Kelly Slater was born in 1972, three years before me, and he turns 50 in five days.
He will be marking the occasion with a smile at winning eleven surfing world championships. And with memories of moments in days past dropping into the Backdoor section at Pipeline, and winning that too in the infamous World Tour event. Slater won his first prestigious Pipeline competition at the age of 20, nearly thirty years ago…
Apparently he’s been texting Tom Brady, 44, who just announced retirement this week from twenty-two seasons of American Football including seven Super Bowl titles.
I’ll often muse on what sport demands the most all-round athleticism. Rugby trounces American Football, I’ll say, when you look at the endurance needed within the 80-minute game that doesn’t have all that American Football stoppage time. I found the long-end of Keith Wood’s career for Ireland, remarkable. Well into his thirties, this nimble but heavy front row would still break into incisive sprint lines off a ruck.
What about the grueling five set tennis finals, hours long, that come sometimes with just a day of rest from the semi-final. Tennis too has explosive strength alongside endurance, but without the crumpling exhaustion of being smacked by another human or broadsided by a wave closing out.
Kelly Slater on the World Championship Tour must be right up there. Surfing heats combine endurance, explosiveness and gymnastic ability, when you look at the agility going on in some of the manouevres.
And, he plays golf with a scratch handicap.
And, he’s play concert guitar and ukelele live on stage with the likes of Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.
Kelly, you’ll be an athletic hero forever, right up there with the inimitable Keith Woods!
P.S. I had to look up Backdoor, to understand it’s enigmatic nature as the right-hander within Pipeline’s A-frame. Here is a nice Surfline article on the mechanics of the wave.
