The champ, candid with MMA broadcaster Ariel Helwani…
The peerless MMA journalist and broadcaster Ariel Helwani, born of excellent Jewish stock and a thorn in the side of the UFC’s famously prickly Dana White, has just completed a superb interview with the eleven-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater.
From the opening gambit where Kelly explains why MMA is his favourite sport to watch, to his blood feud with UFC star Paulo Costa to his likely retirement in 2022 and the TV series that’ll be made around it (also admits might be sorta hard given his no-vax stance), to pivoting the Ultimate Surfer away from tour wannabes and focusing on kids, fourteen to seventeen, to the wild ability of his godson Jackie Doz and a slight back-pedalling on pals dying from COVID vaccines (now it’s just “horrible reactions”), Slater, and Helwani are in terrific form.
Essential.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Newsflash. Kelly is twice or three times your age and still surfs better in the real world than you do in your dreams.
You ever do anything ever as well as he surfs Honolua, you let us know, will you?
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Great interview, honesty there if people “want” to hear it. Sadly a lot online just have hate in them.
As for parenting, he has always owned up that one.
He’s the only surfer articulate enough who i would listen too, sure he’s not perfect, like who is…
50 yo and still able to put it up to the best of them, fair play and long may it last.
Hopefully this virus will be the Rubicon that make’s all the bullshitters self-destruct in the long run.
XD
kelly is a douche…
Drekalê, Why are you obsessed with us, Jews?
Is it cool in Australia to mention us every 3 posts?
Room for everyone on the unreasonable train.
Tj
From what I can tell, they don’t do much of anything together
He went to her art show once. …Once.
Emotionally honest is what I meant.
“Welcome back I’m Joe Turpel sitting alongside 11x’s World Champion Surfer and best commentator ever, the GOAT, hailing from Cocoa Beach Florida, with over 55 career wins, the youngest and oldest World Champion ever, 7x’s Pipe Master, past Triple crown Champion, Winner of the Eddie Aikau, Golfer, Actor, Activist, Innovator, Conspiracy Theorist , and On-line troll Mr. Robert Kelly Slater…We’re gonna take another commercial break we’ll be right back!”
You guys totally missed the other podcast Kelly appeared on recently where he actually talked about surfing with other people who know surfing rather than the usual “how can we gain insight from Kelly to apply to our ordinary lives” premise of all the others he’s done. It was actually interesting, check out L8night with Choccy.
Of course he backtracked because he fucking lied. The amount of adverse reactions is infinitesimally small.
Beachgrit never seemed to, but nice to see that Slater finally figured out that Ultimate surfer was a show for kids.
All the fighting talk (and the interviewer’s seeming lack of background about anything but fight stats) was a bit boring.
Kelly didn’t say much that we haven’t heard before, but probably his best interview yet and will be interesting to those who’ve never heard Kelly talk, and also like fight stats.
P.S.
Just read a quick article in which Brian May from Queen says that he caught th’ ‘vid at a gathering last week where everyone (including him) were triple jabbed.
Reckons he would’ve died without being triple jabbed.
How would he actually know that though ?
you tell us, you the one who heard the man…
Hey everyone, my mum gave me $200 for Christmas and its burning a hole in my pocket. What should I spend it on?
Shiba!
ripple
What about the new China digital currency e-CNY? 140 million wallets opened in October.
Half an Australian bag of coke
Hahaha yes! Good ol’ meth and fentanyl!
Can you smell that smell?
Yeah that was on the short list
the “snort” list.
50g brazzo…
Chas must be busy so I’ll help him out- COCAINE + SURFING!
Buy Here. Here. and waaayyyyyyyyyyyyy over fucking Here.
Beef.
And beer…
Do city people from Auckland pay a thousand dollars a day at your farm to shovel shit to get an authentic country life experience?
I’d like them to, but have been too lazy to let them know it’s an option.
A good idea though seeing as I’m in need of a bigger boat…
Fine, fine Hurluley products.
$200 on black, then $400 on black, then $800 on black, then $1600 on red, then $3200 on black, then $6400 on red, then $12800 on black.
Walk away after that.
More like
$200 on black
Then
$400 on black
Then
$800 on black
Then walk after with empty pockets…
Then buy an e-foil and ride it through the lineup at Snapper
Stab premium
And you would be correct.
Tyrants never let an opportunity to terrorize go to waste.
A spear in the side, surely?
Someone time stamp all the dumb shit Kelly says, because there is no way I’m watching an hour and a half of that bullshit.
Remember when we would hang on every word haha, now no one gives an absolute fuck.
Whereas some are the exact opposite, having spent most of the last 30 yrs of the opinion that he’s a complete fuckwit and representative of everything fucked about surfing and the shitty industry surrounding it, and have only recently warmed to him…
Likewise, a 5o year old man crushing rookies dreams is fantastic.
there is zero hate on his surfboarding legacy… It’s just when he starts talking about things other than said surfboarding legacy. IMHO.
Love to hear him talk about parenting. I’m guessing there isn’t much space in the pool room for world’s greatest dad mugs amongst all the surfboarding trophies
Brutal. Heck!
It’s always kinda bugged me that the media collectively ignores that part of his life yet rehashes the same old stories about being poor as a kid or having a crappy father himself
Because of his vax stance?
They say you’re never alone with a schizophrenic
We’re not.
LEGENDARY!
Having read the current comments on the latest Slater misstep one brutal and factual assertion is missing:
NEVER, I mean NEVER assume that just because you’ve experienced success in life, in this case in surfing, you(Slater) are intelligent and people give a fuck about what you think. As in most cases, those who pay attention to you figure out that money and success do not correlate with intelligence. This is brutally accurate with Slater.
This is a profound evaluation.
Regardless, he’s probably the only Surfer on tour I’d listen to on a podcast.
Honest, opinionated and he has lead an very unique life. I enjoyed it.
He most definitely has. Yet he tarnishes it on the reg…Neg.
Don’t follow him enough on social media and or if he scribbles his thoughts here anonymously. Perhaps he was quite honest regarding being an absent father!
I didn’t even listen. Lol. Honest is good.
Careful, Ben Marcus is gonna blow a gasket with heretical talk like that!!