In every sport, every 10 or 12 years an athlete comes along who is freakishly superior than all of his peers. I suppose it takes this long for a person who was truly born to play a specific sport discovers and does just that. Michael Jordan was born to play basketball and why Michael Jordan is the Michael Jordan of basketball. He’s the king - no one will argue that. Eric Koston is considered the Michael Jordan of street skateboarding. Tony Hawk is considered the Michael Jordan of vert skateboarding. Shaun White is considered the Michael Jordan of snowboarding. Kelly Slater is considered the Kelly Slater of surfing because Kelly Slater is far more successful in his sport than MJ was at his (no disrespect.) MJ is much more famous than Kelly, but that’s only because surfing is more of an underground sport than basketball and hard for observers to truly comprehend what is happening. Plus, let’s face the fact that surfing is a much more dangerous and physically demanding sport than basketball. No one dies playing basketball. MJ was never put in the situation of having to put his life on the line to shoot hoops. On average 49 people die a year from surfing and just under half of those are shark related. Can you imagine if monsters swam through the floors of basketball courts and sporadically viciously attacked & killed players? How many people do you think would still play basketball? Zip. But enough of my bias bullshit, I enjoy watching basketball - I’m just more into the creativity of surfing. I compare Michael Jordan to Kelly Slater because he’s the only other athlete I know of that can hold a candle.
Michael Jordan retired for the third and final time at 40 years old.
Kelly Slater just won his 11th world title and continues to completely fucking dominate his entire playing field at 40 years old. It’s nothing less than baffling at this point. Was MJ dominating the sport of basketball at 40 years old? God, no. Has any skateboarder ruled supreme at 40? Is that a joke? Has any football player ever done this at 40? No. There’s no one like him. Granted a much younger Andy Irons (R.I.P.) dominated Kelly Slater for those three years (2002, 2003, 2004) but it’s easy to say KS was off his game during that time. Not only did his father die, but his fan base was almost nonexistent. Everyone hated Kelly Slater. It gets a bit stale watching the same mother fucker win every contest he enters. It’s like the smartass kid in class that answers every fucking question. People hate that asshole and even the teacher becomes bored with thier shit because he/she stops calling on that same student and what do they always say?
“Let’s let some of the other kids have a chance to answer.”
Kelly Slater is that smartass kid and the surfing world was over it - even myself. That hatred has a very negative effect on a person and Kelly’s results plummeted (and by plummeted I still mean better than everyone except Andy Irons.) It’s hard to compete when everyone is praying you fail and to just fuck off already. The hating was endless and Andy Irons became the “people’s champion.” Something new.
Kelly started losing and everyone realized he wasn’t an alien or some kind of immortal God. People started slowly liking him again and the rest is history. It’s a known fact other professional surfers have an ongoing belief/myth that Kelly Slater possesses supernatural powers. His presence fucks with people mentally and destroys their mindsets before the competition is even started. I once read an interview in which Kelly was talking about a time he was paddling out into the lineup before a contest. Joel Parkinson, a very freakish talent himself and hugely successful, was riding a wave and Kelly watching. Joel fell and came up screaming, “Ahhh!!! You fucking did that to me! Don’t look at me when I’m surfing!!”
He believes Kelly can make his competitors fall just by looking at them. Kelly of course was like, “Dude, I’m just watching.” and couldn’t understand why Joel was so upset. People actually believe he’s inhuman because of how unexplainably good he is. They all grow up as kids worshiping him and then come to hate him as adults. Kelly Slater is fucking weird. It’s weird to be that old, that good and that fit. His ability never evens out for starts to decline. He only gets better. Kelly Slater surfs better at 40 than he did at 21. Do you get what I’m saying? That’s fucking weird and makes zero sense. Athletes are supposed to peak at a young age and slowly decline - not the opposite. Kobe Bryant won’t be bringing the house down at 40, 41, or 43 years old. Kelly will continue to dominate for the next 3 years - miminum. That’s insane because the sport has become so physically demanding the best surfers in the world right now are 17 - 19 years old.
The point is the other night I stayed up until 5 in the morning to watch the ASP Banquet Awards being broadcast live on YouTube from Australia. Saving the best for last, when Kelly was awarded his 11th world championship trophy - the entire audience gave him a standing ovation. Naturally he couldn’t help but get choked up and shed a few tears. The best athletes in the world were on their feet standing in order to pay their respects regardless of how jealous or ill-tempered towards him. Shit like that usually only happens when athletes retire and everyone is like, yeah you’re the king, but disappear already so we can win some shit too.
It was a special moment.
Everyone stops bickering to themselves and hangs on to his every word when Kelly speaks. Even the grommets raising hell in the background pipe down and take notes. You can’t fuck with that and as far as I’m concerned Kelly Slater is the best overall athlete to ever walk the earth.
