JUNE '05:THE KELLY SLATERINTERVIEW

Kelly Slater discusses life after the New School

It really is different for Kelly. Of all the generations, only the six-time world champ dominated his group so severely for so long, despite being part of the greatest talent push the sport had seen at the time. An awe-inspiring number of fresh, high-flying faces, these kids were so beyond what came before them they not only got a name -- the Momentum Generation -- they created a whole new style of surfing. Today, the New School is almost old and in the way. Besides Taylor Knox, Kelly is perhaps the sole remaining representative of this group who laid the last bricks for today's architects to build upon. And though he's the only one who still has a chance of tearing their world down, Kelly's sticking around for a different reason: he just wants to say involved with the building process.

SURFING: Who were the top surfers of your generation?

KELLY SLATER: Well, we had such a big number of good guys -- Shane-O, Machado, Pat, Taylor Knox, Ross Williams. Those were probably the top guys, but then there was a whole group of guys who were good at doing airs, guys who were good at surfing big waves, which was a whole different element that helped all of us.

SURFING: You were in a different situation than some of the other generations because you were such a giant step ahead of your contemporaries. Whereas today, even though Andy's on top, there's not that sense that he's completely out of reach.

KELLY: I don't know if that's for me to say, regarding myself, but Andy's certainly in a situation where competitively he has risen above quite a bit -- though I still don't think those guys near him have that sense that he's uncatchable. Parko doesn't think for a second, 'Oh, Andy's better than me or anything like that.' I know it's got Parko frustrated because he thinks he should be kicking Andy's ass.

It's a little different. When I came on tour -- when I started doing really well -- I saw there was definitely a gap there to be filled. I felt like the older guys weren't surfing as good as can be done. And I really set out to do that, to go jump into that place.

SURFING: It seems like your generation didn't fight you as much as cheer you on -- the dominant image is that of the high-five with Rob at Pipe. Did you feel like those guys were trying to beat you or did you feel like you were being pushed along?

KELLY: You're talking about rivalries. There wasn't somebody the whole time who I was feeling a rivalry with. One year it was me and Rob, one year it was me and Beschen, one year it was me and Sunny -- that kind of thing. It seemed like they were helping in a lot of ways. But it is kind of a weird predicament to get ahead like that and be in a situation that I was in for some years there: to be competing against your friends, but then also to be friends with them. I think it's much easier now for Andy -- or even before for the '80s generation -- to kind of hate each other. Or to seem to. There was a sense before I got on tour that those guys hated each other and there were very much rivalries everywhere. And I think it's almost easier to do that and get fired up than to be friends.

SURFING: Really? 'Cause it seemed like the only guys who were getting heat from the guys who actually called you out -- Beschen, Danny Wills, Mick Campbell, Sunny. The other guys sort of bought into the idea you couldn't be beaten. Is that the way it felt? Or is that just the way we media types spin it?

KELLY: You know, there's things like that got written a lot and said a lot. And I guess on some level I knew that was a help for me, a bonus. But on another level I told myself, don't believe that for a second because those guys will take you down as soon as they see an opportunity to. So I didn't really have my guard down. But, um, I guess it did help make me a bit more confident.

SURFING: How is it now to feel the exact opposite and have five guys with the long knives drawn?

KELLY: I guess, except for 2003, I haven't really fully jumped in there 100 percent and jumped in the game. It's like I've been sort of there trying to do my own thing. So that's feedback that it's probably good for me to be more in attack mode if I'm going to be on this tour. But I mean, for me it keeps me interested. Whereas if that wasn't the case -- if there wasn't this group of really good guys -- I probably would've gotten back to the place of not being very motivated by competitive surfing right away, like in a year or two of being back on tour.

SURFING: I guess it takes that sense of something needing to be done. Like you probably wouldn't have gone for five titles -- or six -- if MR hadn't won four.

KELLY: Yeah, quite possibly.

SURFING: What do you think your generation brought to surfing?

KELLY: I think we brought a lot of fresh ideas about where to go on a wave and where to go with equipment, just opening the mind up a little bit to that stuff, largely because we were the first guys to grow up on Thrusters. The guys before us started on either twins or single fins. So getting to a thruster was advancement enough for them, at least on some subconscious level. I think we just had a fresh way of looking at it. It's like growing up with an older brother and watching their mistakes; we were able to watch these guys surf and how they surf and on what waves. And the whole video revolution came along with us and allowed us to broaden our scope of what we were looking at because you get all the best surfers all in one place so its real easy to see who's doing what and to feed off that. So I think the culmination of all those things really helped us to advance quickly with what was there.

SURFING: It's funny too, because now the current generation has done the same thing -- taken all those elements a set further, from their performances in the water to doing their own videos.

