Pat, noted for being fiercely proud of and prone to exhibiting his monstrously elongated scrotum, tells Slater, “If I get kicked in the nuts, it’s your fault.”

Tensions flare in Brazil as Kelly Slater challenges WSL’s Pat O’Connell during filming of epic docuseries Lost Tapes, “The other wave sucks… that’s like Off the Wall, are you kidding me? Dude, I’m boycotting. If my f*&king heat has to be down there, I’m not even going to surf!”

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

The epic influence of Kelly Slater captured in wildly candid moment.

The 11-part docuseries Lost Tapes delivers, again, with the vertical blinds drawn back on the Champ as he navigates the 2019 tour event in Rio.

If you hadn’t guessed by all the late-shows and no-shows, Brazil ain’t Slater’s favourite part of the world, at least wave-wise.

“Not a lot of people come here for the surfing,” says Slater. “The waves in Brazil are funny, the way the beaches are here. A lot of the beaches are steep, you get this backwash situation, funny currents that don’t make great rip bowls.”

There is potential in the joint, he says, but that promise is rare, appearing for an hour or two at most.

Very interesting etc.

The episode lights up, howevs, when Slater challenges his ol pal Pat O’Connell, lately of Florence Marine X, then the WSL’s Head of Tour and Competition.

Pat ain’t convinced about the epic looking four-to-six-foot cabanas out the front, wants to do it down the beach whereupon Slater challenges his old pal.

“The other wave sucks… this is like Off the Wall…Dude, I’m boycotting. If my fucking heat has to be down there, I’m not even going to surf!”

Pat, noted for being fiercely proud of and prone to exhibiting his monstrously elongated scrotum, tells Slater, “If I get kicked in the nuts, it’s your fault.”

“It’s not even a question,” says Slater.

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After belting his head a couple of times on the plastic wind protector of his rental car, drawing blood, he jokes about the blood in the water and sharks, a topic verboten to tour surfers.

Kelly Slater reveals edict from World Surf League around event sponsored by local tourism body in area notorious for Great White attacks, “It’s so sharky we’re not allowed to even talk about it or the WSL gets mad at us!”

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

Slater lands in Margaret River, one year after two surfers were attacked hours apart almost forcing the permanent cancellation of the prestigious event.

In this, the fourth episode of the eleven-part docuseries Kelly Slater: Lost Tapes, which follows its master’s travails on the 2019 tour, we land in Margaret River, an area noted for its Great White attacks.

The year before, two hits on surfers by Great Whites a click or so from the contest there soured world champs Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira’s Margaret River experience.

Gabriel told his six million followers on Instagram, “Today they had two shark attacks on a beach close to where we’re competing. I do not feel safe training and competing in this kind of place, anytime anything can happen to one of us.”

Italo wrote, “Two shark attacks in less than 24 hours here in Australia, just a few miles from where the event is being held. Very dangerous do you not think? even so, they keep insisting on doing steps where the risk of having this type of accident is 90%, so I ask: is not the safety of athletes a priority? We already had several alerts. Life goes beyond that! I hope it does not happen to any of us. I do not feel comfortable training and competing in places like this!”

(In 2020, a surfer in his twenties would be hit by a “fifteen-foot” Great White shark at Bunker Bay, an awesomely pretty crescent of white sand and green water almost at the tip of Cape Naturaliste, a little north of Margaret River.)

Anyway, Slater’s in Margaret River, is smoked by John John and Jaddy in his first heat, fires up to levels hitherto unseen, at least in recent years, to win the next two rounds, but loses to giant-killer Caio Ibelli.

After belting his head a couple of times on the plastic wind protector of his rental car, drawing blood, he jokes about the blood in the water and sharks.

“It’s so sharky we’re not allowed to even talk about it or the WSL gets mad at us!”

Slater throws a piece of bloodied skin at the water.

“There’s some skin for ya,” he says.

Essential.

