Witchcraft? Santeria? Voodoo? All of the above.
Don’t look now but Kelly Slater is sitting in second place on the WSL rankings and he has a secret weapon. Yes, the mental games the man plays are the stuff of legend. Surfers in the field swear that he possesses some sort of magical ability. That he can will them off their boards or that he can will waves his way. That he bends the forces of nature to suit him. I spoke with Matt Wilkinson once on the Gold Coast and he claimed that Kelly sat behind him in the line-up and stared at the back of his head until he could feel it. He could feel those powerful blues burning holes.
But what does Kelly say?
“Ummm (pause) that is…ahhh…the ownership of that (being mind controlled) is totally on them. I’m not gonna say I’m not a competitive guy but, you know, if they’re getting mind fucked that is because they are not in control of themselves for whatever reason, so that is not my problem (laughs). That is their problem. Like, Parko the other day, Parko had a wave down at Lowers and he’s coming down the line and I was paddling back out and I was paddling fast to try and kind of get out of his way and I was thinking in my head, “Oh what’s he gonna do? How is he gonna use that section? How’s he gonna come around it and…” I was thinking about what are his choices were gonna be. And he kind of didn’t commit to any one turn, he kind of… he was stuck between two kinds of turns and he fell. And he came up and said, “Ahhh you fucking did that to me!” And I was like, “Really? I didn’t do anything. I was just watching you ride a wave.” But you know, people say that all the time and for whatever reason, I guess, I don’t know if Parko ever says that but…If people say that then they kind of got this idea ahead of time and I think that…I don’t know what that is. I don’t know (genuine moment of reflection). Each person it would be different for.”
Kelly’s mind games definitely work on Parko but will they work on Gab Medina? Do they translate into Portuguese? For that, we must all wait and see. Or travel to the OuterKnown. The answers to everything are there.