Yes, it’s amazing. And huge. And smooth. And progressive. But leave it to surfers to call Kelly Slater’s latest air spin a 540.
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Kelly Slater has left Quiksilver and few are surprised. The most surprising thing to us (aside from the April 1, 2014 roll out) is that news went out in a press release from the ASP. Why is Kelly Slater leaving Quiksilver an ASP news item? Oh yeah, that’s because Kelly owns has extremely close ties to the owners of the Association of Surfing Professionals.
Mr. Slater, however, was a true professional with his exit letter:
There is little I can say that would give the credit due or cover the debt of gratitude I feel on a personal and professional level to Quiksilver. As a brand and on a human level, they have been a part of my life, career, and personal relationships for more than 23 years now, well over half my life. They’ve supported me through good times and bad, personal hardships and competitive triumphs, and never wavered in backing my choices and desires in all that time.
Quiksilver founder Bob McKnight was equally professional and warm.
“Kelly has been a part of the Quiksilver family for over 20 years. It’s been an incredible journey watching him grow from a young surfer with great potential, to the 11-time World Champion he is today. We wish Kelly all the best as he enters this next phase of his career.”
Yes, it went on for a long time (23 years) and they created some iconic images together, but it was just a clothing sponsorship, and Kelly was just a model, and Quiksilver is just a giant clothing company dead set on selling swimsuits to the mall moving masses so we’re sure they’ll find cheaper, younger, more handsome men to model their products in the future. And Kelly, well, he’s moving on up to model for a huge French Fashion conglomerate (that owns Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Puma, and Volcom/electric]. Because if you’re going to model, it might as well be for the French. They invented it.
[Side note: we searched Kering’s site for “Kelly Slater” and the site replied: “Did you mean ‘helly later’?” Yes, that’s exactly what we meant.]
[Link: ASP]
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Yesterday, Wednesday, February 5, 2014 Kelly Slater won the Volcom Pipe Pro ASP 5-Star event at Pipeline. Yes, 2 John Florence was there, Jamie O’Brien and a crew of other hard-charging locals were in it, and the surf was macking (see Bielmann photo above), so it wasn’t exactly like Kelly was playing in the kiddie pool. Mr. Slater was happy with his performance no matter the details.
“This was some of the best Pipe I’ve ever surfed in my life,” said Slater. “There were some really gnarly, intense, kind of vicious waves this morning. It was really doubling up, a new swell, it was a little bit wonky. . . There were a couple waves that I got right in that little sweet spot where you can just barely make the wave. It did feel like there was definitely some room out there to work on things and the opportunity was there because when the wave gets really intense, you’ve got to just totally commit, and you can see if a guys committed or not, and you can choose to be like that.”
Congrats to Kelly. Brazil’s Wiggolly Dantas finished second, and Mason Ho and Adriano De Souza rounded out the top four [click to continue…]
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We were kind of hoping that we’d see a Chia Kelly Slater head in this promo video for The Chia Co., but there wasn’t one. Follow the jump if you’d like to see Mr. Slater with his Chia fro on. . . [click to continue…]
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Kelly Slater dropped in on Joel Parkinson to take his 52nd ASP World Tour win at Kirra during the final of the 2013 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast and gets a great start on his Slater’s Dozen campaign.
I felt really relaxed. I was stressed early in the week,” Slater said from the stage. “I knew I was going to have to be relaxed to get past Mick and Joel. No one could seem to stop this bastard. . .?
Oh, and Slater now leads the 2013 ASP rankings over Joel Parnkinson. Follow the jump for the wave scores, official word from the ASP and the results. Or click here for “Paul Proganda’s” much less official coverage of the event. [click to continue…]
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You’d think that after winning 11 ASP World Surfing titles Kelly Slater would be able to say pretty much anything he wants to say about surfing, but when Slater was quoted in an interview with Goldcoast.com.au things quickly got complicated.
Slater’s original quote was:
He [Slater] said he did not believe surfing had a performance-enhancing drug problem because he did not “think there’s a drug you can take to make you surf better”. . . Asked if there was a recreational drug problem, he said: “There clearly is — absolutely. There’s no denying that, it’s rampant, it’s full-on.” . . Slater said the Association of Surfing Professionals had introduced drug-testing last year, but it appeared to have faltered. . . “They tested us at the first event and I never got tested again all year,” he said. “Why talk about it and not do it? . . “Either do it or don’t do it.”
