The feel-good story of the decade.
The recent interview conducted with the world’s greatest athlete, Kelly Slater, by Breitling continues to captive the surf reading public with revelation after revelation emerging from the, ostensibly, advertorial masterpiece. Drip after drop after drip holding sway while J-Bay ticks to commencement.
Slater sat down with the luxury Swiss watch manufacturer, recently, to speak about the re-worked Superocean Automatic 42 Kelly Slater. Limited to 1000 pieces, Breitling used its dive watch as foundation but swapped in a bright orange dial as nod to the 11x world surfing champion’s father and an army green band, inspiration un-noted, though the chat quickly pivoted to shocking revelations that he, Slater, surfs for a grueling 50-minutes at a time as opposed to the typical 30 and once heard, evidence-free, that surfers have eclipsed golfers in number, noting there is much money in golf.
Lost, however, or at least under-acknowledged, is Slater’s intent to surf in the upcoming 2024 Olympiad which will be held in France and, thus, subjugated French Polynesia i.e. Teahupoo.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was on my mind. Because the location of the next Olympics is a spot I’ve probably had my first or second best results in my career — it’s in Teahupo’o in Tahiti. France is hosting the Olympics and they’ve chosen to take it down to Teahupo’o — I’ve won that contest like six or seven times. It would be really great to try to make that team. They only took two people from each country in the last Olympics, and they’re going to take three from a couple this time — including the U.S. I honestly think the qualification is potentially harder for me than winning the Olympics. If I can get in there I think I’d have a shot at winning the Olympics in 2024. And I’d be 52, so I’d be one of the oldest Olympians in that game.
Slater is correct in his assessment that qualification may be more difficult than winning gold. At time of writing, the most recent Pipeline Pro is sitting as the sixth best American in the world with only the top two, per country, allowed. If you recall, Hawaii does not get to surf under its own flag, per Olympic rules, so John John Florence and Baron Mamiya are directly in his way but let’s get into the numbers?
John John is hurt and may have a tough time getting his wobbly boot motivated. Baron should, or could, be a lock. Kolohe Andino, the American with a Hawaiian name, is above Slater too plus has Olympic experience and Nat Young, the American with an Australian name, is making moves. Griffin Colapinto, currently world no. 4, has shown flashes of brilliance, likely also locking, so where does that leave our man?
Does he have what it takes to rise above a solid but compromised field?
While the World Surf League insists they “don’t script this,” should they just once?
The feel-good story of the decade.
Or to quote the great Noa Deane, “America, fuck yeah.
But quickly, Slater claims to have won at Teahupoo “six or seven times.” Do you not think he knows whether it is “six” or “seven” or is he just that good?
Possibly even the greatest of all-time.
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.
As true today as it was almost a decade ago. Viva BeachGrit!
I believe when I fall in love this time it’ll be forever…NOT!
I’m starting to get really pissed at KS and that kid snaking the pack all day! Fuck those guys!
Im sure I read it somewhere here. Fucking snakes are worse than dwopins. Fuck those snaking muthafuckas!
The only way egghead is competing at the next Olympics is if he changes nationality to Syria and slinks his way into qualification via the International Surfing Games.
It must gall that in his prime he would have shit it in and be probably a 4 or 5 time gold medallist, but tough shit.
We all get you mate. The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive. But you know what, you move on and find that there’s more to life than chasing validation by collecting trophies.
At a minimum…I’m BG’s sixth best commenter.
The nordic companies seem to have this odd idea of surfing as a fashion-driven luxury sport for highly educated, hyper healthy, suit wearing, IKEA shopping surfers.
He know exactly how many wins he’s got out there
I could be wrong, but I think that orange will just look grey about 20m down.
Griffin Colapinto, the American with the name of a _______. Fill in the blank.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Smelly Skater
Pinochio, making the most of a mid-life crisis, blue-powder phase.
If you listen to the latest Lipped podcast they talk about the next Olympics having a new legacy spot available to an athlete. They didn’t go into the details but indicated Slater is a lock for Chopes. Get excited.
I have a condition where I am not able to get excited for anything to do with surfing in the Olympics.
Ol’limpdicks
Just throw him there US – he would charge and they can promote the oldest Olympic athlete in the world to death
…what is a breitling?
Watches way too expensive for the average surfer. Slater has turned into a yuppie.
Is it something like a ‘Quisling’?
Coming again to save the mother fuckin’ day yeah
So lick my butt, and suck on my balls…