"I watched it a half dozen times to compare frontside to backside, rights to lefts. I think it was a fair result."

Just as the heat started to simmer on the Surf Ranch Pro imbroglio where WSL judges were accused of  ineptitude, bias and, by swarms of Brazilian surf fans, racism, after Gabriel Medina’s loss to Ethan Ewing in his quarter-final and Italo Ferreira in the final against Colapinto, Kelly Slater has weighed into the fray. 

To recap, read “Australian surfer Ethan Ewing threatened with death following controversial win”, “Gabriel Medina pens open letter to WSL complaining of ‘shocking’ judging” and “Pro surfing in chaos as its biggest stars turn on WSL and CEO Erik Logan”. 

In an interview with The Inertia mostly concerning Kelly’s new environmental turtle sandals the KLLY, talk turned, briefly, to the fracas, 

“With anything subjective, you’re going to have errors. If something is even close, how do you objectively say for sure something was a rip off or crime? But to say (a result) is a rip off or a crime, that bothers me – claiming it’s a crime (that Medina lost). I thought Ethan beat Gabriel. I rewatched the heat a few times. Other people (I trust) watched it, who are very in the know. I won’t name any names, but they thought Ethan won the heat. His best ride was definitely his right. That’s not to say anything against Gabe. I thought he was awesome and he has definitely been the best guy out there. I didn’t pay attention to the live heat, but I was surprised to hear he had lost. I watched it a half dozen times to compare frontside to backside, rights to lefts. I think it was a fair result. I’m not sure about Italo and Griff’s heat. I haven’t looked at it as closely. People said that Ethan’s air (against Medina) wasn’t as good and I was like, ‘what are you talking about?’ To land on the nose, get it around in that section. That’s extremely difficult.”

Kelly also hinted at an exit from the tour in 2025, aged fifty three.

“Yeah, I definitely want to surf this year, then next,” he said. “It’s an Olympic year and I want to see if I can make the team. I haven’t made any formal announcement or anything but if I surf this year, then next, I think that’ll probably be good. I’ve done enough. But who knows? I could win one of these next few events and just feel like, ‘that’s it, that’s enough, I’m good.’”

"(At Rockaway) I found a new place, a new home. I saw black skaters. I saw black owners. It was beautiful. I felt like I had found a home."

The Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn took surfing from Mosiah Moonsammy.

Bed-Stuy has the raw, uncanny ability to take even the most private, hidden things you love from you in a Bainbridge street minute.

Sean Carter spoke of Bed-Stuy as a “hard knock life, from the dope spot, with the smoke glock, Fleein’ the murder scene.”

While they make your Cafè con leche, local bodega owners can feel out your mood quicker than a Harlem local under the L train at 125th street at 2AM on a Friday. Turning their little corner store into a confession booth without you even realizing.

Mosiah is a director and reborn surfer and skater. His first project, “Last Bodega in Brooklyn” won critical acclaim. His second, “Black Surfers in the Concrete Jungle” is in the works.

Exactly how did his surf mojo get seized?

“I started to begin to surf when I was about 9 years old and skating and surfing were in sync for me. I loved doing these two things and I loved being in the water. But I got a lot of push-back from my own community that felt like a black boy shouldn’t be surfing or skating. I should be playin ‘ball. I should be playing football. and because of what I was being told it developed insecurities which ultimately led me to not skating and not surfing.”

His flame flickered, but never went out.

In a voice with a cadence that lulls you into submission he tells us,

“The first love I’ve ever had was the water… and I never saw people that looked like me so for a long time I felt by myself in the water. And it took the discovery of Rockaway. I found a new place, a new home. I saw black skaters. I saw black owners. I saw the rippers. I saw the queens. I saw… the….in-gen-u-ity… and it was beautiful. I felt like I had found a home…. in this water I didn’t feel so alone. and now… I discovered a new piece of myself. I found community. I found unity. I found us… and it inspired me to get back in the water and get back surfing the way that I used to.”

Mosiah met Nigel, the owner of Stations in Rockaway Beach. Nigel introduced Mosiah to a new community of surfers that breathed vitality into a shunned and forgotten life.

Mosiah’s new project centers around Nigel and his journey through surf.

The Gofundme clip will make ya wanna bust out the debit card and be a part of reason this project comes to light.

Author’s  note: Mosiah was raised in Florida. This is the place where he got his original push-back from his community about a black boy doing a white boys sport. He has family in Brooklyn. When he would go to visit, he would get similar flack from his peers. But as the saying goes, Florida taketh, New York takes, but will give back depending on your reaction. Yes, The BK can throw it’s flack, but its a test. To see if you can hang with the pneuma of The City. And Mosiah did, with a little help from Rockaway. The City can flip you that way. Then it’ll turn ‘ya right side up if you can prove yourself. Moaish tells me, “With this level of exposure, I can show people that it is possible to go outside the norms and its ok. That things you love can be taken from you, but you can always take them back.”