At 52, the end of the competitive run seemed like a long time coming for Kelly Slater. But in the end, maybe we could have used a few more heats? At Main Break, on a medium swell and low tide exposing the inside shelf, the GOAT was eliminated in the Round of 32 by the number-one surfer in the world, Griffin Colapinto.
With the loss, Slater of course missed the mid-year cut and it’s tough to see him slogging along the Challenger Series to re-qualify. Stranger things have happened, of course, and he did say in his emotional post-heat interview he put in for a wildcard to Fiji – so we’ll most likely get to see him compete again.
But this is probably the end of Slater’s full-time run on the Championship Tour. Eleven world titles, some fifty-odd event wins later, there isn’t anyone who touches him in terms of competitive brilliance. His last win at Pipe, after, and before, major injury, now might have been his most special.
“It’s not necessarily the wave I want to end on,” he said of Main Break after his loss to Colapinto. “I have put in for a wildcard for Fiji, so we’ll see how that goes. It is what it is, everything comes to an end. If you don’t adapt, you don’t survive and my motivation just hasn’t quite been there to really put in that 100 percent that everyone’s doing.”
He’s been hinting that he was preparing for the end for months now in media interviews. “I’ve made no qualms about it,” Kelly Slater told our own Ben Mondy in 2023 in Portugal. “That candle is burning out. I designed my life to be the greatest competitor I can be. I’ll soon design my life to fit my new priorities like my family, friends, free surfing and my businesses.”
He expanded on that incomparable competitive focus while sitting for an interview with Tom Carroll at Bells Beach recently, also opening up about his personal life in the wide-ranging chit-chat. “You know why I was the best competitor ever,” he says, “because my heart was made of stone.”
That heart seems to be softening of late, given recent dialogue.
As for the rest of the field, there are a few competitors still in the draw that faced Kelly back when he was at his best. John Florence and Gabriel Medina will square off in the Round of 16, as will Jordy Smith and Caio Ibelli. Gabs has secured his spot in the second half of the year after sitting dangerously close to the mid-year cutline. Ibelli is once again fighting for his tour life. Seth Moniz, who faces Ethan Ewing, is above the cut, but he hasn’t secured his spot. The brothers Pupo will also face off, both of whom are fighting for their CT spots.
The day was for Slater, though, as he was chaired up the beach, getting much-earned respect from the West Oz crowd.
