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The Pipe Pro kicked off today, and while the odd Backdoor gem was throttling through, the waves are pretty average by North Shore standards. Nonetheless, Pipe’s always entertaining, as “average” waves at the surfing mecca are like the greatest day of the year at my local break. The most captivating part of the WSL stream so far didn’t go down in the water. It was Kelly Slater’s post-heat interview when he was asked about the news of Tom Brady’s retirement. Brady, a career quarterback, is a youthful 45 while Kelly turns 51 on Feb’ 11.
Kelly finished second in his heat to Caio Ibelli with an 8.60 heat total. It was enough to skip the elimination round and remind fans that Kelly’s still a threat on smaller days at Pipe, but not enough to convince Kelly he was in a good rhythm. Slater shared that he’s been out of sync at Pipe recently and is in a bit of funk. The mood of the interview changed when he was asked about his buddy and fellow GOAT, Tom Brady’s retirement after 23 seasons in the NFL. Slater, with a smile, shared that he sent a message to his GOAT contemporary. Kelly cheekily pointed out that Brady also announced his retirement around the same time last year, but ultimately elected to sling passes for another season.
There are obvious life parallels between Kelly and Brady. Slater is one of the five people in the world with similar GOAT status who can relate to the NFL star. As media personalities circulate their responses to Brady’s retirement, Slater chimed in with his own perspective.
“You know, people need to kind of just feel it out; people have done something for a really long time, they love it, it’s beyond the money they make, it turns into friendships and lifestyle, and family and all that stuff. It’s not an easy decision to come to, especially when the skill is still there.
I don’t think there’d be a player in the league right now that wouldn’t say that Brady couldn’t win a Superbowl right now.
That’s a hard carrot to dangle in front of yourself, and to not go for it. I mean, I can relate to that after so long, I just love to surf, and this is the outlet for it still.”
Kelly ended the wholesome monologue with a typically ambiguous message about his retirement status.
“I feel that candle kind of burning out for me, and that’s been for a while. But I think I’m gonna just surf until it’s totally done, and I don’t really care about surfing a heat and wanting to be somewhere else.”
So he’s getting tired of competing after more than 30 years or he’s not even close to finishing?
I don’t know how to interpret that; maybe the mind games are still at play at 50 years of age …
Check out our Pipeline Pro preview with Kelly’s former competitive rival Joel Parkinson.