Slater then later reportedly emailed a statement saying his “rampant” and “full-on” drug remarks were taken out of context, according to story on Ninemsn.com.au.
Slater said his comments weren’t referring solely to the ASP World Tour or surfing in general but actually to sport as a whole. . . “I definitely think there are issues for athletes across all sporting disciplines that need to be looked at and acknowledged and serviced,” Slater said. . . “I look forward to working with Kieren (Perrow, ASP interim commissioner) and Paul and ASP Management in further enhancing any process that contributes to the betterment of the sport and its athletes.”
The fact that Slater’s longtime agent Terry Hardy and Hardy’s business partner new ASP CEO Paul Speaker own the Association of Surfing Professionals only makes this entire issue even murkier. Speaker, however, says the ASP is standing firm on doping: “The ASP has a very clear stance on doping that is consistent with protocols from other international professional sports as well as with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA),” Speaker said. “The ASP remains fully committed to adherence and enforcement of our policy.”
Guess we’ll all have to wait and see, won’t we.
[Link: Goldcoast.com.au and NineMSN.com.au]
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In October 2012, Kelly Slater’s North Shore home was burglarized. Here he talks with KHON2 about the rip-off and what he’s doing to help raise money for people in need during the holidays. For Slater’s handwritten list of things stolen, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
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In a showdown at the Hurley Pro at Lower Trestles, Kelly Slater took advantage of Joel Parkinson missing a wave to grab his 50th ASP WCT Tour event 16.5 to 14 and moves into more serious contention for his 12th WCT World Title.
Slater was extremely happy about his win especially after what he felt was a pretty rough week at Trestles.
“I felt like I’ve had so many good years at Lowers I feel like the pressure is really on to at least make the final,” Slater said. “It’s cool the 50th one here. I won my first event as a pro here and it feels like a nice wrap up for me here.”
Follow the jump for the complete finals waves scores and official word from the ASP. [click to continue…]
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It was a battle of wisdom vs. youth in the finals of the Volcom Fiji Pro as 40-year-old Kelly Slater faced off against 19-year-old Gabriel Medina in perfect four-to-six foot Cloudbreak. Slater did the usual–he got in early with an 8.33 and a 9.83 and knocked Medina back on his feet and made the Brazilian fight for it. But there just wasn’t time.
“It’s about time I got him,” Slater said. “He had my number in the back half of last year and he’ll probably go on to beat everyone for the next 20 years. He can do it all and I think he proved that to a lot of people this week at Restaurants and out here at Cloudbreak.”
With this win Slater moves into second place in the ASP World Rankings behind Mick Fanning and appears to be well on his way to number 12. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
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It’s been a crazy couple days for Kelly Slater. The elation of winning his 11th ASP World Title followed directly by the realization that he hadn’t clinched it just yet. Then on Sunday, November 6, 2011, knowing he had to win one more heat to officially own the trophy he had already been awarded, he faced off in Round 4, Heat 2 of the Rip Curl Pro Search SF against two of the rippingest new kids on tour.
The combined ages of Brazilians Miguel Pupo and Gabriel Madina may fall two years short of Slater’s 39 years, but that did not help them today as Slater surfed past the 17 and 19 year olds to advance to the quarterfinals and seal the 2011 ASP Title.
“It was a confirmed the other day, but we’re sure now,” Slater said. “I’m stoked. I was upset about it, but I also thought it was really funny. There are no hard feelings towards ASP and mistakes happen. It’s easy to point things out. It was a little tough to readjust and I was going against kids who could be my kids and they throw radical airs. I was hoping for big offshore barrels, not closeout onshore ramps. I just didn’t know what to expect out there. I didn’t know if we’d have air sections and it was kind of flat with a lot of power. The waves were closeouts and fast with a weird landing.”
Now that this is over Slater may just be relaxed enough to win the entire contest. Follow the jump for the official word from the ASP. [click to continue…]
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