So there I am, about three weeks ago, waiting in a ridiculously long check in line at LAX for my flight to Italy. I notice a guy coming through the doors with a board bag. I’m always envious of guys traveling with a board bags. Then I notice the guy has a bald head. He cuts through the line and passes right in front of me. It’s Kelly Slater. I turn to the middle aged German guys next to me in line and say, “That was Kelly Slater.” They just shrug. Who? I try to explain but they are totally uninterested.
A couple minutes later he comes back, right next to where I’m waiting, to drop off his luggage. He’s alone so I tell the guys to watch my place in line, grab the book I just bought to read on the plane and go ask for an autograph. He’s totally cool about it. I tell him #9’s his.
Funny thing- the book I had him autograph was the biography of Miki Dora, and one of the first things written was about being a legend.
I’m normally not the kind of guy who would ask for an autograph, and I was debating it for awhile, but then thought, “Fuck, that’s Kelly Slater. He’s legendary. I’ll never see him again in my life. What are the chances?”
Despite what people may think/say about him, at the end of the day no one can say he’s not a brilliant surfer. I dont really follow the tour, but hey, he’s an 8 time world champion, and he’s won 3 of the first four events of this year’s tour. Have to respect him for being that good.
EDIT, im not into F1 cars, but if i saw michael schumacher, i’d probably ask him for his too.
A Few years back I watched Kelly paddle out for a warm-up just north of the Lowers contest Zone. It was the finals or semi finals day…One guy out over there not very good surfing. Kelly pulls off some stunts and talks to this guy and shares a 30min surf session with a nobody. Like they’re old friends…Stoke!
I knew it was going to get crowded so we got there early in the morning before the contest started. Dad and teenage daughter and two friends. The girls thought I was crazy when I started gathering drift wood and making a little fort just above the high tide line. Early in the contest Kalini Rob stops by to strech out and says “Cool Fort!”. Bruce Irons needed to dodge the crowd and the photo hogs and we provided a short cut for him…Fun times…
Duckdive was there too, he needed a place to hang with his small daughter and the fort was the place…
Asking for an autograph…Hell yes! Just don’t do it right before an important heat
A few years ago, OXBOW had Laird do an autograph session at the local surf-shop in St Jean de Luz. Gabrielle, my daughter, implored to go there and have her Teeahupoo poster dedicated by THE MAN. So there we went, she was one of the first amongst hundreds of groupies and Laird was just up to his reputation: a kind word for everybody, even though such sessions must be a nightmare for him.
As we were walking back the street to the car, I told her: “See, when I was your age, I was lucky enough to see Billy Hamilton at Guéthary in 1968.”
But she didn’t know who Billy Hamilton was. I had to explain…
On another note, I just received my own copy of Paul Holmes’ book about BING SURFBOARDS and it’s dedicated by Bing:
Wow! I feel like I’m 12 again…
(GREAT book, by the way, everybody should have it…)
I generally give celebrities their space but even old guys have their heros… When I was an impressionable kid, Phil Edwards was consistently rated numero uno by many.
He was doing a shop tour with Mike Eaton as they delivered boards up and down the coast. I had recently acquired a copy of “You Should Have Been Here an Hour Ago” and asked if he would consider signing it for me. Not only did he sign it but he took me out to the car and pulled out some glossy black and white prints by Bud Brown. He signed a couple of those to my son and me.
I had also recently taken delivery of one of his boards (my very first “new” board in over 30 years of surfing) through one of the local shops. We had quite a discussion over various aspects of the design including the reverse template fin which I had custom ordered. He emphasized the importance of fin design. “You basically ride the fin”, he said. “If you don’t believe me, try riding a board with no fin.”
When I was younger I asked the Misfits bass player to sign me an autograph. It’s been the first and last one I ever asked for.
I’m not into autographs or photos taken with famous people. For me, they are worthless. Is like saying “Hey, let’s pretend we have spent some time together” or “Hey, now I can tell my friends we had the opportunity to know each other, we became friends so I have the picture/autograph”.
No, I don’t like it.
I prefer a picture with a friend, a greeting card from someone that sincerely cares about me or two/three sincere words with a famous person and a hand shake.
