Kelly’s Gold Coast chlorine hits a speed bump

Above is a Maddison Estate concept illustration of Kelly’s Wavepool, shown on the Kelly Slater Wave Company site.

You knew Kelly Slater has his own Wave Pool company, right? On that front, dear Kelly got some not-so-good news today. The company bankrolling the Gold Coast site of the Kelly Slater Wave Company has been placed into voluntary administration. It’s under investigation for, uh, being shady.

LM Investments, the fund manager that’s overseeing the Maddison Estate (the development that was to house the Wave Pool), were found to be up to a small bit of no good, the least of which was making some misleading claims, a couple of breaches of the law and what looks like some serious owing of big cash. It’s all about to sink.

“Today’s news of liquidation is obviously not good for our potential wave pool business,” Kelly told Stab this morning. “But we aren’t actually in business with Maddison as of now. Their other business dealings have nothing to do with us and they are people I don’t personally know.”

Kelly fully understands the implications, but has a clear road ahead. “There are some serious allegations against them,” he continued. “And I believe they need to deal with those publicly and transparently especially since it’s become such a visible issue and effected so many people’s futures.”

KS Wave Co have yet to exchange monies, which is a major relief for the 11-time world champ. “If we were actually producing a pool and had entered into contracts with them or gone further down the road, this would be a real pain in the ass but seeing as how it’s relatively early days and none of that has come to fruition, it’s an easy choice for us to pull back from any more movements at this time and watch from the sidelines.”

Before y’say “the lady doth protest too much, methinks,” the simple fact is that the Floridian, intelligently, hadn’t yet signed his cash away. Instead, he chose to only agree to a Wave Pool if all systems with Maddison Estates fell into place. “The extent of the connection between KS Wave Co and Maddison has been talks about a plan, and there has been no money exchange and no contracts signed. Basically, whatever they have done has not been through any direction of ours.”

Kelly had only agreed, in theory, to allow a Wave Pool to be built if, and when, the Estate moved forward. Which is now most definitely not gonna happen. Just the kinda plan you’d expect from the best heat strategist of all time. And despite his well known hunger to succeed or win, Kelly is all about doing it the right way. “I never want to be associated with anyone doing anything suspect or illegal in any way, personally or professionally,” he says. – Craig Jarvis

Kelly Slater Wave Company site, here.