ESM Interview

SPEAKS OUT ON EVERYTHING (EXCEPT KELLY SLATER)

By Matt Pruett

It's been almost four years since we last picked the brain of the greatest surfer to ever play the game. And past experience has shown us here at ESM that when you have an athlete from the home team making a title run--particularly Kelly Slater, who's chasing his record seventh world championship--it's best to save the mundane, "How-does-it-feel" interviews until the deal's sealed. But few surfers have been on the WCT longer than Slates, and even fewer have witnessed as many changes within the league itself and East Coasters' place in it, so we felt a midsummer Q&A with the Champ was in order. And to avoid any potentially jinxing situations, we restrained our questioning to ask Kelly to comment on everything... except himself.

Just another face in the crowd? Hardly. Kelly weaves through the human traffic during the Globe Sebastian Inlet Pro. Photo: Cresitello

ESM: You jumped on tour halfway through 1991, and needless to say, things are a lot different now with the ASP than they were then. Is this "Dream Tour" everything you hoped for back in the days of three-to-the-beach in less-than-ideal locales?

KS: Yes and no. With anything you're trying to help evolve, there's change that needs to occur. I'm pretty satisfied with where it's at, but a few things need to be implemented to ensure that it's always progressing. That comes from making mistakes and learning what's happening with the way the whole tour's structured. There are a lot of issues on the table now. The size of the tour is a pretty interesting one. Having 48 guys in every event, at this point I'm not sure that makes sense logistically. I think we may need to trim that down a little, maybe to 32 or 24, to capitalize on the best surfers doing the best surfing and having an arena for them to do just that. I'm not sure every guy on tour feels that way, but in the end that might be something that'll be good for surfing. And there's obviously inflation in the world, so prizemoney should increase along with it. Surfing's a professional sport so that's a realistic request. Also, there are a couple spots on tour that aren't the best for us.

ESM: Like Japan, for instance?

KS: Well, if you scheduled Japan at the right time with the right waiting period, it would fall in the time space of the European leg. If you had a mobile event in Japan, it could be an unbelievable contest. But we haven't quite gotten things figured out enough to where we can have a mobile webcast. So we have to try and push the technology we're working with. The webcast has allowed us to go to spots where before we were worried about getting people to the beach. There's always things you want to achieve, but I think we have a pretty solid tour for the most part.

ESM: How has the ASP's new and improved judging criteria of rewarding points for "flow" as well as "variety of repertoire" affected certain surfers' approach to competition?

KS: Those are just words. Nothing's really changed. The judging's been as unpredictable as ever this year. But there's good and bad with everything, though. You can buy great stock and it'll go down, y'know? It's just a learning process. For instance, at Reunion, I personally felt the waves were getting judged, not the surfing. Some guys would rip outside, but the waves wouldn't connect to the inside bowl, so they couldn't get over a 7.0 even if they surfed it like a 9.0. Situations weren't like that with everyone, because Mick (Fanning) won the event, but the results showed that there was a little bit of a struggle going on with us trying to figure it out. The top five seeds didn't even make it to 5th-place.

Slater, still bending boundaries in '05. Freakish Florida Freesurf. Photo: Dugan

ESM: Speaking of top seeds, what can you say about the Hobgoods' remarkable ascension over the past couple seasons?

KS: I can't say enough good things about the Hobgoods. They're the classiest guys on tour, in my opinion. First and foremost, they're great people. They're friends with everybody, they're progressive, they've got open minds and at the same time, they've got great beliefs that guide them. Then to top it all off, they just charge. For two brothers to be in the top-10 in the whole world is pretty amazing. At this point, both have a realistic shot at winning a title. I think there's probably been more of that expectation put on Bruce and Andy (Irons), but I personally don't think Bruce has a shot at the title. He has the surfing talent, but even with him being one of the top pros, there's a lot of things that need to go with it. The Hobgoods have everything it takes--big waves, small waves, rights, lefts, hollow, mushy, competitive skills... They're just well-rounded, and they've really done their homework. I think we should all be really proud of those guys.

ESM: CJ's obviously one hungry competitor. Now, with the birth of his first child, do you think he'll be even hungrier? You can probably relate, seeing as you had your daughter while on tour?

