Kelly Slater is not a huge fan of Sunset. He’s had a relatively bad relationship with the place for a long time now, and after his exit from the Hurley Pro Sunset Beach in the Round of 32, it appears that hasn’t changed. “Look, I don’t love Sunset,” he said in his post-heat interview. “I don’t like the wave. I don’t like the crowd out here. Everyone’s on a 10-foot board. I don’t respect the wave and it doesn’t respect me back. Unless I change, it’s not going to change.”
The exit came on the tails of an incredible win at Pipeline that saw Slater in the yellow jersey for the first time since 2014. Slater came into Sunset with a head of steam, but found himself in the elimination round against Matthew McGillivray and Koa Smith. He squeaked his way out of it and into the round of 32, where he did something uncharacteristic: he got himself an interference call.
Sitting at the peak, while John John Florence was inside a little ways, Slater paddled into one. John John, who had priority, turned and let the whitewater push him into it. It’s not the first time he’s had an interference on John John, but the last time was a little more planned. As Slater leaned into his bottom turn, he looked up to see Florence.
“I was in the spot and I caught it, then I saw John paddling down the line,” he explained. “I didn’t know his situation; I didn’t know if he needed a wave or anything like that. I was just thinking, ‘he’s pretty far down the line, and I’m already up and riding… by the time I had committed to my bottom turn I was like oh shoot, I’m under John’s line.”
Although his bottom turn didn’t appear to actually interfere with John’s ride, rules are rules, and you can’t cross underneath someone else. He walked us through what was going through his head when he saw John paddling for a wave he was already on.
“I was trying to work out in my head all the scenarios,” he said. “I’m like, ‘I don’t think we can cross, but I’m going to cross over and the whitewater is going to cover my line way before he gets up.’ I was thinking all that stuff, and he wasn’t technically up and riding when he crossed my line. I didn’t know. Part of me was thinking ‘if I jump off in this whitewater right before I get to him, either my board can be there and hit him when he paddles, or I’m going to get totally cleaned up and washed in.’ I just made the wrong choice, really.”
Watch the Hurley Pro Sunset on Worldsurfleague.com.
