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Kelly Slater: a life less ordinary

Roar Guru
28th August, 2014
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Kelly Slater's shown he's still got it, landing the first ever 540 aerial. (Pedro Szekely / Wiki Commons)
Roar Guru
28th August, 2014
20

I have well and truly moved beyond admiring and worshipping sportsmen. Still, after watching the engrossing final day of the Billabong Pro Tahiti, I was once again reminded of how cool it would be to be Kelly Slater.

Held in frightening yet perfect conditions at the famed Teahupo’o break (Tahitian translation: place of skulls), the event was described by Slater as the best world tour event ever.

Quite the wrap considering the man joined the tour in 1990 and has won 56 events and 11 world titles (7 ahead of nearest rival Mark Richards).

Slater went down by 18.96 to 18.93 (out of 20) in the final to young gun Gabriel Medina, who wasn’t even born when slater won his first world title in 1992.

It was engrossing viewing, with Slater heaping praise on the young winner on his Facebook page after the event.

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Slater came desperately close to scoring the elusive perfect 20 (two perfect ten waves), falling just as he was about to exit an absolute beast of a wave.

At 42 years of age some people might ask why Slater doesn’t retire. Well he’s sitting second on rankings at the hallway stage of the 2014 tour and is one of those rare competitors who needs the challenge of competition.

He actually quit the tour way back in the 1990s after six titles in seven years and did not comeback until the late Andy Irons emerged as a big threat. Also, who would tire of a tour that begins with three events in Australia (Gold Coast, Bells Beach and Margaret River) before heading to Rio, a private island in Fiji, South Africa, before this week’s event in Tahiti?

To finish the year they head to Southern California, the beaches of France and Portugal, before the surfing mecca that is the North Shore of Oahu and the infamous Banzai Pipeline.

I can’t think of a more idyllic list of places that any other sports visit annually.

Surf film-making trips to places like the Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Sri Lanka, Reunion Island to earn sponsorship dollars are held during breaks from competition.

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Obviously keeping up with the young guns on tour is easier when living a clean and healthy lifestyle like Slater. Training by simply going surfing must make things less strenuous to stay in top shape.

Such a glamorous lifestyle also leads to attracting some very high-profile partners, with Slater being involved with the likes of Cameron Diaz, Pamela Anderson and Gisele Bundchen over the years.

The buxom blonde Anderson and Slater became an item during his infamous eight-episode stint as ‘Jimmy Slades’ on Baywatch in 1993, an experience that still makes Slater cringe some 20 years later.

He’s a talented musician, having performed live in concert with acts the calibre of Pearl Jam and Ben Harper. He is an accomplished golfer, playing off a handicap of +2. Most interestingly, he also completed a Masters in criminal law from the University of Sydney.

Due to his remarkable longevity and the sheer number of event wins and world titles, Slater gets a seat at the table when discussions of world’s greatest sportsman occurs. I find it hard to put him up top, mainly due to the fact that surfing is not one of the world’s biggest sports and he has less competition due to the fact that most of the world don’t have the pleasure of living close to a surfable ocean. (Slater himself honed his skills in Florida, hardly the hotbed of international surfing talent).

If he’s not the greatest sportsmen in the world he holds the title of ‘Coolest career in sports history’.

Saying that, if it’s either of the Aussies Joel Parkinson or Mick Fanning up against Kelly Slater for the world title later this year, I’ll be cheering for one of the Coolangatta Kids.

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