Kelly Slater philosophises for We Are Change

Kelly Slater is a great consumer of information. And, anyone who’s been travelling the world as consistently and exhaustively as he has for so long, has seen and heard enough to form some strong opinions. While Kelly usually keeps these to himself, here he opens up about his views on topics like Monsanto’s Hawaiian presence, 9/11 and its resulting war, who he’s backing in the polls (nobody!) and more. It’s always interesting to hear the world’s most important surfer talk about a whole lot of stuff that has nothing to do with surfing. The interview’s 15 minutes long, and attention spans are short these days, so here’s the highlights Mr Slater’s interview: Monsanto:  “There’s a lot of farmland here, it’s ground zero for testing new GMO seeds, plants and whatever. If things went zombie haywire, in a doomsday kind of thought, do you want that in your backyard?” “I have a lot of friends who call me because their wife or friends get cancer. I also have a lot of friends who laugh at me because I’m into health food and organics but when they get sick they call me.” Politics and 9-11:  “Over the years I’ve identified a lot with Ron Paul and Ralph Nader. People who speak the truth and are constantly throwing it into the face of what’s popular are the people you can trust.” “When you look at all these things that are happening around the world with ISIS and terrorism here and there, a lot of it’s perspective of where you’re from. Did you lose family members in a war that had nothing to do with you, for no reason? Did your kids get sent into a war that they don’t even know what they’re fighting for? At the end of the day as people we need to take care of ourselves and our family, put out good, positive things and listen to our gut.” “I started getting away from mainstream media and into alternative media after 911. There’s a lot of things that are fishy about it to me, there’s so many unanswered questions. There’s never been an independent investigation. I wasn’t affected in a way where I lost friends or family members, but our future was affected, we’ve been in multiple wars since then. And, we’ve villianized millions of people in the world since, which we as normal citizens don’t realise. It sort of that Vietman thing again. There’s a lot of guys going over there not knowing what they’re fighting against.” “It’s what Muhammed Ali went through when he said I’m not going to go fight these people they didn’t do anything to me. I’m not going to go mess with the hornet’s nest and cause a problem. Metaphorically that’s what we’ve done in America.” “You’re taught as a kid not to beat people up, but to teach them a lesson. Diplomacy has somehow vanished on the international-political scale.” Personal:“I found a lot of times in my life when I’ve felt most strongly about something, it’s because I’m wrong about something and think I’m right. Then I realise, shoot, I’ve got to go apologise for how I acted. When you apologise it humbles you and you open yourself up to knowing something or someone better.”