When Kelly slater won his first world title, in 1992, I was 23 years old. It was a time when it was too cool to worry too much about contest surfing, there were girls around, a little bit of money, waves, and the world was a oyster of surf and party. That some dude was training his ass off to be a world champ held very little interest for many. In fact it might even have had a little derision. It was not the time yet to appreciate things like that. It was all about getting barreled and fast times.
Through circumstance and longevity my routing in life saw me end up as a surf mag editor, who needed to communicate with him. Back then communication was a little more complicated.
Then he came one year and I had met a girl (my wife) and her dad was a long-time and experienced surfer. There was a decent swell around and he went surfing at the Bluff, Cave Rock. It was a sad time for both, as my father-in-law to be and Kelly had both recently lost their dads, and they got chatting about it all in the water. It was fairly emotional, but a good way for both to release a little.
It soon became obvious that following pro surfing was a dream. The pro tour had many levels, of pure surfing, of jock training, of absolute iniquity, and it was one of the most interesting careers to be working on. It was a good game, an avenue easy to follow for someone who loves the sport so much. With Kelly being the best surfer in the world, it turned out that he was often the focal point of much work.
It was sad when he was cheated of a win by Parko at Pipe when the Australian went on a wave he couldn't possibly make in order to keep Kelly off.
“Frustration. Pure frustration,” was what Kelly told me how he felt after that final when I interviewed him years later about it. “I really wished we had been in a two-man surf-off at the end of that contest.”
It was incredible to be watching from the beach when he beat Dorian at Pipe in 2012 and we were all elated, and equally bummed when he went on to lose to Kerrzy in crazy big Pipe conditions that saw a couple of people heading off to the hospital during the day.
A couple of us were snuggled up on the groyne when he burned Parko so badly in smoking Kirra. That tactic was, in the words of Nick Carroll, all about revenge. We all know that revenge is a dish best served cold.
The story goes on. Kelly wins another bunch of events, and scores a 10-point backhand tube at Rio that shocked me into screaming out loud in front of the webcast. We had a chat at JBay, and an interview here and there.
My son gets born and before you know it he’s 7 years old and he wants to meet Kelly. All he wants to do is meet Kelly. It’s hard to get to meet Kelly, but one can’t disappoint a 7-year-old from meeting his hero. Kelly has been meeting fans for 30 years and it has become difficult.
When he walked away from the Oakley Pro Keramas with us for an interview shoot with the Red Bull crew, we witnessed every single person stopping him, pretty much, all the way to the car park. It was like they owned him, like he was obliged to chat and to engage, and it was unbelievable.
But when my wife approached him at the Supertubes gully with my beautiful son and his best friend Jac-Jac what did the greatest surfer of all time do? Any guesses?
He posed for the photo and stopped for a bit of a chat with the boys, and it is a photo that my son, and Jack Jack, will prize forever.
After his recent Teahupo’o win, the World Surf League recently posted a story on how Kelly could do the unthinkable and win the 2016 World Tour, his 12th world title, if he smashes Trestles.
He’s got my support.
