Kelly Slater Makes Scores Dreamy Tubes At Kirra On Australia's Gold Coast
How fast would you trade a work trip to somewhere that’s cold, hailing and the winds are blowing gale force for a surf trip to a warm, sunny beach with perfect, six-foot tubes? That’s exactly what 11-time world champion Kelly Slater did this month when he passed on the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal and headed straight for the Gold Coast of Australia.
At 52 years old, with a surgically repaired hip, Slater looks like he’s exactly where he wants to be: pulling into emerald cylinders at Kirra—one of the best sand-bottom right pointbreaks the world over. What’s so remarkable about this session is not just that the GOAT appears so comfortable threading section after section, but also that his relationship with one of his all-time favorite waves is as intimate as ever.
“People ask me how come Kelly hasn’t burnt out or become jaded—he could easily be the most jaded one of all of us—but it’s not that complicated, he just loves surfing. He loves being in the water,” explained Slater’s longtime friend and North Shore lifeguard legend Mark Cunningham. “That’s where he goes to get away from it all…that or the golf course.”
When Slater’s session at Kirra first started making ripples around the surf world last week, some scoffed that he should be at the contest in Portugal. He’s friend and WSL commentator Strider Wasilewski took exception to the sentiment. Taking to Instagram to defend Slater, he wrote, “If the waves were like this at every event he would prob still be right there going for a world title at 52 yrs old and that is fucking crazy. Personally I don’t want to watch him strain himself for a good score… Rather see him surf timelessly in perfection like this. If there is an epic forecast for an event and he wants to surf, that would be epic too. Either way stoked to see my bro scoring.”
Spoken like a true surfer. Good on Slater for making the mission from his place in Hawaii to Australia to land on the Gold Coast in time for the swell and prove to us all that age is just a number when the waves are that good.
Kelly Slater Ditches Championship Tour, Chases Surf To Australia's Gold Coast
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.