For The High 5
Kelly Slater and Rob Machado’s infamous High 5 in their World Title defining semifinal of the 1997 Pipeline Masters gets forensic attention with the likes of Sunny Garcia, Martin Potter and, of course, Kelly and Rob, giving their viewpoints. Was it a calculated piece of sportsmanship by Kelly. Did that single decision cost Machado a World Title? Does any of it matter? Its all in their.
For Pat O’Connell’s Balls
“Every time you looked around, he’d have his balls out,” says Shane Dorian. “And if he thought that by having a big set of balls meant you were big elsewhere, well he clearly got that wrong.”
For Todd Chesser
The recreated scene where Benji Weatherly and Todd Chesser’s Mum Jeanie surf Restaurants alone together only a week after Todd had died is both heartbreaking and truly heartwarming. If you don’t cry in that you have a bullet for a heart.
For Kelly Slater Being a Dick
“He was being a dick,” says Rob Machado recalling the time when at the height of their world title battle, Kelly stole three boards made for Rob and stickered them up and rode them. Kelly is unrepentant, sticking to the line that he wasn’t out of order and that Rob overreacted. His was, and Rob didn’t. Kelly is just being a dick.
For Kelly Being The Total Opposite of a Dick
“He’s a true, honest, loving creature, and he’s flawed, because of his upbringing, his abusive dad and weird family shit, but deep down he wants to love people and take care of them,” Benji Weatherly told Tracks. In the movie Weatherly outlines how he had to undergo drug rehabilitation and it was Slater that came and stayed with him for 30 days and helped him through the darkest days of life.
When Taylor Knox Becomes Fun
After an all rather tightly wound decade where Taylor Knox failed quest for a World Title meant he couldn’t see the woods for the trees, Knox finally gives up on his dream and enjoys life. “He went from my least favorite Momentum guy to my favorite,” says Benji Weatherly.
As A Gateway To The Zimbalist Brothers
The directors Jeff and Michael Zimbalist are Academy Award shortlisted and Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmakers. Try The Two Escobars, Nossa Chape and Favela Rising, all incredible documentaries that cover very different topics.
For Kelly Slater Rolling Down A Hill In A Bin
In the original Momentum movie just a few weeks after Kelly had won his first World Title they strapped him into a bin, put a helmet on and rolled him down a gnarly hill. “The thing to remember that Taylor was our age and was one of us,” says Weatherly. “The established filmers and photographers then were older and were intimidating and they had power and they used it. So it was discomforting and so you would never open up. There’s no way Kelly would roll down a hill in a can for one of those guys. It was just the shit we did and Taylor was there to document it.”
