Stab Magazine | The 2015 World Tour so far, according to Kelly Slater

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The 2015 World Tour so far, according to Kelly Slater

Five days ago, Kelly Slater declared via Instagram that he would be retiring from the high life of professional competitive surfing. Given the fact it dropped on April 1 (US time), better known as April Fool’s day, the champ was obviously just playing. He later revealed the fact it was a gag via Instagram, but today he entirely […]

news // Mar 8, 2016
Words by stab
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Five days ago, Kelly Slater declared via Instagram that he would be retiring from the high life of professional competitive surfing. Given the fact it dropped on April 1 (US time), better known as April Fool’s day, the champ was obviously just playing. He later revealed the fact it was a gag via Instagram, but today he entirely cleared any lingering uncertainty around the fact by entering into a title discussion with beach commentator and excellent big wave surfer, Peter Mel.

“I was really looking at that as a title heat,” said Kelly after his round five loss to Gabriel Medina at the Rip Curl Pro, Bells Beach. “I was thinking if I could beat him there, that totally puts his back against the wall. If he gets a good result now, he’ll be able to, not relax, but be calmer, and more relaxed in his heats. My back’s against the wall now, if I wanna get myself any kind of title shot.”

While he isn’t in an ideal spot, at least we know Kelly still wants more silverware to populate the warehouse that is his trophy room. The thirst, for that man, will always be real. As will his ability to a) recall a precedent by which he still has good odds:

“But, we saw what John John (Florence) did last year, he had a good last run of the year after a terrible start. It’s always possible. I think there’s going to be a lot of mixing up this year. Last year there was a lot of different winners, guys getting a good result, then bad result, then good result, then a bad result.

… and b) get in the head of the current frontrunner:

“Obviously Filipe (Toledo)’s been really impressive this year so far, everyone’s talking about him. But I think he’s going to really be tested in those really good barrel waves, that he talked about too that were his challenges. He’s going to come out of Australia with at least two good results if not three. If I had my crystal ball I’d say we’ll all be chasing him. But we’ll see what happens.”

If there’s one crystal ball on tour that knows what’s playing next…

Photo: WSL

Rail stylz. Photo: WSL

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