September '05Kelly Slater InterviewIt's Raining Ten

Slater achieves perfection at the Billabong Pro Teahupo’o and the Globe WCT Fiji

Kelly's celebratory Fosters at Tahiti

One wave. That’s all it took for six-time world champ Kelly Slater to finally cure his lingering hangover from December 2003. With a “lost” world title still grinding at his competitive soul, Slater was starting to think about the next phase in his career -- one filled with banquet nights, guest appearances and specialty surf events. But then it happened. Down more than 18 points against an in-tune Bruce Irons at the Billabong Pro Teahupo’o, Kelly simply let it go. The result: an impossible drop, a perfect 10 and a whole new scenario on this year’s tour. When the spit finally cleared three weeks later after the Globe WCT Fiji, Slater logged in four more perfect 10s, a record-breaking 20-point heat score, 60 grand in prizemoney and the ratings lead by 300 points. Take that, Generation Now. And while he’s the last one to start claiming Number 7 this early in the game, he’s certainly putting off those retirement plans for the time being. —Evan Slater

SURFING MAGAZINE: You’ve come a long way from Bells. That loss to Bede Durbidge left you pretty sour, didn’t it?

KELLY SLATER: I wasn’t just sour, I was f--kin’ pissed. [laughs]

SURFING: Did you feel they had it out for you?

KELLY: I don’t know -- sometimes I feel that way. But you can’t start feeling sorry for yourself, you know? My life’s pretty damn good, so… every now and again, a call goes against you that you don’t agree with. You think it should have gone your way, and you get irate about it.

SURFING: Did that affect your mindset going into Tahiti?

KELLY: It did. I sort of decided I wasn’t going to Africa. I wasn’t going to Reunion and probably not to J Bay. I thought I’d just kind of drop off, doing enough to requalify. I started this year thinking that this was my time to really get my body back in shape, to clear up all my loose ends around the world. I sort of have stuff left everywhere at friends’ houses, in different places around the world, and I wanted to tidy that up.

SURFING: And then make one last push?

KELLY: Yeah. Then next year, as many of those worries would be alleviated and I could go for it full-on. Then I got to Tahiti, and concluded I wasn’t really giving it 100 percent all last year. And that I can kind of let it go now, you know. I think it rooted back to when I lost that title in 2003. It was really tough. To get that close and not win… to lose in the end like that was pretty disheartening. A tough thing to take.

SURFING: Those feelings can linger.

KELLY: A huge letdown. But something changed recently, where I realized that if I don’t let that go, I may as well just quit.

SURFING: Weren’t you spewing you missed that big swell down there, too?

KELLY: I was totally depressed I missed that swell. I actually got there and was, like, physically sick. Didn’t feel good at all. I arrived, saw it was rainy and small, and just bailed and got a hotel room in Papeete for a week. Didn’t even surf for, like, eight days, until right before my first heat. I was really bummed for while there, but then I just thought, “Well, maybe I would have been that guy who’s in the wrong spot at the wrong time, get myself killed or something.” Plus, if I had been there for that big swell, the contest might not have been as great for me as it was.

CONTINUED...

Slater celebrates after winning J-Bay

SURFING: Now, it seemed like everything changed once you got your first 10 in Tahiti, in Round Four against Bruce.

KELLY: Yeah, it was totally a pivotal wave. I was out in the water having a stress fest, and Bruce had two good scores. I started the heat with what I thought was a pretty good wave -- I got a double barrel, and a couple guys in the channel thought it should have been as good as Brucie’s first wave, but it got a full point less. He had an 8.83 and I had a 7.83. And then Bruce got a 9.5. So, basically, I needed a combo of like 18 points. So, I was out in the water all worried about it, but then just kind of let go. I was, like, “Well, nothing you can do about it now. The only thing you can do is relax and have a little bit of fun.” And then I got that 10. That was pretty good feedback for the way I changed my thoughts there.

SURFING: Tell us about that wave.

KELLY: Basically, I switched over to a 6’1” from a 6’5” for the heat, and I misjudged paddling for that wave a bit. The wind switched offshore right before our heat, I just mistimed it and almost ended up missing the wave. But I stood up and kind of jumped off the ledge, freefalling. When I did that, I realized I was further behind than I wanted to be, and that I was going to have to land on my rail to get down the line. I went to try and land on the rail, and I misjudged that a little and basically fell over and went into a layback. And I thought, if I go into a layback, and try to pull my board up underneath me, I’m going to go too far up the face and get pitched. I can’t see what’s happening down the line, so I’ll just turn a little lower and try to keep my back off the water. So, that’s what I did. I ended up just sneaking under the lip, and it pitched out just enough to let me turn, adjust my body and grab my rail. The lip barely caught my head at one point when I was back in there, and I thought, “Oh no, I’ve done all the hard work and now I’m gonna fall,” you know? And then I’m, like, “No, no, no. This wave’s meant to be made.” I held on, got in the perfect position, then it just spit and shot me out the end.

SURFING: No worries.

KELLY: It was a funny situation. Brucey needed to better an 8.83, so he wasn’t even looking at anything that couldn’t get him a 9 or above. After my 10, I needed a lower score to beat him than he needed to better his score. So, I got a couple of sneakers inside of him, got an 8.5 on one, and pulled ahead. In a nutshell, I went from comboville to having total control of the heat in about 10 minutes. That wave changed everything.

SURFING: Did things come easy after that?

KELLY: Well, when your back’s to the wall and you get a wave like that, you start to think that something else is working for you. You don’t need to think about it so much, I just went with it. Just being aware of everything that was happening in the water, seizing the moment, instead of worrying about points or ratings or whatever. Literally that wave clicked everything into place for the next couple of weeks.

Slater makes a groms day after the final at Teahupoo

SURFING: So, it kept you pumped going right into Fiji.

KELLY: It did, but at the same time, after that final against Damien at Teahupo’o, I got those two 10s, and I thought, “This might be a good way to just quit.” [laughs] I might not go to Fiji, just quit and leave it to those guys. So, I stayed in Tahiti for a couple extra days, and saw this purple blob of a storm forming on the charts, and I was, like, “Hmm. Maybe I’ll go and check it out.” [laughs]

For the entire interview as well as all the great photos from our 2005 photo issue, pick up the September 2005 issue of SURFING. On sale July 26th. Or Subscribe.