“The problem with stupid people reaching an elite level that they often make the mistake of thinking they're an elite person in general.”
Over the past two days, a reddit thread discussing the medical bona fides of Kelly Slater has snowballed after a screenshot of a Slater missive during the 2020 pandemic was posted with the caption “Dr Slater back at it again.”
What follows is a long and, let’s be frank unfair and unnecessarily cruel, examination of Kelly Slater’s medical expertise.
It’s really important to remember that pro athletes are generally really fucking stupid
And that’s just normal professional athletes. It’s another level when you ride a board of any kind professionally.
Surfer lacking a college education thinks he’s smarter than doctors and specialists that spent most of their lives studying medicine and infectious diseases. Dunning-Kruger in full effect.
Shocker.
Perhaps he should stick to what he knows which is selling overpriced clothes and gear that I’ve never seen a veteran surfer wear.
Pro surfers with few exceptions are some of the dumbest motherfuckers you could ever encounter. Shut up Kelly. No one is listening.
‘
Someone should explain to him that viruses mutate. And that the larger pool of hosts a virus has the more scope it has to mutate… to mutate into variants that aren’t protected by existing vaccines. It is socially irresponsible to not get vaccinated, you risk not just your own health but the health of those you come into contact with.
No, it would be impossible to explain this concept in a simple enough way to someone as dense as Kelly Slater. Even if you stuck the landing he’d be like “sounds like some science BS… I’m just going to stick to drinking my Maca and call it good.” He is great at surfing though.
What a douchebag. You’d think the most legendary surfer of all time who is extremely wealthy would just wanna surf and enjoy the rest of his life being happy
Is this recent?? Did he wake up and realize no one gives a shit about him anymore so he is just bringing back the hits??
I think it is important to remember that surfing is not without its traumatic brain injuries – and a guy like Slater has taken a lot of hits to the head in his career. It probably looks like a pillowcase full of old cottage cheese up in there.
Slater is full on the male equivalent to that hippy tumeric smoothy Mom that started at “namaste”, got into Chem trails, then Q Annon, then anti vaxxing, and now somehow hates brown people.
Damnit, Kelly. Suffered too many hits to the head?
Why is it that the most notable surfers feel the most compelled to voice their dumbass opinions?
The problem with stupid people reaching an elite level in their field is that they often make the mistake of thinking they’re just an elite person in general.
Kelly Slater infuriates me. Back in like 2016/2017 he was calling for a bull shark cull in the Réunion islands after all of the attacks and said that their population was “too large” and they were outcompeting other species. Like ???? They’re supposed to be there?? Good to know, aside from being a conservationist, he’s also a public health professional now.
There’s a line in that momentum generation film where Kelly says, and I’m paraphrasing here as I don’t remember it exactly, something like ‘even though I’m in my 50s I still feel like I’m 18’. He said it like that was a good thing.
So many people in this realm are so stupid. What would they say if a Dr. told them about surfing or board design. General problem is today that anyone with money is showered with praise and thinks they know everything.
Kelly is indisputably the greatest competitive surfer of all time, but he’s also a pseudo-intellectual jackass who seems to be convinced that he’s an unusually intelligent person.
Kelly’s medical opinions are worth about as much as my doctor’s surfing skills, and my doctor doesn’t surf.
The two comments defending Kelly Slater were most ignored and subsequent responses were deleted by the moderator perhaps for containing obscenities.
In hindsight, he was right, and I and many other Australians who thought he was crazy were wrong.
And
I can’t believe the sentiment of this thread. I agree with Kelly and given the choice now I wouldn’t take the Covid shots back in 2020.
Which side of the coin do you fall? Heads, he crazy, tails, well, that vaccine thing, in this case at least, was right.
I take the latter although, for perspective, I also believe the moon landing is real and that jihadists took down the towers. And, as a light contradiction, I also believe the Israeli’s knew the USS Liberty was the USS Liberty and that there’s a real creepy side to Barack Obama, whom I formerly adored.

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Dam, u ruined my day, was gona ask him for advice on how to operate triple bypass surgery and how the fuk to clean my lungs at the same time, oh well maybe next time..
Mate it was slushing through here post GFC, It was slushing though when Hollywood weirdos bought up everything, it’s still slushing through here.
Look, you believe that was all the fault of Covid Stimulus money,
I don’t.
There was a housing crisis here before Covid, there’s a housing crisis here now after Covid.
I think we broadly did good over Covid and it was a boon for me (and others as surfers – read the second article).
You think differently, thats fine.
No need to delete your comments, I like hearing what you have to say about it.
