He is an absolute master.
I was enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee this morning with ol’ pal Ashton Goggans. You remember him? He used to write great things for us here. We were speaking on all manner of fun topics, just having a good time. Then Bart Wilson, Julian’s brother, came up and we talked about more fun things until Bart said, “Have you seen Kelly’s new wave pool?”
And FUCK! There went my wonderful cup of coffee and nice sunny chat. I had to sprint home to try and toss the video on our little site. Thankfully Rory, floating in the middle of the ocean, beat me to it but my morning was still gutted. Wrecked.
Kelly Slater is an absolute master of stealing the spotlight any time it drifts, slightly, from his handsome face. He was mad at me for having a cup of coffee and not talking about him and so he released a perfect video that is burning the Internet down.
Worse still, though, is poor Adriano de Souza. Hours ago, literally hours, he was on top of it all. He was champion of the world, the first ever Brazilian Pipe Master too! He had etched his name into the record books and could sit back and be lauded for a hard-fought year.
Except he couldn’t because when he woke up this morning the lauders were glued to computer screens not watching his year’s highlights but ogling Kelly Slater’s magnificent wave.
I want to be frustrated but he is so good at it, so utterly masterful, that all I can do is stand, mouth agape, like everyone else. Oh, my mouth is not agape at the wave. It scares me in a way that I cannot explain. Like, really points to the end of the world somehow.
No, I stand in awe of Kelly Slater. 43 years old. Ended the year in 9th place. And he is still the epicenter of our world. Bravo and here’s looking at you, kid
Has anyone tried to imagine Filipe Toledo in KS Wavepool? If WSL put an event on KS Wavepool… everybody knows the result, maybe Italo can be contender, but not Medina cuz Medina is like Julian Wilson and Jordy Smith, a big guy…
I try to avoid huge crowds, so you’re correct here. If you find yourself surfing with hordes of aggressive surfers all the time, maybe you should consider why you’re paddling out there in the first place? I’d take a slightly lesser wave with no crowd over a perfect spot with 100 other people every time.
Like a shitty wave pool would steal anyone’s thunder, not the less from the new world champ. ADS’ victory lap is just starting. And won’t be for us.
Going mainstream for the big bucks now. That’s what being WC means. Freedom from this small sick little place called “surfing community”.
I’ll put it in perspective from a gringo’s viewpoint… Last year when Mendina won the title my facebook feed was buzzing with posts about the win. Some positive some negative.. but people were talking about it! This year I woke-up to 2 posts about Ad’s win and 50 others about Slater and his wave pool.
Slater definitely stole Ad’s thunder on this side of the globe.
Oh, I see. We dealt with this when Brazil got clobbered by Germany in the soccer world cup last summer. It hurts so much that you try to grab onto anything to try to move on. For those who are less inclined to accept the new world order, this years’ brazzo uber dominance (a high water mark in my personal view) must be unbearable. So I can understand the escapism behind the freezing wave pool (that is stupid, right?) within the anglo saxon world.
I’m back home for xmas after a couple weeks in the NS and Mineirinho is all over the mainstream media, interviews on prime time tv live from Hawaii, etc. This is a very different world champ we have in our hands. Someone who came from down down below in the food chain. In a way, surfing is coming across to Brazilian mainstream as a sport that provides real opportunities for the empoverished and differently from soccer, there is cultural advancement in addition to cash.
I believe ADS’ title will have a more profound impact on new the generation of brazzo surfers than Medina’s. After all, Gabe is one in a million while there are millions of potential AdSs down here.
or surfed the mentawais
Thanks KS Wave Co. for mitigating yesterday’s dark hangover. Helluva potion, must be accented with chia infused Purps!
NEGATRON GET IN HERE! QUICK!
I feel the delightful Brazilian Fan 02 was bowled over by kindness and civility! Look at him now! BeachGrit accepts all!
You’re right. I welcome him with open arms! I’m guess I’m just not used to such patriotic fervor. Vai Adriano! Vai Neymar, for god’s sake!
Ha!
Thanks guys…. I cried with happiness when I saw your kind comments. :)))))
That’s what I hoped!
Dude, Negs is gonna send you packing back to Stab. A bit of civility, this site and its minions are overwhelmingly hyped for ADS. Nor are we blind supporters of the USA/AUS contingents. Until Jack Robinson makes the CT.
Seeing Kelly’s expression and excitement over the potential for this thing future, was brilliant and tangible, It eclipsed ADS gaining a crown in Shit Pipe! ADS is a machine with great passion and bad form, but Kelly Wins again!! #merica
ADS’s thunder will roar all year long. Every heat he surfs he’ll be “Adriano the defending World Champion.”
