Kelly Slater, assuming a position that is more familiar to him than anyone else in the world. Photo: Morrissey
Pipeline, as we know, is a wave that kills regularly. This A-frame slab set-up, with its horrifically contoured lava bottom, is the final destination for a lump of water that’s travelled thousands of kilometres from the worst kind of storm the coast of Alaska can cough up. By the time it reaches Hawaii, it’s in a different ocean (the South Pacific), the water’s shot up ten degrees, it’s the color of blue Gatorade, and the frenzy and chop that plagued it along its journey has been smoothed out, forming a lump of water moving with the momentum of a freight train. As it hits the reef, it lurches into a giant dagger before spearing at the jagged lava below. And when that happens, in the words of Turtle, “If the wave breaks here, don’t be there… or you’re gonna get drilled.”
Kelly Slater is the exception to that rule. He’s made a career out of putting himself “there.” He did it once more last Friday during the final day of the Volcom Pipe Pro World Qualifying Series event on his way to winning it. In fact, the wave in question was not one, but actually two slabs of the Pacific combined. It was one of those deadly Pipe double-ups that’s played a part in the deaths of seven surfers in the history of the wave. Riding a cut-down board, Kelly managed to keep the nose out of the water through the dredging take off before slapping the fins at the square base of the wave and no-hands’ing it through two guillotining sections for a perfect ten.
Back in 1991, it was a similar wave that launched Kelly’s career. He was just a wiry trick specialist from Florida competing in his first ever Pipe Masters when, again on an eight foot double up, he glued a spectacular take off for another death defying tube. To this day it ranks among his most memorable waves of all time. “I remember every last millisecond of that ride,” he says. “If I didn’t make that wave, I would have felt the full brunt of what can happen out here. I think that wave scared me so much it gave me a lot of confidence.”
To complete the picture, Kelly piloted one more such wave to dust Hawaiian upstart John John Florence in the final of the Pipe Masters last year. The sum of all this, as far as we’re concerned, is a surge of momentum behind Kelly that’s every bit as hefty as a Pipeline set. When it comes to Cloudbreak, Teahupoo, Keramas, France (if it’s kegging), Portugal (if it’s kegging) and the Gold Coast (if it’s kegging), it’s nothing more than pure frivolity for The Champ. He knows no one in the world has an understanding of waves of consequence better than he does, and as long as the planet can keep providing them, he’ll keep winning titles. It’s when the ocean splutters that his stats decline. As world number 17, Ace Buchan, recently explained to me, “where he lost (the title) was when the waves were average. He was head and shoulders above when the waves were good, especially at Fiji and Pipe. What he does on waves like that is incomparable. He’s aggressive and just manhandles it. He’s surfing different equipment to everyone else and I think that gives him confidence too.”
With the inclusion of the notoriously windblown burger, Margaret River, in the World Tour’s itinerary this year, his job of winning a 12th crown hasn’t been made any easier. The spirit is there, no question. The ability, when pitched against world class waves, is undoubtedly still the best in the world. But it’s whether he can come up with the mental attitude required to duke it out in tough conditions (and, truth be told, add a bit more consistency to his high-performance grovel-game) that will decide whether he can rack up another ASP crown. – Jed Smith.
Follow Jed on Twitter at @Jed_J_Smith.
