Kelly Slater Does Live Q&A On Facebook

So Kelly Slater just got all millennial and did a live selfie Q&A on Facebook. All in all, including a few short glitchy posts, he spoke candidly for around 40 minutes on a broad spectrum of topics. Though the live feed did have an underlying purpose – another golden ticket for the world’s best artificial wave(!) – he spent a lot of time answering questions around the wave pool itself, Lowers, hair loss, bodyboarding, John John and Gabriel Medina, Teahupoo, the Olympics, commentary for the WSL and more. Stab watched the entire intimately-close-up video and summarised the goodies below:

On winning Teahupoo. “[It was] A long time between drinks for me. I finally won a contest. I think a lot of people think I forgot how, but actually it came quite simply to me. Once I got in the right swing of things. I was in the right place and made the right choices and all that, at the end of it I thought ‘ah that wasn’t too hard’, but that’s how things go when it’s your day, it was just my day.

Did he believe he was underscored on that late drop at Chopes? “No. I didn’t. It was a fun drop though.”

The Ranch buzz. “More people have asked me about the surf ranch than anything else in my life. ‘How are you doing’ is a distant second behind ‘what’s the wave like at the surf ranch’. I’ve never actually had anything in my life, whether it’s a contest or a world title or anything ever raise as much interest as the wave. We’ve worked on the wave for almost 12 years. I used to go to Wet’n’Wild as a kid and I used to wish that was a wave I could surf… So maybe this thing’s been going for more like 40 years in my brain somewhere. The thing is so fun.”

“For me the most fun I have is when people come for the first time and they see the wave with their own eyes, they just beam. They just start laughing and smiling. The size and mass of it, and how long of a ride you can get out of it, how big the property is, it’s pretty astounding when you first get there and see it.”

More Kelly wave ranches in the works? “Hopefully so, we’ve been talking a lot about that. It’s a very busy time right now for the ranch.”

Ready for Lowers? “After Teahupoo my body was pretty beat up, I hurt my back and I haven’t really surfed since then. But I didn’t surf in the three weeks prior to Teahupoo either so maybe that’s a good thing, I don’t know, it worked out for me last week…”

On being the bald man of surfing. “Do I miss having hair? No, its actually way easier to not have hair. But it’s funny when you lose your hair how many people get insecure about it. It’s funny everyone gets about it. It’s an interseting study of psychology.”

Wim Hoff training. “It was amazing. Really interesting to meet that guy and talk about his theories of PH in the body and proteins in your brain. Your autonomous actions in your body, how you can be in control of adrenaline and heart beat and things like that.”

Brazilian supremacy in surfing right now. “Interesting…”

Has the King ever bodyboarded? “I started surfing on a bodyboard with fins. I stood up and surfed on that for years.”

Does he have a favourite booger? “Mike Stewart… Or Damien Martin, one of the craziest guys i’ve ever seen in the water.”

Commentating on the WSL. “If I retire will I do commentary on the WSL? Possibly. I enjoy doing the commentary. I think it’s a good way to talk about the history that you know individually, everyone has their own knowledge of surf history, its cool to hear different peoples version of it. I think it’s a nice place to share it.”

On Baywatch. “Is Baywatch coming back? Yes, a comedic version of. I wish I would have been asked to go on, I would have done that. I think as a comedy it would be an amazing film.”

Kelly’s daughter. “What’s she doing texting me at two am in New York? Huh? Go to bed…”

Personal stories growing up on Coco Beach. “I watched the first 24 shuttle launches and the 25th was the one that exploded. I looked outside my window and saw it, then the whole house, doors and windows were just shaking violently. Then it stopped and I knew something was weird. About three hours later I woke up and my mum was crying and she said, “the shuttle exploded! The shuttle exloded!” The shuttle launches were such a personal thing for all of us here. It was just traumatic as a world event anyways, but it was extra traumatic for the people in the area.”

Joe Rogans Podcast? “Yes I’m going to.. His podcast is pretty interesting.”

Epoxy boards. “Why do I ride epoxy in heavy waves? Actually I don’t ride them when the waves are real strong, they’re a little bit light and feathery for big waves.”

John John Florence or Gabriel Medina. “If I’m gonna pick one or the other I’m gonna say Tom Curren. They’re both phenomenal talents. It’s insane to watch them surf heats and watch them freesurf as they do and the way they see a wave. I’ve got nothing but praise for those guys. When you consider overall, everything, I think they’re pretty equal in amount of talent they have. They surf different. John John definitely has the edge in big waves, big gnarly scary surf. That’s the only way I could say one had an advantage over the other.”

“I think it would be great it Medina got himself in the Eddie in the future, I think it would be awesome. As a world champion, someone like himself, who’s so driven, definitely wants to have the respect of everyone. He’s risen to the challenges so far. He’s been able to do whatever he’s put his mind to. So I don’t think he’d have a problem in big waves if he were to really apply himself.”

Favourite band. “I like Little Dragon a lot.”

Slater wave at the Olympics. “That would be interesting, they gotta use something. They’re saying they’re gonna use the ocean, maybe they would want a backup. That conversation is to be had over the next couple of years. Japan has some great waves, they have some incredible reef breaks at the right time of year with the right conditions. I’ve had some of the best surf of my life in Japan to be honest with you. Some of the biggest, cleanest surf of my life also with Tom Curren and Tom Carroll when I was 19 years-old back in 91.”

How about that third golden ticket opportunity? “We are going to be giving away one more winner and a guest for the surf ranch. It’s the third Golden Ticket. If we raise 100 thousand dollars in 48 hours we’re gonna give away the board I rode at Lowers last year. It’s the first model of a design I’ve been working on for over a year now. Basically what I just rode at Teahupoo.

Head this way to enter Kelly Slater’s Willy Wonka-inspired competition and go in the running to ride the best-ever artificial wave.