In mushy, four-foot waves at Margaret River, the greatest competitive surfer to ever pull on a jersey surfed his last heat as a full-time professional surfer. It seems we can finally say that with some conviction, after Kelly kept us guessing for at least the last decade.
After a vintage display in his morning, elimination-round heat, Kelly couldn’t conjure a win against Griffin Colapinto. Reading from the lengthy encyclopaedia of Slater, the commentary team ensured almost every one of his achievements and stats received a mention. The WSL were primed for this moment. The Kelly retirement clip played on cue and the superlatives continued to flow from the booth. After decades of Kelly co-dependency the WSL must now fashion a future in the absence of their favourite son – or at least work out a way to ensure he remains part of the picture in some capacity.
The waves may have been a little underwhelming but certain aspects of Kelly’s last stand were fitting. He was surfing under a system he ushered in – Kelly is credited with creating the overlapping heat format. And in the first, non-priority part of his heat he came out swinging, going for airs and landing a slick rotation. A 52-year-old spinning on a dance floor he’d dominated for three decades.
As the heat progressed, Griffin put the squeeze on, and ultimately a couple of mid-range scores was enough to keep Kelly at bay. While still capable of mixing it with anyone in good conditions, if anything has suffered in recent years it’s been Kelly’s ability to turn a scrappy wave into a meaningful score. And even on this so-called dream tour that’s often what’s required.
It was certainly apt that he surfed against current world number one, Griffin Colapinto – a young American in the ascension as Kelly was more than thirty years ago when he arrived as a flashy teenager, striking fear into the hearts of his peers with turns they’d never seen, and an intensity to match his talent.
The fact Kelly has been competitive against so many different generations of surfers is perhaps the most impressive of his legacies. Potter, Kong, Herring, Beschen, Machado, Andy Irons, Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning. Slater saw off challenges from all of them and more to claim his 11 world titles. He’s dusted John John and Medina in thrilling heats and it was only a couple of years ago that he won the Pipe Pro against the current CT class. Not surprisingly, he was happy to apply the same Darwinian thinking that had allowed him to thrive to his own failure to make this year’s cut. “If you don’t adapt, you don’t survive,” he stated matter-of-factly in his post-heat interview. Kelly has always known how to manage the internal self-critic – when to be hard on himself and when to be kind. And you don’t win eleven world titles with half a dozen sycophants pissing in your pocket. He’s always tried to surround himself with straight shooters.
However he got there, Kelly’s longevity has redefined the possibilities for surfers and other sports-people around the world; while also making every middle-aged surfer feel like they may have more than a few good waves left in them. “It’s been fun to be over 50 and still mixing it up with the guys,” Kelly stated in a post-heat interview that included a multitude of quotable moments. We still hang on Kelly’s every word, perhaps because he is also the best at articulating the experience of being a pro surfer.
Eternally competitive, Kelly was already hoping for a re-match with Griffin when he receives the Fiji wildcard the WSL will inevitably toss his way. In the history of any sport, it’s arguable there has not been an individual with the same alchemy of talent, ambition, work ethic, mental fortitude and raw competitiveness to match Kelly. Kelly’s gift to surfers is that we get to claim him as ‘best ever men’s sportsman’ when those conversations about the likes of Jordan, Federer, Tiger Woods and even Ali come up.
As far as the surfers go, Griffin Colapinto said it best when Stace Galbraith put him on the spot as the man who ended Kelly’s career as a full-time competitor.
“We owe him (Kelly) a living because he took the sport so far.” If there was resistance to Kelly’s ambition when he arrived on tour, the modern CT attitude owes much to the professional approach
Kelly pioneered. Although, it has to be said, Kelly is still way gnarlier and more ruthless than the current crop. Only Medina really matches him on this front.
So what will become of Kelly in the absence of full-time competition? Although this was supposedly the end, he was still breaking down his heat loss to Colapinto with the kind of clinical evaluation that suggested he was getting ready for the next event. How will a mind like that occupy itself?
‘What Kelly did next’ is indeed the chapter waiting to be written. It’s likely we will be just as intrigued by his movements beyond the sphere of professional surfing. Outside the obvious wildcards, it seems likely he’ll be drafted into the commentary team. However, Kelly’s fame has bought him the right to indulge his capricious nature. It will be hard to make him clock on for regular heats if he knows Cloudbreak is pumping and he could be there. It will be interesting to see if he endeavours to use his cred’ and power to have a greater influence on the direction of the sport that made him a king. Kelly as WSL CEO?
Wayne Rabbit Bartholomew’s (1978 world champion) vision changed the sport, but again will Kelly want to be nailed down to a gig that requires a whole lot of boardroom negotiating, endless calls and phony salesman pitches to potential sponsors? For a while at least, it seems likely Kelly will be happy to embrace fatherhood (after kinda ducking it the first time round) go surfing and play golf. But he’s not going anywhere. He’s just taking the jersey off. As much he loathes the extra attention at times, he still loves the limelight too. Kelly has spent his whole life trying to stay relevant as a surfer. That drive won’t disappear, it’ll just manifest in another form.
