"There are a lot of people doubting me, saying they should have given the wildcard to a local…it pisses me off."
Tears, screechin’, walls and screens splattered with ol man genetic code, just then, as Kelly Slater, old as time itself, reminded everyone why he is the greatest surfer ever, thrashing Gabriel Medina at real big, real ugly Teahupoo.
In his post-heat interview, Slater said it was a pep talk from Jez Flores as well as the heat from surf fans suggesting he should’ve given the wildcard to a local that drove him to prove his credentials.
Chris Cote
And now I need to hear it all. Talk about the start — the hard times, the broken board, a couple of severe poundings — and then the glory. Start with the wipeout, then talk about the barrels.
Kelly Slater
Yeah, I definitely had to settle in. I knew going against Gabe, he’s just so savvy of a competitor. I have to thank my coach, Jeremy Flores, for the pep talk online today. I wasn’t with him — I haven’t seen him today or yesterday — but he gave me some pit talk on what he was doing on the broadcast. That actually got me thinking about how to engage and get into it, and I tried to push it a bit deeper today.
There are some big lumps coming across it, so it’s hard — if you take off behind one of those lumps, it’s almost impossible to make it on that first one. I was a little bit deep and didn’t get a super clean entry. I kind of delayed my paddle a little trying to find a bump and it whitewashed me. Then, when I finally got up in the barrel, I fell into a cavern and got smashed. I don’t remember the exact sequence, but then I took off on a massive one — probably one of the bigger ones I’ve ever paddled into out here. I dove from the left, started paddling, and thought maybe I was under it. But the apex of the ledge went underneath me, and I thought, well, the boys would be stoked if I went for it, so I just stood up and jumped. I was in the air just thinking, ‘Eli Hanneman, I know how you feel.
So shout out to you, Eli — you inspired me there. But then I just thought, look, I’m going to have a good heat with Gabe. I don’t know if I’ll ever have another heat with him, and he got me last time, so I needed to settle in.
I just started doing little breathing exercises, calming down, getting the heart rate down, and focusing — okay, start over here. Then he got that long one all the way in, and I kind of pulled a Medina on him. I got a barrel — a short one at the seven — but it was a nice, chunky short one. Then I was sitting on the back on priority, and I could see Strider just going, ‘You better get this thing.’
So yeah, it was fun.
Chris Cote
It was a lot of fun. Now, revenge is a dish best served at Chopes. In 2014 you had the final with Medina, and I know you were thinking about it. How good did that feel to get the edge today?
Kelly Slater
Yeah, it felt good — best swell out here in about twelve years, I’d say. That final we had was a dream scenario anyway, just to be in that heat, in those conditions — and after having that heat with John, which will go down in my lifetime as, I think, the top of all the heats I’ve ever had. A dream scenario, tied with John out here, and to surf against both those guys in the same contest was super special. These last couple of days, if the wind had been like that, they would’ve been similar.
It just — if it was glassier, it’d be the same kind of thing we’re looking at. But, super special. I just knew Gabe was probably going to start getting a bunch of waves and settle himself into some sort of sevens and eights, and then, if he stuck himself underneath one of those big ones, he could easily get a nine or whatever.
He only needed a nine at the end, and I was thinking he’s not far out — he was super in this heat right then. Part of me was thinking he’d come back, and part of me was thinking it would be super cool if he came back and beat me, because it would just make the heat such a good story, you know.
But then I settled back out there after he came back out of the combo situation, and I just thought, okay, let’s think about putting him in a combo situation here. What I need to do is maximize what’s out here, as opposed to just trying to play it safe. Let’s maximize the points out here — and that’s how I ended up getting a good one out of it.
Chris Cote
Well, how about the rest of the runs so far — when you accepted this wildcard, is this everything you expected, or is it something different?
Kelly Slater
No, it’s kind of what I expected. Obviously, if you see the comments, there are a lot of people doubting me, saying they should have given the wildcard to a local. I get a lot of people saying that.
Shout out to Ryan and Nelson — all good. But when you see a friend say it, it pisses you off, you know. But without pressure you got no diamonds, so it kind of fired me up to see that stuff.
And also, if people feel that way — even after all this time — yeah, I have something to prove. I need to go out and show that it went to the right guy. If I’d lost that heat, it might have still felt that way, but I think I proved myself there. I usually have a hard heat or two early on, and once I start doing well, it settles me down, so I think I’ll feel a lot calmer after that.
Like I told you before, I felt like I had a bit of a stomach ulcer. I mean, we don’t need to talk about all of that, but everyone knows Gabriel’s been through a lot lately — highs and lows. We’ve become good friends, and I really appreciate his surfing and his career. I think he’s awesome.
So, huge shout out to Gabriel. It’s tough to come all this way and lose to someone who’s not in the title race — that kind of thing. I’m on the other side of that now, so I feel all those emotions: the toughness of the travel, being away from family, all of that. When you have a loss, it sucks. So yeah, that was a very emotional heat — I almost started crying afterwards.
Chris Cote
So it was great. Lastly, how much confidence do you have that you can win this contest?
Kelly Slater
I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.