Will Kelly Finally Utter The R-Word?
Going out on a cloud.
Enjoy Stab’s 50 iconic Slater images here, or the best profile ever written on Kelly here.
Bobby has deceived us before.
For too many years to count, there have been whispers in the shadows, public statements, and a logic-based assumption that Kelly Slater — now mid-way through his fourth decade of professional competition and two years into his sixth decade of breathing air — would soon hang up his boots for good.
Either his bones would falter or he would grow bored of glory, and he would step away, leaving behind an impossible legacy and a name etched into the manuscripts of time. All that’s left would be to clasp hands with Kalani and walk with her until his little race is run.
Yet, due to his outrageously slow physical decline, the years have slipped away almost unnoticeably, and he has grown neither bored nor crippled. He is stuck in purgatory — somewhat interested, somewhat physically able — but no longer surfing’s dominant competitive force. The perfect moment to bow out seems to have passed, and his golden hand now hovers over the eject button as he scrambles to find a good reason to press it, before the window closes for good.
After missing the mid-year cut twice in consecutive seasons, and after welcoming a new son who has seen two weeks of Hawaiian sunsets, Kelly appears ready to confront his own mortality.
In a recent podcast with the most disconcertingly animated man in all of sport, Barton Lynch, Kelly gabbed that due to the WSL moving finals day to Cloudbreak in 2025, this time around in Fiji would be his last.
“It’s the last time I’ll surf a World Tour event at Cloudbreak,” says Kelly. “Tavarua is my second home. I want to make the event about Fiji, and dedicate my last contest there to the people on Tavarua.”
To be clear, that remark was different from saying ‘my last contest ever.’ Given that Fiji will become the new home of the WSL Finals rather than a regular CT venue starting in 2025, it’s actually a moot point. Only the top 5 surfers will be competing in Fiji while it hosts the finals, and Slater isn’t eligible.
Kelly has been the most successful competitor Fiji has ever known, and there are quiet murmurs in the deepest corners of society that if he delivers a worthy performance this week, he might drop the mic and leave it all behind, closing the chapter for good.
As Taj Burrow proved in 2016, there’s no better place to hold a two-week retirement bender than Fiji — he may just have to transfer from Tavi to Namotu for the closing ceremonies.
Kelly lost his round one heat this morning to Barron Mamiya and Griffin Colapinto, pinning him against world number six Yago Dora in the Men’s elimination round. Should he lost, it’s possible we hear him finally utter the R-word.
If this is indeed his final event — which we’re skeptical about given the recent announcement of the KSWC pool becoming a CT venue in 2025 — we owe it to the GOAT to reflect on all he has achieved and all he could still accomplish, if only for one more beautiful dance at Cloudbreak.
Let’s get into his latest retirement forecast.
The Kingpin of Cloudbreak
The 2024 Corona Fiji Pro is Kelly Slater’s 13th Championship Tour event at Cloudbreak, matching Taj Burrow for the most appearances by any surfer in history.
Kelly has never lost a final here. Over the years, he’s claimed four titles, including one in 2005 and a remarkable three consecutive wins from 2008 to 2013 (the event didn’t run 2009-2011). He has also recorded seven 10-pointers, which is the most of any surfer to ever compete in Fiji. Additionally, he holds five of the top-ten highest heat totals at this venue, including a perfect heat in 2013 and coming within 0.3 points of a perfect heat on four other occasions.
Aside from Kelly, Cloudbreak has long been ruled by the screwfoots. He remains the only event winner, other than Andy Irons’ single victory in 2003, to surf with his left foot forward.
In his prime, Kelly was Cloudbreak’s undisputed big cheese. His last good showing was in 2016, when he made the semi-final before being upended by a young and vivacious Gabby Medina, who would go on to win the event.
There hasn’t been a CT event in Fiji since 2017, and its absence from the tour might have deprived Kelly several opportunities to cap his career with a fitting finale.
Sometimes, however, patience rewards you with the perfect moment. Going out as the five-time Kingpin of Cloudbreak has a rather seductive ring to it.
Kelly needs juice
“The swell’s looking… not all that good,” noted two-time event winner Damien Hobgood in his Betonline.ag picks for the comp.
On day one, we’ve seen sizable yet messy Cloudbreak — plenty of opportunity, but only if you have the wave knowledge and the quad strength to leverage it.
Kelly is old enough to father most of the competitors on tour, but in order for the GOAT to become the , he desperately needs mother nature to send him some juice.
When the waves are big and round, Kelly catapults from slinging kebabs on street corners with Deivid Silva to dining at the royal table with John and Gabby. He’s still more than capable of throwing down with the most physically gifted athletes on the planet — all he needs are the right waves.
Just take a look at his last four event wins: Pipe in 2022, Tahiti in 2016, Pipe again in 2013, and Fiji in 2013. All big, barreling lefts.
Given the conditions, however, Kelly will likely be denied the XL finale he deserves.
Kelly needs a story
For Kelly to call it quits, he needs a worthy storyline. There’s a lot riding on the final event of the season — many destinies yet to be written, potential triumphs and heartbreaks, possible alterations to the final 5, and many dreams for Kelly to obliterate.
As a wildcard, Kelly will be pitted against the top-seeds, and he will take perverse pleasure in dismantling the aspirations of his young rivals. Kelly will surf against Yago Dora in the elim round — a man who has every intention of rubbing the algaic slime off his feet this September.
But even if Kelly makes it through the first few rounds, every corner of the draw features tube connoisseurs who could win the event. There will be no easy heats, which is a credit to the mid-year massacre. However, if Kelly can somehow navigate the draw, fight against his protesting muscles, lay waste to today’s most talented surfers and notch his fifth Cloudbreak win, then he’d have a story grand enough to retire on.
Past retirement announcements
Kelly Slater first retired in 1998 after winning five consecutive world titles — a decision driven mostly by boredom. He returned to the tour in 2002, racked up six more titles, and then announced his retirement again in 2015—only to reveal it as an April Fools’ joke.
A couple of years later, he hinted on Instagram that 2017 would be his final year — if he could get healthy. Yet, after two more seasons passed without a farewell, he appeared suddenly inspired by Joel Parkinson’s retirement announcement and publicly declared 2019 to be his final lap.
But Kelly continued to surf, and then he stopped winning. He aimed for a dramatic exit after winning gold at the Tahiti Olympics, but by the time they rolled around, he had fallen off tour.
“In my mind, if I could have drawn it out, I would have surfed the Olympics, hopefully won gold, and then retired there,” he told Barton Lynch recently.
But Kelly didn’t make the Olympics. With no event wins in the past two years and a dry spell of six years before that, Kelly knows it’s time. He’s ready, but he needs a meaningful conclusion.
So, why can’t this be it? The last event of the 2024 season, his third decade on tour coinciding with the birth of his son, at a wave that he has both conquered and cherished. It might not be the epic conclusion he envisioned, but it could provide the closure he needs.
The forecast is clear for an announcement, but when he finally goes, dark clouds will linger for a little longer than usual. Whatever Kelly decides to do, we’ll be peering over the ledge, watching him as we always have — with stains on our shirts and chip crumbs all over our laps.
Enjoy Stab’s 50 iconic Slater images here.
Or the best profile ever written on Kelly here.
