And warns of gold medals in Tokyo!
Vindication has been slow in arriving for the reigning world champion and Pipeline Master, Adriano de Souza.
I’m positive you won’t have forgotten how, hours after the remarkable double feat, the first by a Brazilian, Kelly Slater loosed vision of a wavepool unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Chas Smith wrote, “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.”
Do you remember Kelly and Adriano’s ancient blood feud?
I’m certainly not a world expert at body language, an expert at nothing except online shopping if truth be told, but it does seem that Kelly fudges when the interviewer Mitchell Ross asks for the causes of the event. Do you like it when Kelly likens Adriano’s intemperance to a chemical imbalance due to his “passion”? I do!
This now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t exchange was a pulse throbber too!

Anyway, the eyes of the world were on Adriano de Souza today, and not Kelly, and not Gabriel, when the Brazilian carried the Olympic torch in his home town of Guarujá, making a spectacular arrival via boat, and flanked by foam SUPs.
“I came back to Brazil just to participate in the relay. I am so happy everything worked out. It’s a great honour to carry the torch.”
And, watch out Tokyo 2020. Adriano, he want gold!
“I am already imagining myself putting on my country’s lycra and fighting for a podium place.”
His wedding was something else, too. Watch that here.