And with that, we bid Kelly Slater farewell, returning to his happy place after an incredible 280 World Tour events, 56 CT victories, and 11 World Titles. There couldn’t be a more suitable farewell than at the Fiji Pro and Tavarua, a location he first visited in 1990 when he was eighteen years old and proclaimed to be his favourite surf spot in the planet.
Slater told SURFER in the most recent edition, “I’ve thought forever that Cloudbreak is the best wave in the world.” “It feels like I’m part of the wave. I’ve surfed at Cloudbreak more times than any other place in my life because the waves there are simply of such excellent quality. It’s that exceptional wave that remains terrific from really little to extremely large. In the world, there are very few waves with a reef or bottom that can withstand waves of all sizes without sacrificing quality.
Most people have a little area of two, six, or twenty feet where they perform best. When the waves are head-high, you are not going to paddle out to Waimea. However, you will be riding the wildest wave that has ever possibly been surfed when you head out to Cloudbreak when the waves are 40 or 50 feet high. But when it’s head-high, you can also catch the most enjoyable wave of your life. That, in my opinion, surpasses all other waves. It would be excessive if it were also a right. There’s no way it could exist if it had a divided peak,” Slater went on.
It’s no secret that Slater loves to rope Pacific reefs and slabs, and it’s no accident that his firm, Outerknown, is the one funding both of the tour’s Pacific stops in Fiji and Tahiti. The story of how the son of a surfer from Cocoa Beach, Florida, who owned a bait and tackle shop, became the greatest competitor of all time in waves of consequence, starts at Pipeline, where a preteen Kelly underwent the most rigorous apprenticeship in the art of navigating waves that could kill you.
Former world champion Brad Gerlach remembers, “I remember seeing Kelly when he showed up at Pipeline. He was afraid of it but he surfed on the shoulder all day long, and he was this little guy on the very edge of the shoulder practicing and practicing, getting to know the wave, and then inching over and inching over.”
“At the age of 20, Slater won his first race at Pipeline in 1992.”
Pipe is the wave that has killed the most people on Earth and requires the most of those who brave it. Surfing’s ultimate test is still a changing, once-twice-three times refracted A-Frame that breaks over barely submerged lava spikes and caves, behaving like a supersized beachbreak. It’s also the best place to train since, if you can get good at it, the world of hollow waves is now open to you.
At the age of 20, Slater won his first event at Pipeline in 1992, and he went on to win his first global title later that same year. Just thirty years later, and just one week shy of turning fifty, he defeated Seth Moniz of Hawaii in the championship match—a surfer he’d cradled in nappies while competing and looking up to in his early years—in the surfing world. Slater would go on to win eight Pipe Masters in all, which is by far the most on record. His exploits in heaving Pacific slabs would also serve as the foundation for other campaigns that would win world titles.
There’s a reason he’s the GOAT. Slater’s victory at the 2013 Pipe Masters put him at the top of the world.
In addition to his success at Pipe, he holds the record for the most victories at the Tahiti Pro, having won five, more than twice as many as his closest competitor. He has also won four competitions in Fiji. Among those victories, his 41-year-old triumph in the 2013 Fiji Pro stands out as the most memorable. He arrived in time for his Round Two heat after missing the first round to witness his nephew’s birth, only to miss that too. He then went on to provide one of the best performances of his career. Utilising a 5′ 9″ quad, he demonstrated unmatched proficiency in the six to ten-foot situations available, achieving three flawless tens throughout the competition, encompassing a flawless 20 out of 20 in the quarterfinals. He won the event and the ratings lead as well, but Australia’s Mick Fanning defeated him by a hair in a thrilling final at Pipeline to claim the world title.
His greatest legacy, in my opinion, is his capacity to demonstrate to the world the furthest bounds of poise amid potentially lethal quantities of Pacific Ocean. The ultimate surfing experience is getting barreled. If you ask me, it’s the ultimate human experience, and when it comes to giving his best performance in surfing’s ultimate gladiatorial arena, Slater has broken down age barriers unlike anybody else. In contrast to today’s Championship Tour model, which permits surfers to earn world titles without actually testing them in waves of consequence, Slater enjoyed the chance to get into trouble with the biggest and hollowest waves he could paddle.
“Slater’s adaptability is something that will stick with me in addition to his world titles, bravery, and longevity.”
Even though his competitive stats are impressive, they don’t convey the tale of the bravery and bluster he had to muster to perform in this way in waves of consequence—an arena where he defeated opponents of all ages, from Gabriel Medina to John John Florence, and from Tom Carroll to Andy Irons. Even though he has garnered many honours and trophies, surfing’s hardened core has given him endless credibility due to his uncompromising commitment to conquering the sport’s most challenging waves. That must feel good.
In addition to his world titles, bravery, and longevity, Slater will also be known for his flexibility. This is the man who, along with a generation of Australian sand-bottom, pointbreak scions, went rail to rail and kept winning. His record of six victories at Snapper Rocks, four at Jeffreys Bay (tied with Fanning), and four at Bells (tied with Mark Richards and Fanning) further establishes his unmatched rail brutality.
At the Tahiti Pro earlier this year, Slater was exactly where he had always wanted to be: inside the stomach of a South Pacific beast.
I was present for several of his victories at Snapper, and once more, a performance from 2013 comes to mind. The tournament was won by the all-time six-foot Kirra, who defeated two Coolie Kids, Joel Parkinson and Fanning, in the semifinal and final, respectively. The Australian player famously gave Kelly the bird as the 41-year-old was scooped into the tube in front of him and doomed to defeat and a brutal wipeout. Parkinson’s use of priority in the closing stages of the final to stuff him in a perfect Kirra pit and snuff out any hope of him winning the event was a perfect illustration of his command over the conditions that day and the competitive format at large.
Slater’s breakthrough success came in high-performance surfing, when he achieved an unprecedented five consecutive world titles in his early years and truly separated himself from the competition. He would go on to win six world tour events at Trestles, the world’s top high-performance canvas at the time, where he also starred in the groundbreaking surf film “Kelly Slater in Black and White,” which served as the catalyst for his global breakthrough.
And lastly, he has had the most impact and invention in the aerial area of surfing history. Who could forget his 1999 innovation at the Pipe Masters, the Rodeo Clown. Or when he accomplished surfing’s first and only frontside 720 air reversal 15 years later, at the age of 42.
For all of this, Fiji is the ideal way to end things. It is the one wave that embodies Slater’s qualities. A wave where riders can experience enormous looping aerials, scorching rail turns, and potentially fatal tubes in one ride. Right now, all we need is some swell.
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