The webcast didn’t spare any airtime in the lead-up to Kelly’s heat at the Vissla Pro yesterday.
It seemed like every camera in Sydney was trained on him as he made his way down to the Manly shoreline for his first heat back at full health.
It was a big deal and they were going to milk every moment of it.
And fair enough. It’s not every day the GOAT chooses your humble QS to warm-up in.
But with two foot of gutless Sydney surf on offer and the 47-year-old pretty much untested in such competitive conditions over the last few years, the whole thing ran the risk of being a terrible anti-climax.
The hungry young hyenas he was up against might rip the flesh clean off his once-glorious old carcass and then what were we all going to do?
Be disappointed, that’s what.
But they didn’t, and we weren’t, and the greatest surfer of all time still looked pretty great as he raced and floated and milked his way around the line-up on his way to a definite progression and only a slightly questionable win.
He might not have been as fast or as loose as his fellow competitors, but he was smoother and smarter, showing some of his old genius as he picked off a dribbly right that somehow grew down the line into his best score.
In fact, his energy and competitive instincts were two of the standout features of his performance, with the old wizard trading a flurry of waves with Spain’s Vicente Romero while Brazil’s Victor Bernardo and Morocco’s Ramzi Boukhiam waited for the ocean to deliver waves that just weren’t there.
Then there was his board, which, for the first time in a long time, seemed well-suited to the conditions and not like he was trying to sell some futuristic new design.
It was a refreshing sight: Slater putting himself out there again, not cherry-picking the venues or making excuses or adding his expert opinion to some lofty topic online, but doing the simple thing we’ve always loved watching him do.
In truth, you could argue Vicente Romero outsurfed him by a whisker, and in truth, you could probably assume the likes of Medina, John John and Italo will outsurf him this season more than he outsurfs them, but if he approaches the rest of the year with the same grace and will, and unparalleled athleticism (47!), it won’t matter.
It’ll still be a compelling ending to the most amazing of careers.
We’ll still remember him as the greatest competitor of all time.
