly Slater made his captivating cameo on the commentary team. Mic’d up beneath a beanie on the competitor’s sun-deck, Kelly chimed in with a compelling combination of razor sharp insight and anecdotal reflection.
Live on air for Ciao Ibelli’s upset victory over Joel Parkinson and Jeremy Flores, Kelly fluently described the board you want at J-bay, diplomatically but honestly articulated the faults and strengths of his peers, delivered his perspective on Matt Wilkinson’s yellow jersey status and revealed things about the lineup that were not apparent to viewers and the rest of the commentary team. The glassy of conditions we saw online were something of a mirage implied Kelly, because a wind from down the point was pushing “washboard ribs” through the face. “You’ve got to line up what piece of chop you are going to turn off and hope that you are going to flow out of that with the right curve of the wave,” he explained.
There was even a perfectly delivered piece of self- deprecation after Kelly compared Wilko’s unexpected wins with Danny Wills’ back to back victories in Japan in 1998. Peter Mel couldn’t resist the cheese-ball follow-up question about who won the world title that year, but Kelly was ready. “I can’t really remember,” he deadpanned, knowing full well it was him.
While Slater’s technical analysis was refreshing the most intriguing dialogue in his segment featured him discussing his unforgettable final against Andy Irons in the 2005 Billabong Pro, J-bay final.
It’s not easy to discuss the faithful departed at the best of times, but when that person has Andy’s cult following and you were his arch-rival and you are now discussing a controversial result where the decision went your way against him then it’s a full- blown can of worms.
When Turpel led him down the Andy path with an expected dolphin segue, Kelly handled the situation with all the mastery of a politician who knows they have to walk a very fine line with a response.
Kelly’s sentiment in respect to Andy was completely genuine and was that a little tear we saw him wipe from his eye as he referenced his greatest challenger? While preserving the dignified tone, Kelly still managed to deliver his version of events in a candid and typically analytical fashion, and the end result was riveting.
“Well there’s always been a lot of debate about that heat and probably rightfully so because the score I got in the end – in my opinion the score was a bit high, but relative to what the heat was I think the score was correct … Andy had two better waves which he didn’t surf to his full potential and I think that’s just because he was tired … People got caught up in was it the score or not and was it just one of those heats that was really close and in the end it was a coin toss that went my way.”
To Joel Turpel’s delight Kelly’s full recap of the J-bay clash also includes his explanation of how he famously followed dolphins up the point to claim the final winning wave. If you want to listen to Kelly tell the story of the Andy final on the WSL heat analyser it kicks in with about four and half minutes to go in the round one heat with Ibelli, Parko and Flores.
Perhaps this was just a one-off appearance by Kelly and admittedly he was in a chipper mood after winning his round one heat, but the WSL would no doubt dearly love to make him a regular talking head when he does eventually hang up the comp singlet.
At certain times Kelly has expressed his desire to disappear off the grid and live a life of minimalism in a secluded rainforest – far from the reach of grubby-fingered fans and their autograph pens. However, Kelly is at his best when he has a defined purpose. The need to channel that intense focus he possesses is a large part of why he’s stayed on tour for so long. With a full time commentary gig he could utilise his encyclopaedic surfing memory and expert analysis. Living vicariously through the glories and disappointments of the other surfers would help him deal with his own CT separation anxiety and at special events he could still come storming out of the commentary Box like Superman in a comp singlet, and show all the kids how it’s done.
There is little doubt that Kelly is the closest thing pro surfing has to a Messiah figure. The history of the sport might even be framed as Before Kelly (BK) and After Kelly (AK). He is notoriously cagey but his retirement plans but both fans and the WSL will definitely be hoping Kelly elects to stay close to the sport he helped elevate into another realm.
