Peter Fitzsimmons is an esteemed journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald and also one of Australia’s best selling authors with titles like Tobruk, Kokoda, Batavia, Eureka, Ned Kelly and Gallipoli to his name. ‘Fitzy’, a Knox-Grammar old-boy, also has a few caps for the Wallabies in his impressive resume. Kelly Slater is, well Kelly Slater, the eleven-time world champion affectionately known as the GOAT in surfing circles. Both figures are highly successful in their respective fields and not afraid to voice their opinions. These are two individuals accustomed to winning in life. While FitzSimons, the prolific writer, has his regular newspaper columns as a medium for casting his views, Slater’s preferred platform for canvassing his ideas is Instagram.
In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, FitzSimons attacked Slater for his views on the vaccine and the COVID pandemic. FitzSimons was responding to comments Kelly had made in an Instagram thread, which featured former Iron Man champion, Trevor Hendy, and current Iron Man, Matt Poole. When Poole adopted a pro vaccination stance he took aim at Trevor Hendy who had made it clear he was pro-choice as opposed to pro-vaccine. The initial controversy stemmed from Poole’s use of the analogy below.
“The next time I head down to surfers I’m going to jump in the rip because ‘freedom of choice’. Trev you understand that – you just said you can’t dictate to me what is or isn’t potentially dangerous. It’s no issue for me, but as soon as I start telling others there is no danger in the rip, they’ll jump in too, and tell their mates and before you know it, there is a 100 of us in there. But Trev – that’s our choice.”
“Now some of the 100 get in trouble, and lifesavers come to save them … putting those lifesavers in danger as well. Now 50 are drowning and the lifesavers are overrun, and can’t save them all or themselves … But that was our choice. It’s not freedom of choice if it impacts others — it’s about helping others.”
Kelly, who has never been afraid of an Instagram stoush, whether it be with flat-earthers or pro-vaxers, was quick to jump into the ring and claim that Poole’s analogy was a “false equivalence”. “@matt_poole1 let me explain why your analogy makes no sense,”. “If I know the risks (informed consent) and I judge the choice to be one that benefits/hurts me based on stats and info and my own ability (health), I can choose accordingly.”
On this point FitzSimons suggested that Slater’s stance was basically self-centred and neglected to take into account that taking the vaccine was largely about avoiding the possibility of passing on the virus to someone less healthy.
However, the comment that left Kelly widest open to criticism was perhaps the claim below.
“And for people saying listen to the doctors, I’m positive I know more about being healthy than 99% of doctors, but I wouldn’t trust me. But most of my COVID info comes directly from doctor friends, many of them in disagreement with the official ‘science’.”
It was this line that prompted FitzSimons to adopt an extremely sarcastic tone in his article.
“Kelly Slater the surfer knows more than 99 per cent of all of you, and he not only won the world surfing championship 11 times – so he should know a lot about medicine, I think? – but is supported by some doctor friends! So I guess it’s all a hoax after all! I know. Go figure.”
Wherever you sit on the whole debate, the presence of Kelly in the pro-choice camp on vaccines has made the issue front and centre for surfers. On the point of Slater’s claim that he knows more about being healthy than 99% of doctors. At a glance it is outrageous, however the comment requires a little context. On the cusp of fifty Kelly can still compete with surfers thirty years his junior and remains one of the best in the world. He is a sterling example of what you can do if you live right. In anyone’s book he has become a kind of expert on staying healthy for longer, albeit he is someone with the luxury to do so. However, that doesn’t mean he is qualified to treat sickness, which is what doctors and the health system are primarily concerned with.
Kelly’s success, his apparent good health and his hefty Instagram following also make him a powerful influencer. Critics like FitzSimons would suggest that as someone in a position of power he is dangerous because people are more inclined to follow his views blindly. Sometimes to their own detriment, thousand of surfers have followed Kelly on his various surfboard adventures over the years. Whatever Kelly is riding has instant appeal. If boards are like a drug (I’ll testify to that) he has his own company set up to endorse and sell them. Many of us have dabbled or indulged.
However, we are now being asked to differentiate between following Kelly in the surf and in the COVID debate. He has been clear about what is right for him but hasn’t necessarily preached that others do as he does. However, some would argue that given his position of influence, simply by publicly promoting his own stance he has the power to cause disruption.
Whether you agree with Kelly or not, should he withhold his views on such a vexed issue because he is in a position of power? Just in case he is wrong and sends hundreds of thousands of people down the wrong rabbit hole? Or should he be encouraged to openly voice his opinion so that A: We can judge for ourselves the rationale of what he is saying? Or B: To ensure that people like FitzSimons have the chance to pick him to pieces?
For mine there is another powerful factor at play when it comes to successful athletes like Slater, Hendy and Djokovic, all of whom have advocated for pro-choice on the vaccine. When you are talking about world number ones in any sport, you are talking about the 00001%. They are the freaks who won the genetic lottery. They are also rarely the kind of people who follow the herd. Much of their success is built on the fact that they made and continue to make different choices to others. So when you do get to that rarefied space of number one; after the sacrifices, the blunt rejection of being average and the decisions that are routinely different from regular folk, you probably do feel a little like a super-human. Your success also seems like validation for all those times you did things differently to everyone else or every other competitor. If you hadn’t done it that way would you be number one?
While they will reach for evidence to support their position, what I’m suggesting is that the stance of some athletes probably has a lot to do with a personality-type, a powerful internal drive that already says I don’t follow blindly, I make my own decisions about things. I do things my way.
It seems likely that the debate around Kelly and his views will only get hotter. There are strong indications that several well-known surfers are involved in a formal alliance of pro-choice advocates on matters relating to the pandemic. Will Kelly sabotage his reputation and iconic status through his Covid views or will he emerge as a ballsy, forthright figure who wasn’t afraid to stand up for his beliefs? How will the WSL respond to the stance of their Golden Boy? Right now we are in the middle of it, but it would seem the legacy of our sport’s most celebrated figure is very much in the wind.
