Kelly Slater is an important figure in the surf history canon. He’s been at it for more than three decades and in those 30-plus years, he’s become the winningest surfer of all-time. Eleven world titles will be tough to top, won’t it? But Kelly Slater isn’t only a surfer. He’s got plenty of other interests, as well, and golf is up there at the top of them. And he’s not just a passing fan of hitting small white balls into small holes hundreds of yards away — he’s really, really good at it.
“A case can be made that nobody has ever been more dominant at their sport than Kelly Slater,” wrote The Golfer’s Journal. “Another could be made that he is one of the best pro athletes-turned-golfers on the planet.”
In the episode of Mind Game you see above, Slater sits down with Casey Bannon to talk about his path to greatness, communicating with the ocean, structure versus creativity, performing under pressure, what’s driving him to still compete, his love for Moe Norman, and the time he played 18 holes between heats.
