This year, we’re seeing a side of Kelly Slater we haven’t seen before. Photo: ASP|Cestari
Kelly Slater doesn’t make mistakes. At least this many. But Kelly has beat himself in each and every event he competed this year — and Tahiti was no exception.
His latest mistake was giving priority to Gabriel Medina after unnecessarily paddling for a wave he was not sure about. I mean, he hesitated a lot. After that? He went for a close out, leaving the door wide open for Medina to catch what would ultimately be scored as a 9.43. To top it all off, he then proceeded to fall after coming out of a barrel that would have given him the score he needed to win the entire event. This is not the 11-time world champion we’re used to. Even in “off” years.
So let’s be clear on this: Gabriel Medina did not beat Kelly Slater in the final. Kelly allowed Medina to beat him. And as I said before, this has been happening all year.
Event 1: Quik Pro at Snappers
Quarterfinals against Adriano de Souza — Kelly’s top two scoring rides are a 6.67 and a 5.50. He falls, for both of them, trying to land an aerial, losing 16.53 to 12.17.
Event 2: Drug Aware Margaret River
Semis against Michel Bourez. Slater with priority, needs 7.32, there are 3:12 minutes remaining. He’s gonna make it, right? He always does. Kelly drops in on a big set wave, goes right and does a mid-face turn, pumps a couple of times, leans into a roundhouse cutback through the foam and falls horribly. He received a 5.90 for his efforts.
Event 3: Rip Curl Pro Bells
Quarterfinal against John John Florence. It was a low-scoring heat with good overhead conditions. Florence made several mistakes throughout. The key moment came when the champ only had a 6.33. The best wave of the heat came his way and he had priority. All he need to do was to surf it good. Not great, but good. He fell on the second turn. He is left with a 4.77 to improve upon. But John John grabs the wave and gets a 6.30 to win the heat, which offered him enough to win.
Event 4: Billabong Rio Pro
Slater competes against 20-year-old Kolohe Andino in the semis. And have times changed. When he gets the best wave of the heat, Kelly tries to barrel laying back in a 20-centimeter wave in a section that was going to give him a 9 if he simply attacked it. But he did not. Instead, he didn’t get the barrel and ends up hitting a horrible white water section. He then ceded priority and left Andino to grab his second-wave score by getting a small tube for a 4.5. Needing a 7.06 (without apparently knowing it), Slater leaves any chances floating in the water by surfing a mediocre wave that would give him a 5.50.
Event 5: Fiji Pro
Horrible heat for Slater who falls on his first wave after tail sliding more than what he wanted to. Two minutes later, he does the same thing and wipes out. And then he falls again after doing a check turn. He combines for 8.90 in a heat that Bourez won with a 13.33 — this is a score Slater could get blindfolded.
Event 6: J-Bay Open
Even with Matt Wilkinson scoring 18.36 and Kelly scoring 15.37, on his two best rides, Slater fell for no reason. He just needed to complete the rides to have a shot. For his 7.40, he forced an unnecessary cutback. For his the 7.97, he fell after hitting the lip.
Yet, when all is said and done, it is seasons like this which exemplify why he is king. Even though it has been one of his worst ever, he is second in the ratings. He is still fighting for the title, and has an important advantage: unlike front-runner and heavy favorite Medina as well as the rest of the contenders, he has six keepers and one discard (a 13th-place finish at J-Bay). Medina has a ninth-place finish to go along with a 13th.
But Slater needs to stop beating himself. After last year’s Pipe Masters and Volcom Pipe Pro, he hasn’t tapped into his signature “destruction mode.” We’re looking forward to see that happen — and hoping that it does.