KS: Yeah, but it was different for me. I wasn't with my daughter's mother. CJ's in a happily married situation, and I'm sure they were expecting to have a child. You can never figure those things out, though. Everyone was thinking that was going to be really good for Joel Parkinson's surfing and he's not doing so good for his standards. But there's always a chance that having a child might give more meaning to CJ's life, and more of his energy will go in that direction. It won't necessarily push his surfing, but it'll push him to be closer to his family and have more time at home. But I think he's balanced enough where he can handle all that really well. He seems to know what's important, and he can adapt to the situation really well. Maybe it will make him hungrier to have a big college fund for his kid...

Pipe Masterful. Photo: Frieden/ Surfing

ESM: He seems to be on a personal mission to validate his '01 title after that year was cut short due to 9-11.

KS: But hey, if Andy had won the title that year, he'd be a four-time world champ right now. Would that be blemished? No. A world title's a world title. I gotta tell ya, if the tour ended right now, I'd be stoked to win the title [laughs]... I wouldn't be complaining. The thing about CJ and Damien is they both wanna go out there and just kick everyone's asses. They're not gonna hold back for anyone. They go full-bore when you're competing against them and then when the gloves are off and the heat's over, they're smiling whether they win or lose. They're able to leave it in the water and that's a breath of fresh air.

ESM: On the other end of the spectrum, Shea's having a rough time getting back on track since his 2004 sit-out due to injury, and he just missed Reunion Island, too. Next to you, Shea's been on tour longer than any other East Coaster, but he's in a dangerous position. What's it gonna take for him to get on safe ground?

KS: The number one key in Shea's life right now is circulation. He needs to get blood into that knee and get that thing healthy. But you never know with those things. I was just talking to a friend of mine who was a top ballerina. She hurt her foot and it caused her to resign from ballet. And she actually said it made her life more complete and set her in a different direction that she needed to go. Shea obviously has a career-threatening injury. He might've gotten back on it too early and if that's so, it's gonna be more frustrating than the injury in the first place. Hey, it makes us all proud to have another East Coaster on tour, but I'd rather see him healthy than struggling. Risking his physical body just to try to make it back on tour, it's not really worth it. They're just contests.

ESM: And Cory? Consistency isn't his strong suit, but he has these flashes of brilliance and, as evident last year, he performs really well when the pressure's on. Do you see him as a legitimate threat?

KS: I don't see Cory going for a world title, but he's always the guy who can make the top-10 or the top-5. He can win pretty much any event. He's had really good results in big left barrels, and he's done well on the Gold Coast. He proves he can go both ways. That doesn't make him gay, though... [laughs]. But seriously, I know that if I see him on my side of the draw, I'm like, "OK, when will I end up against Cory?" Because you expect that he'll beat the guy he's against.

Who wants to bet he's going to kick the everlovin' crap out of the next Supertubes section? Photo: Barnardt

ESM: After the Hobgoods and the Lopezes, with the odd WQS hope like Gabe Kling and Ben Bourgeois thrown in, there isn't any young East Coaster making a lot of noise internationally. Is there anyone you see as having even a remote chance at making the Show? Dylan Graves? Adam Wickwire?

KS: I haven't spent that much time with Dylan in a couple years, so that remains to be seen. Wickwire has a lot of talent, but the general consensus is he has some growing to do, just opening up his mind a little bit. You'd know better than me, because I'm not home so much, but... hey, you want a good quote?

ESM: Sure.

KS: During the finals at Restaurants, CJ looks over at me and goes, "I wouldn't want to be a grom from the East Coast right now." I asked him why and he said, "That's a lot to live up to, man." In other words, he was kinda beefing us up a bit, because we're doing really good right now. But CJ's a very humble guy, and basically we both wanna do everything we can to inspire the local kids, but for us to be sitting in that heat together and be two of the top-rated surfers in the world is pretty crazy. We want that to filter back home, so we'll just have to see. I'll tell you what, though, there's always been those hyped guys who don't end up coming through. David Eggers was a classic case. Matt Archbold, too, Nicky Wood, Jason Buttonshaw... There's so many surfers who've been pegged as the young hot guy. Then you got someone like Dane Reynolds, who hasn't done much competitively, but has the talent and the approach, and he's not scared. I have no doubt that Dane's gonna get himself on tour and do really well. He'll probably struggle a little bit with the 'QS, but when he gets on the 'CT, he'll just blow up. But there'll be some guys that will come out of the East Coast that no one's looking at right now. I don't think people were looking at Cory Lopez when he was 18 and saying, "Oh, he's gonna light the world on fire." But he got on tour and started blowing people away, taking off on crazy waves, and people were like, "Wait, this guy's from the Gulf Coast of Florida!?!" A good topic of conversation with the Hobgoods and Lopezes might be getting back and having a camp, to take some of these young guys under our wing to see if we could help in some way. Because I know when I was a kid, I had a pretty strong support group with Matt Kechele and Bruce Walker.

