Kelly Slater: “Steph Gilmore surfs how people should surf”

“Stephanie is an original badass,” says Kelly Slater of Miss Stephanie Gilmore. “She surfs like people should surf and plays music from her soul. She’s interested in a variety of topics outside of riding waves. She’s got an eclectic and diverse group of friends and followers all around the world. She’d be just as comfortable in her skin if nobody knew who she was. My mom wrote me yesterday and said she is a Stephanie groupie and she just loves her whole deal. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has anything but praise for her. She’s not complicated like most women seem to be and knows how she wants to live and what she wants. What else can I say?”

As he so very often is when it comes to surfing, Kelly is absolutely right. Above is a short film from our pals over at Monster Children, featuring Steph lighting up some far reaches of the Indonesian archipelago. It is as breezy and as enjoyable as surf footage gets in 2016.