We can agree to differ, I hope, with no drama.
You never miss a chance to air your epidemiological or pelagic bonafides do you Derrick?
I got no bona fides!
can’t seem to find my article- you sure it exists?
You mean the “Mobile Generation”?
This one? https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2021/10/27/the-mobile-generation
Doesn’t sound that defeated and certainly not suffocating in financial anxiety.
This one I wrote for SN explains exactly how I felt about Covid lockdowns themselves.
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2021/08/27/localism-in-the-time-lockdown
Not cheering it on so much as looking on the bright side of life.
People have been fucked over since the dawn of time, if you are lucky enough to have been born in Oz you’ve hit the jackpot, as far as being able to live a good life.
We handled Covid about as well as anyone did and it offered benefit to me and my family in terms of the way the economy was supported during lockdowns.
Nothing about the way we handled Covid has led to the “downfall of my kids futures”.
If you think differently, thats fine with me.
My personal relation to economics and housing is more related to spending most of my adult life chasing waves and not money.
I’m stoked I managed to get a piece of dirt when I did.
Stoked you managed to retire at 44 and pay cash for coastal real estate-thats a dream outcome.
It’ll be harder for kids, but hopefully I’ll be in a position to help them.
Go for it mate.
Why’d you delete the posts?
So the government was incorrect in everything they did? Fkn judgy cunt should maybe do something about it, but won’t.
Good luck to you.
Best time to buy a house is always 20 years ago.
Unless your eyes are even worse than mine you can see steep increases in house prices before Covid as well.
Recessions and depressions are far worse than inflation and throwing money at the economy, just like K-Rudd did in 2008 kept employment high and prevented both.
Happy for you to disagree.
I would seek Mr Slaters wisdom in regards to the following: tube riding skills, bone broth or steel cut oatmeal recipes, modern herpes treatments, navigating international airports with several boards or hooking up with women 15+ years younger than I. Anything else I just use AI or YouTube videos.
Nah.
Prices went up and are going up regardless of the Scomo money.
They are rocketing up right now, 5 years after Covid.
Property went skyrocketing after Sydney Olympics, it skyrocketed after the GFC, again after the 2017 banking regs were relaxed, again during Covid.
It ain’t going backwards, no matter how much tax money gets taken or redistributed back to the worker during a pandemic.
We’re a first world country next to the most populous region in the world, all of whom want to live here. That demand ain’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
Trying to blame the cost of housing on Covid is simplistic in the extreme.
It’s a fantasy but if you believe it it’s no skin off my nose.
I got my Scomo customs glassed to last- still enjoying riding them.
Not really mate.
You see sugar kills diabetics whereas surfboards lead to long and happy lives for surfers, even if a coffee costs $7 bucks you can still paddle out for free on them.
They’re amazing.
Doubt we will be so lucky next pandemic though- probably a once in a lifetime thing.
Actually, I took all my meagre savings and bet that Covid wouldn’t be a global disaster and bought the dip.
Then sold when the market recovered and used that as a deposit to get into a piece of northern rivers dirt.
So covid worked for me there, too.
I think all up, we (Australia) did pretty good.
Low fatalities, unemployment stayed low, etc etc.
House prices were and are still going up anyway.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Ol crazy eyes is back !
I think you are just talking about our current civilization and capitalism…and yes the politicians/lobbyists/rich elite cleaned up during Covid…peanuts were thrown at the people, who gladly accepted…the rich got richer , and the rest had to keep surviving so we have a new world now that is still coming to terms with inflation/cost of living….and darker future for our kids as we have stripped the low lying fruit (resources ) and there is an ever growing gap between the haves and the have nots……so we all take a breath and try and navigate this new world……at least Trump is showing to the world, how corrupt government is and how our system favors the elite……
Soon we’ll all be just interstellar dust in the universe. Hopefully not sharing the ride the morbidly obese though. yuck.
Haha Derek it seems you’re on the comment you published about the slide towards hating brown people.
He appears to be tackling that list in reverse, like a kid in the park running back up the slide. I wonder how far he gets before he slips? Namaste!
Regardless of the real estate, cost of living and general shit fuckery that occurred. I “enjoyed” the breathing space and reflection across the globe. Personally I’m {luckily} a better person for it all.
Jaoquin pheonix in
Eddington.
OK , so the elite sport people have opinions…are not very qualified/opinions skewed/conspiracy’s every where…but the Media feeds off the fame and the BS…because they make money off the elite sports people…..so the media has a lot to answer for….journalism is a lost art…..
It’s far worse and far better than it’s ever been. Not dissimilar to surfboard design.