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Caz Marks, a bold revolutionary.

Olympian, Sports Illustrated model and “body positivity advocate” emerges from mysterious disappearance to stake claim as world’s best female surfer with game-changing short, “Portrait of a Woman on Fire!”

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

Florida surfer Caroline Marks "floats on a spectrum of reality higher than most of her peers."

The mystery of Caroline Marks’ absence from the first half of this year’s tour is a composite of sub-plots that may never be satisfactorily explained.

But, the twenty year old and former rookie of the year didn’t squander her time away from the contest scene.

The short below was mostly filmed in Sumatra’s Mentawai islands during the contest window for the G-Land event and demonstrates, with little doubt, that she floats on a spectrum of reality higher than most of her peers.

Clips from southern California and Waco round out the picture.

Essential.

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Kelly Slater reveals full horror of Sunny Garcia’s suicide attempt in explosive new docuseries, “I found out this morning they’re going to turn off the machine on Sunny tonight so he won’t be with us tomorrow.”

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

“The not knowing is the hardest part. Is he going to pass away today? Is he going to make it through tonight?”

Real hard to believe its been three years since the world champ and six-time Triple Crown winner Sunny Garcia was found near death after a suicide attempt by hanging at his Oregon home.

The forty nine year old had posted this shortly before he was found.

Sunny was subsequently put into an induced coma, sent to a hospital in California for lung surgery before being transported to a Texas facility to undergo treatment paid for by his wealthy Harvard-educated girlfriend Lori Park, one of the first software engineers at Google.

In the third episode of Kelly Slater’s Lost Tapes, an eleven-part series that follows Slater’s travails on the 2019 tour, we find the out-of-form champ in Bali where he must process the terrible news.

“I found out this morning they’re going to turn off the machine on Sunny tonight so he won’t be with us tomorrow… The not knowing is the hardest part. Is he going to pass away today? Is he going to make it through tonight?” 

Slater eventually channels the spirit of Sunny into a shock win over Filipe Toledo who tells Slater after their quarter-final, “You know you got lucky.”

Slater laughs, “I gotta beat him once in my fucking career.”

Essential.

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A still from episode three, when the pace of the series picks up a little.

New Kelly Slater docuseries opens rare window into greatest of all time’s soul as tour shifts to Bells Beach and historic biggest-swell-ever hits famous wave, “I really feel so hopeless”

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

Episode two in 11-part series, redemption of sorts…

Over the next nine weeks, the 2019 WCT season, as viewed through the strikingly pretty eyes of a then forty-seven-year-old Kelly Slater, will unfurl.

Episode one, A New Year, and we find Slater posted up at his Palm Beach apartment on the Gold Coast, current value around three mill, as he prepares for the opening event of the season.

A pre-contest session is shown in all its horror, drop-ins, mistakes, a white-water takeoff any surfer shucked of confidence will relate to.

“Fuck, sometimes I just don’t have the patience,” he says.

A sharp and candid and surprisingly filmic opening gambit from creator and long-time Slater collaborator Alek Parker.

In this episode, Kelly, begrudgingly I think it’s fair to suggest, arrives in the little holiday hamlet of Jan Juc, where he stays with Quiksilver founder Alan Green and his wife Barb.

This is 2019, the year of the biggest waves at Bells since 1981, and it’s difficult to say what happens but…y’don’t see Kelly get near a wave over five foot.

“I’ve never seen Bells that big! It was bigger than ’81 maybe,” Slater says following footage of him on a head-high fatty.

The episode reflects the often gloomy nature of a Bells campaign, the electricity only fizzing into life briefly at a taping of Ain’t That Swell.

Again, as we don’t see Slater on any waves of note, his stunning performance alongside Jed Smith and Vaughan Blakey is edited of colour and verve.

Next week, Slater in Bali, y’know, the year he smoked Filipe Toledo at four-foot Keramas.

I predict a quickening of the heart rate.

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Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms
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