KELLY: Yeah. We were probably the first guys to do our parts, but now they're actually editing their own parts, like Jamie O'Brien's actually doing the editing himself whereas we'd sit in with editing. It continually goes to another level. So guys in 20 years are going to be holding a camera in one hand and downloading it to a computer while they're still in the water and watching the playbacks on a big screen on the beach facing the water. [laughs]

Continued...

SURFING: What do you think ya'll's legacy will be in 20 years?

Kelly: Umm. Gosh. I'm not exactly sure. I think with Rob and I -- that moment with the high-five -- that really kind of symbolized us and a lot of our generation because it showed that there's a human element -- that we're not zombies out there -- because you could see how much we loved what we were doing right there. And that bridged a gap in some way between competitive and soul surfing for us. You know, when we came along, there was a huge outcry of surfing getting to corporate and I did Baywatch and there was all this fear of what was going to happen to surfing. I think we made our best attempts -- at least I felt like I did -- to try -- not even to try, but just to show -- how much I loved what I was doing.

SURFING: It's funny. Talking to all these different legends from the past, it's almost as if they're still competing -- not just with each other, but against the different generations as well. Guys will say things like, "well, of course we didn’t have today's boards…" Do you think in 20 years you'll still be trying to prove yourself?

Kelly: I'm sure that as you get older, you want to know what your body would've been doing when you were younger on the most advanced stuff. And we're all going to spend the rest of our lives living with some fantasies in a way -- every one of us-- whether it's about your surfing hay day or whatever it is. I feel like I've put so much time and effort into competitive surfing that when I'm done, I don’t think I'll be wondering so much, "What if I'd done this or that?" But on some level, we all have that: I wonder what would happen if I had gotten a 10 in the final at Pipe last year and I would've won that final and I would've been champ. But that's stuff you can't control. You just accept and move on. But I don't think that my generations' going to have to worry like, "What if we would have had these boards."

SURFING: Yeah, you guys certainly don't suffer in terms of equipment.

Kelly: No. [laughs]

SURFING: When you look past the Andy, CJ, Coolie School crew, who do you see coming up?

Kelly: Umm. That's hard to say. Where does the next generation start? Is Timmy Reyes part of the next one? This one? Maybe the next one's 15. But everyone's looking. Like Jon Jon's kind of the face of his generation already. But it's another eight to ten years 'til they're on tour so you never know. David Eggers was the man at 13. And the guys on tour now probably never heard his name. So you gotta hope that the guys have good guidance from their families. And then a lot of times you have guys who peak at a young age and don't advance past that for some reason.

SURFING: Do you think there's something to be said for the group push theory: that it takes more than one talent to make a difference. It seems like the guys who come along on each side of generation don't have the ability to push along and maintain the momentum -- pardon the expression.

Kelly: It definitely seems like there are gaps, where it kind of backs off. It's just a natural cycle. There's probably a group mind there feeding off each other the right way that helps create those levels that surge so it's just natural that people have to sit back and observe what's happening for them to change it. Everything in nature works in wavelengths or cycles.

SURFING: It's weird, for all the talent in your group, Derek Ho won the title between your first and second. It wasn't someone from your generation. Does that surprise you? Does it piss you off?

Kelly: No. Not at all. But I think it would've been nice if Elko had won a title. Because he was right there. Or even Cheyne Horan. Had either of them won a world title it would've been really deserving, although at the time I remember thinking, "I don't want Elko to win." [laughs] Because he was so anti-my-generation. He was so vocally oppressing us that part of me was so out to stop him. Whereas, had he been supportive of the younger group, we probably all would've fully backed him and been like "He's the man." He may have even won a title.

SURFING: But do you think any generation looks at the crowd coming up and says, "I hope the next guys kick ass." Do you think you're supportive of the next generation? Or is it your turn to provide the pressure?

Kelly: I think I've been pretty supportive of 'em, actually. And it's definitely a hard thing to get your head around. It can be tough enough to support your best friends, even more to support a totally different generation. My hope, my goal -- you know, I really want to have a positive effect on surfing. I think it's my duty and my obligation to help the guys after me. I know Curren helped me. And that was huge. And there's really nothing good, in the long run, that comes out of trying to oppress people.

SURFING: Tom Carroll said the same thing. When Occy and Curren came up, it was really hard for him to get his head around the concept of having to change what you do. And he definitely seems less bitter about how things turned out because even if he never won another title, he rose to the occasion and stayed in the thick of it.

Kelly: That's probably the biggest thing: when there's a generational change, there's a change in the way things are done. And people who are stuck in their ways and don’t want to see change are the first ones to be vocal about it. And I feel totally supportive because I'm still trying to take my surfing to different levels and that's exciting for me. Because, honestly, there were times when I first got on tour that I was bored with the level of surfing. And I'd much rather be getting my ass kicked than being bored.