"I'm king of the world!" The champ on top again after Teahupo'o. Photo: K. Tostee/ ASP

ESM: How about the Fuel Channel televising ASP contests? How's that going to help the sport's credibility?

KS: We've never had any credibility from our TV shows and we've never had good time slots. I think it's long overdue to have something like the Fuel Channel. I'm offering up some ideas about the shows. I think our contests shouldn't just be shown as contests but turned into a movie--like a surf film set to music and portraying it in that way--make it more entertaining by including other things like the lifestyles of the surfers. Maybe follow a guy who's struggling and barely making it on tour. Because there's some really interesting stories with some of the lower-rated guys.

ESM: Now for some random questions: tow-at surfing--blowing up or overblown?

KS: I'm open to it. I'm not live or die either way, but I went down to Spanish House with Kech recently and I wouldn't even have wanted to go surfing. It was just closed-out crap but you could tow and get big airs and have a good time. I even ended up breaking a board.

ESM: Waveparks in the U.S. featuring legitimate waves in size and form--distant future or pipe dream?

KS: I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's the future. At some point, it will be a realistic venture for surfing. I haven't seen the models for this one (Orlando Surfpark), but I know that there're things in the works that are gonna revolutionize pool surfing.

ESM: Given your celebrity status: if there were a surf contest open to only mainstream stars (actors, musicians, etc.) who do you think would win it, excluding Jack Johnson, of course?

KS: That's a tough one. I'll say Tony Hawk. Gimme a month with Tony and I'll train him to where he'd be doing airs. Maybe Tony, Perry Farrell and G-Love battling it out...

ESM: What surfer on tour do you have the most respect for today, and for what reason?

KS: Danny Wills. He's a great all-around guy and a tremendous surfer. He's probably got one of the most pleasant styles of any surfer to ever walk the Earth. Danny's a really good family guy, too. I was hanging out with him in Reunion, and he's telling me how much he misses having his wife and kids with him. That's really refreshing because we see a lot of shit on this tour, man. I've seen some stuff over the years that has caused me not to respect guys I would've respected otherwise, and that's a shame. But there's always gonna be people who influence others in a positive way, and Danny's that guy.

Kelly 'Slayer' - speed metal run on the main stage at the 2005 Globe/ Sebastian Inlet Pro. Sequence: Dugan

ESM: What's one place on Earth that you've never surfed, but are dying to?

KS: I'd love to just get on a boat and go through the Philippines during typhoon season. There's over 1000 islands, and imagine the surf that's hitting there on different days. You'd have to do a lot of adventuring, and you'd probably need a helicopter or a sea plane, but that would be unbelievable. There's also this island called Diego Garcia, which is a marine base for America in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and I bet it doesn't get under five-feet all year long. I think it's consistently bigger than Hawaii because it's right in the middle of all these storm systems. Then I look at all these dots of islands... Micronesia, the west coast of Africa, the northern side of Europe... The safari idea never ends in my brain. I always said I wish there were ten of me so I could be in ten different places.

ESM: What's your reaction to the decision to hold the Summer X-Games surfing competition at Puerto Escondido? And after two years of beating the west coast on their home turf, do you think the East Coast team has an advantage there, looking at our team roster?

KS: I think not only do we have a mental advantage, but we have a surfing advantage over the west coast team when it comes to big surf.

ESM: Looking at that famous sequence of you in Tahiti following your win, we have to ask--does a beer taste better in the barrel?

KS: You know what? I wouldn't have cared if that thing was full of saltwater. That victory tasted so good.