Media plan: Mick wins – Feb launch; Adriano wins – ASAP.
It’s not really a launch now, is it? What’s he going to do with it? No way it makes money.
What if it’s up near Mammoth? Slim chances, but maybe stay in business? I still think Vegas is the best bet…industry is close enough, tons of surf/skate/snow events there to at least keep an industry clientele floating around at intervals.
Water and Vegas area bad mix.
Mammoth wouldn’t cut it at all. Mammoth gives you skiing/boarding you can’t get at home. A wave pool will simply give you a slightly better version of what surfers already have in the ocean.
I’ve always suggested that the ONLY way a wave pool is viable is if it’s part of a much larger attraction. I can see Vegas working I guess, but the pool would have to be small enough to really fit into a hotel’s layout. If that can get the scale down to that size, it would be a hit.
No way it makes mony?!! Do you even know papa slade?!
Has Kelly ever started a business that was successful?
Kelly has been all defeat in and out of the water for the last 2 years.
He wins my heart over and over. Hearts beat heats.
get a room
Im so glad Kelly released this.It has eased the pain of trying to accept that Ads is the best surfer in the world.
Loking forward to the Outerknown Pro in the lake next season
Why didnt you say that when Parko or Fanning were the world champ ? they are also not the best surfers in the world and they won titles.
ahhh ya got me there…. Fair point.
He deserves it for sure,Good on him! but I cant help but root for my fellow country men. I nearly cried when Gabby did that air against Mick
The whole WSL is about the best competitor,,, NOT the best surfer.
Style is not even in the criteria. I also dont think adriano is the best surfer in the world… Nor fanning, parko… I think Slater and medina are Number 1 , another level surfers. BUt that doens mean that we should criticise adriano… He played the WSL game and won just like many others have,,, He NEVER said he was the best surfer in the world. Claps for him,,, he is today THE BEST ATHLETE IN SURFING !
Aloha !!!
You are 100% correct ADS is definitely pound for pound the best competitor on tour and style is most definitely not on the criteria. Let the world rejoice – we have a new champion!
Word! the rest of the tour should take notice!
the Guillotine
Negatron, to my point above. KS throwing some Vicodin for the heartbroken.
any millionaire could have done that.
http://stabmag.com – if you enjoy sucking ass you will find companionship there!
I always found if I couldn’t beat the other kids at football, it was always satisfying to take my ball and leave. Is this what Kelly is doing? Who cares, finally a real artificial wave we can get excited about. I’m cancelling my flight to Cardiff asap!
you wish kelly stole ADS’s thunder… I dont know… You “gringos” have to try and
underapreecciate a Brazilian. You can try !!! But next year,… You are gonna be beat again by us…. Caio Ibelli, alex ribeiro…. NEW GUYS EVEN… BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR american and australian surfers… COMBINATION…. you guys are over… say hi to the new potency of the sport !!! BYE BYE SLATER !!!! go surf in your wave pool… beacause on the wct,,, youre over ! Have a nice day.
You are on the wrong website – try Stab, they will love you long time there
where is Negatron when you need him..
It’s a plague on humanity
Nobody outside of Brazil cares about ADS. He’s the worst surfer to ever hold the title. Brazilians will always have the little man complex. Sucks for you guys.
No really, nobody outside of Brazil cares about ADS period
I do. I was pulling for him over Mick all comp long.
All season long!
No, my friend. I was pulling for Gabs all season long.
I was referring to me. You always make it about you, Trogies!
Yeah, I was all for Gabs early on. Mid-season it didn’t even look like he’d have a mathematical shot. I also find it easy to root for a much matured Filipe, especially when his air percentage–like GM’s–is other-worldly.
Dearest Brazilian Fan…I am an ADS man! I wrote a long treatise about how I adore him and hope he wins and then, guess what? He won! But can’t we appreciate both Adriano’s masterful season and Kelly’s new creation? Is there not room enough in our hearts for two things? It’s a new era!
Hey chas.. I really love your website and news. Keep doing what you do.
I just didnt Understand what does Kellys Pool got to do with Adrianos title. If the purpose was controversy, I just played along. ALoha
Thank you! And the correlation between the two is that Kelly has a knack for releasing something big when the spotlight shifts, slightly, from him. Yesterday the world cheered Adriano…this morning it is cheering Kelly. He knows how to pull focus like no one else maybe ever.
And Chas,
One question… I am really curious about this.
Please be sincere.
