a win at J-bay !
world title #7 firmly in his sights …STOKED for him !
ben
[not meaning to sound nasty , but I love watching him beat Andy Irons !]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, just kidding Slater is having one hell of a year, but I still want to see the title come back home to Hawaii again. If that doesnt happen I want to see it won in a battle at the tripple crown, not like last year where AI won it before they even got here.
yeah stoked for kelly…he’s a great amabassador for the sport and what a crowning achievement it would to come back after Andy’s incredible run…a Pipe show down is always good for ratings too…fun to watch on tv for free
1-4…its still a horse race!!
Careful Chip, you’ll start to sound like a groupie!!
As hungry pros, which one is going to eventually realise that a good sandwich will give them an edge?
Chip,
As an old-school guy I don’t much pay attention to the tour and who’s on top, etc., but an interesting thing happened last winter that made me a fan of Kelly. I was with my 25 year old son at the southern most tip of Costa Rica in a tiny village called Pavones. They just got electricity a couple of years ago and there’s only one phone in the town. The place claims to have the longest left on the planet. Very remote and beautiful.
We were sitting alone on the beach adjacent to a little river that empties into the ocean, and getting ready to watch the sunset while I observed a few guys out. I wasn’t paying much attention, as the sunset always gets top priority, but one guy in particular was getting some nice rides and seemed to stand out above the others with some trick moves on some head-high waves. A particularly nice set rolled in and that guy caught it alone off to my far left vantage point. My jaw dropped as I began to watch.
My son and I were dumbfounded as that guy worked that wave beyond anything I had ever seen in person in my entire long life. The ride went forever and he didn’t miss a single drop of the water on that wave as he worked his way across this long peeling glassy face from left to our right directly in front of the brilliant orange setting sun. By the time he kicked out way around the bend he had traveled for what seemed like a half mile. We had no idea who it was, but we were both astonished!
The sun set and it became dusk when a guy carrying his board and wearing wet board shorts and a big smile walked by and said, “I can’t wait to tell everyone back home that I was actually out in the water with Kelly”. My son said, “Yea right, but that guy was really good, who was that?” The guy stopped, showed a confused look, and said, “Man that was Slater, that was Thee man, you guys didn’t know?”
As it turns out he was there with a few other people including Jessica Alba and Cameron Diaz doing some documentary. They never showed up at the local tavern that night (a bummer for my son who wanted to meet a couple of Kelly’s friends) and we hitched a ride out of town at dawn the next morning. I’ll never forget seeing that ride. What a privelage that was!
He hooted me into a wave once. Not enough people do that.
Share the stoke, eh Chip.
The guy is a true throw back to a time when it wasn’t about the money. I’ve never seen anyone who loves it more. Nice to see the greatest that ever was prove that he still is.
Greg,
You said it all, “never seen anyone who loves it more”. There we were in the middle of a nowhere jungle with literally no more than a dozen people on the entire beach, most of whom had no idea Kelly was even there, and he took a ride as if it was the very last wave to ever be ridden. It was such an astonishing balance of milking and ripping vs the grace and style of the finest ballet. It was nearly dark and no one to care but him that it might as well be one of the finest rides of the century. Only a guy who lives to surf and surfs to live! He’s the Lance Armstrong of surfing.
Howzit RichardMc, I think Lance is one notch above Kelly in the repect that he had to deal with cancer early in his career, not taking anything away from Kelly. Aloha,Kokua
Aloha Kokua,
Word up, I must agree with you. There’s defying comprehension and then there’s defying gravity itself, and that’s where Lance is. If he wins tomorrow, the debate will echo throughout the ages as to whether or not his 7th made him the single greatest athlete in the history of all sports and athletics. Watching Kelly that evening was still a great spectacle. It seems there’s a zone some guys go into that most of us can not fully grasp. Perfection…a fragile, distant, illusive place, yet super hard-core. Enjoy the ride!
Richard
The cancer defined Lances life. Not to demean Armstrong in any way but it’s my veiw that he wouldn’t have been as great an athlete as he is without that life altering experience. One of the incredible things about Kelly is he’s been that same kid all along and never needed that wake up call. He the first person I’ve ever seen that so thoroughly has it all.
There’s something about overcoming adversity that pulls at all of us. We cling to and identify with coming back from a place that should have gotten the best of us. Could Kelly have come back from cancer to win it all seven times or would it have gotten him? As mentioned earlier, the debate will go on forever about Lance. We still don’t have universal concensus about who is the best baseball player, quarterback, boxer, sprinter, etc. He did this…yea but he did this…, and on and on. Did cancer define Lance’s life as you stated, or did the wins define his life because he had cancer? I would think that if cancer had never entered the equation, the who’s the best arguement is still valid. Who knows if time will even tell?
Who’s the best surfer that ever lived? How do you qualify that? Interesting stuff to ponder. My wife says it’s a guy thing to sit around and argue such. It’s all about striving, achieving, and going after something that’s way out there. It’s all about passion. I guess that’s why we’re all here on Swaylocks… in pursuit of a passion. Thanks for bringing up a good point to ponder. We’ve all got to enjoy the ride!
Richard
…It seems Kelly has the same ability that Curren had …to get a perfect wave or near perfect score in the dying seconds of a heat .What separates him from Taj [and others]…the ability to excel in tense heats .
i like how he’s switched from white wetsuits to baby blue. 
the guy is a great competitor, and has made a great name for florida surfers.
Go Kelly. This is a good kid and right up there with Horan and Kealoha as one of my all time favorite surfers. Style…power… moves. He has it all. Other than the silly chip surfboards he used to ride in that one movie, he has been a great influence on the sport.
Howzit Greg, That's kind of a big IF when you consider Lance just as well could've died from the cancer instead of recovering and going on to greatness in the Bike world. I have nothing against Kelly and he is a great surfer, but I wonder how he would have reacted if he had had cancer in his early competion years. I guess it's a draw between them, both great at their sport, if Lance wins this year that means kelly needs to win so they both will have 7 wins a piece. By any chance did you see the interview with Lance where he talked about the cancer. I didn't know it was not only testicular cancer, it went all the way to his brain.Aloha,Kokua