Kelly Slater Joins WME Agency Alongside The Rock, Dua Lipa + John Florence

A big week for Brandon Wasserman on Stabmag.com.

First, his 2022 How Surfers Get Paid interview resurfaced, spotlighting royalties, equities, and YouTube monetization as the holy trinity of surfing’s modern revenue stream. Second, architecting the star signing of Erin Brooks to Nike as “an all-round athlete”. Apparently, the Swoosh is allergic to calling anyone a plain old surfer — the brand applied those same lofty terms to announce Italo Ferreira and Sierra Kerr’s deals.

We’re proud as punch though, so I’ll wager my Reeboks: if not for their surf wizardry, Nike wouldn’t just do it.

Now, he’s rounded things out by luring the GOAT to the green pastures of William Morris Endeavor (WME) Talent — the agency managing the deals, partnerships, and speaking schedules of some of the biggest names in sport, fashion, music, and film. On the roster? Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Serena Williams, Luka Doncic, Dua Lipa, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Billie Eilish — and now, Kelly Slater.

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Always good to remember: surfers remain the tallest midgets in the pop cultural koi pond. Nevertheless, the GOAT may cast the longest shadow of our salted kind. 11 world titles, 56 CT wins, youngest and oldest World Champ…

Brandon already manages 3x World Champ John Florence and reps Ethan Ewing, Erin Brooks, Kai Lenny, and Nathan Florence. Not clear on the difference between a manager and agent? “A manager is across all the day-to-day projects, partnerships, and business transactions. An agent hunts deals,” Brandon told us previously. For Slater, he’ll be playing the latter role only — driving the next wave of deals. But, just to be clear, Terry Hardy still owns the chessboard.

Terry — Slater’s longtime manager of 20+ years — is the guy Brandon once described as “the guy who brought Hollywood dealmaking into surfing.” He reshaped what athlete contracts looked like, adding zeroes and equity stakes to contracts that once offered a few trunks and a handshake. He’ll continue managing Slater and his businesses, which include enough ventures to keep a small village employed: Outerknown, Firewire, KLLY, KSWC, Austin Surf Club, Freaks of Nature, Endorfins, Rhythmia (ayahuasca retreat), and YORKS (Nova Scotian repurposed lumber).

“It’s pretty rare to have your business built out to a point where you need both an agent and a manager,” Brandon explained. Which is why, to date, only John Florence and Kelly Slater — both serial entrepreneurs — require that level of infrastructure.

Slater credited Hardy with shielding him from the industry’s messier politics and negotiating some of the most consequential contracts of his career.  “He would deal with the bullshit,” Kelly recalled in his HSGP interview. “The business side, the politics. That’s what Terry does best — keep all that stuff away from me.”

With Hardy at the helm and Wasserman out shaking the money trees, Slater can clear his inbox, chase swell, and clock quality time with his new-ish born — preferably somewhere without cell service.

More on surfing’s powerbrokers in the Agents + Managers episode of How Surfers Get Paid.