If Mick, Or Owen, Or Julian had won the Tiltle. Would Your website’s headline still be : Kelly Slaters Steals (________) Thunder ?
100%. In an even bigger font if I could figure out how to work a website. I was totally cheering for ADS. Honestly.
Let Chas have his second coffee in peace.
He asked for it. If he wanted a neutral news, with no ‘patriotic’ comments, he would have been NEUtral…. Just talk about the wave Pool, Only the fact that you are talking about kellys pool the next day of a world title race, it does alerady say something about kelly stealing the spotlight, you dont need to make a statement about that.
Settle down, new guy
Im like the brazilians on tour… I come swinging, And i dont give a damn about the STATUS QUO! Bye bye
Swinging, like wife swapping at parties? or like swinging fists?
Because here at Beachgrit we are not big fans of fighting in the comments section… heated debate? Hell yes!!
Mindless fighting can go to other corners of the interweb. Cheers!
wow… they asked for you, and now I know why ! You really are the hero of BeachGrit !!!!
The whole world….not just surfers, are talking about the wave pool….. Kelly just flipped the whole thing upside down
lifes about timing and Kelly has brazenly tried and succeeded in diluting the amazing ADS story and the title of World Surfing champion. he’s never liked Brazil and has now shown his disdain for brazil…low class act , one of Kelly’s lower moments!! why couldn’t he have held off for another 24 hrs?? FFS I have know as have others about his wave pool since sept……great wave pool , but his timing absolutely sucks!!!!
He has succeeded? Looks to me that he is so desperate for attention that he coudnt wait another day to release this… He is an amazing surfer but looks to me that he is needy for attention…
I think that the WSL would not be happy as it stole their limelite also. spoken to a lot of people over here in Hawaii and the mainland , and I guess I am saying in public what a lot of people are thinking .
try dialectics MC…maybe he had the PR scheduled long before anyone entered the h20 for the pipe masters….Are you God or just bitter. Yoga might help you?
gave up yogurt too bitter , the KS wave pool footage was shot 5 th Dec , its just my opinion based on knowing him for 25 + years , not God , just pretty well informed!
Thanks MC for constantly bring insides and been a rare class act in these comment sections (specially Stab). As a brazilian kinda sucks to know that Kelly feels this way about Brazil and ADS. I was always a fan of his surfing and how classy he was (well, looked). But the last 7 years or so me and my friends started to discuss that Kelly might be a bit of a hypocrite. When he was in the top of the world he was THE class act. When he started loosing, specially to young brazilians, he started to lose his cool. I guess is pretty easy to be classy when you are winning at all.
I thought that his instagram post congratulating ADS was so forced it was ridiculous. I mean, this guy criticized ADS hassling every chance he could but how much of a competitive beast was Slater when he did not have a bunch of titles? (pulling Beschen leash anyone?). Anyways, I thought his disdain was more towards ADS but it looks like it’s really more towards brazilians in general.
Still respect his surfing. The man? Not so much.
brah they wrote this joking ..chill out we’re all stoked for ADS
I know a place where you will fit right in.
You’re claiming too hard bro, seems to be a syndrome….
:]]]]!!
Hahha yeah right mate ads who? Everyone forgoten about it already yesterday’s news today’s Fush an chip wrappers. The reason people don’t like Brazos is cos your not very nice people in the water skaning dropping in. Grenral rudeness. But you all claim we are just passionate. Maybe you are but that’s not need for bad surf etiquette.
In all seriousness, I’ve been surfing for over 2 decades. All over the world. Not one single time have I ever had a run in with a Brazilian in the water.
I’m Australian and I like Brazilians as much as I like people from any other country. Please speak for yourself only.
this is none of the the most disrespectful things I have seen Kelly do , he has disrespected Adrianos world title and Brazil , the WSL , the World champion ,12 mths of competition and Kelly shuts it all down , with his need to be in the lime lite . I love Kelly but he has gone down a peg in my love list. and has shown his ego to have an insatiable need for attention WTF Kelly….promoting and buying Asian pop out surfboards , and now denigrating the competitive culture of surfing , a low class act!!!!!!
Wait for it….
Both the boards and the wavepool were designed in California.
No, I think the fact that the day after ADS won his title the whole world of surf news is focused on Slater’s wave pool means he stole his thunder. We don’t have to try to underappreciate Brazilians, ADS is mostdefinitely underwhelming on his own. I will say he at least has humility, which is a far cry from most of the other Brazilians on tour, so he is much more bearable than the average brazzo tour surfer.
Go look In brazilian National TV. If you see kellys poll, and not Adrianos face, Il give you a candy.
I guess no one else really cares