DailyStoke.com recently caught up with Kelly Slater to talk about surfing, but also about the ASP World Tour. The first part of our interview with Kelly Slater is here.
The State of the WQS
With a significant number of this year’s top WQS surfers being former ASP World Tour surfers, it begs the question as to why these surfers can utterly dominate the WQS but then fail to make heats on the World Tour. Slater is equally baffled, suggesting that perhaps some guys are more accustomed to the four man heat, all the hassling involved and the generally poorer wave quality of the WQS. “Some guys are just better at dealing with all the hassling and surfing shitty waves. Obviously guys from Florida can deal with that. Floridians and Brazilians are the best at that,” Slater says, with a laugh.
Slater on Dane Reynolds
Slater points to Dane Reynolds as a success story among qualifiers, saying “Dane Reynolds seemingly has an easy time winning heats on tour. But, then he’s sick in one Round, jetlagged in another at Jeffrey’s Bay, got an interference in Bali, and made a few dumb mistakes.” Kelly counts Dane amongst his favorite surfers on the ASP World Tour, suggesting he’s in the right place for his style of surfing: “It’s easy for Dane to win a two man heat,” he says, “but you get him in a four man heat with guys hassling him and it doesn’t fit his personality and he doesn’t want to deal with it.”
Kelly Slater's Favorite Surfers on the ASP World Tour
Slater's other favorite surfers on tour include: “Andy Irons, of course”; Joel Parkinson – “Parko is always on and is phenomenal. Everyday is a good day for Joel. He’s so great overall”; Mick Fanning, Bede Durbidge and Taj Burrow “are all just incredible”; and CJ and Damien Hobgood, who “in the right surf, are scary to watch. They just charge big left hand barrels. They just tap into them and really know what’s going on,” Slater says.
Slater is fortunate enough to count all these guys and the rest of the guys on tour among his friends on what has become the “Dream Tour.”
Rivalries past on the ASP World Tour
Far removed from the famous rivalries of the 1970s and 1980s, Slater contends that there are no wild rivalries on tour these days, and he’s more comfortable than ever talking about his much publicized, past rivalry with Andy Irons. “Andy and I would acknowledge that the media wasn’t always wrong when focusing in on our rivalry. Perhaps they sometimes overemphasized some things, but we were at each other’s throats on a personal level sometimes too. But now it’s so much easier to talk about because we’re friends,” Slater explains.
Slater on Dane Reynolds and Jordy Smith
He says that the only partial rivalry on tour these days is between Dane Reynolds and Jordy Smith, the two talented rookies who are always out to one up each other in contests. “They had two heats this year and everyone really looked forward to those heats.” Slater also riffed on the temperature for Jordy Smith on tour, given his current back-of-the-pack rankings going into the final contest of the year and his possibly getting bumped off in his rookie year. “I really doubt he’ll lose his spot on tour, but it sure would be ironic if he were to, with all of what he went through last year and obviously all the hype and pressure that’s on him now.” Slater obviously knows a little something about hype, pressure and big contracts. He suggests that since Jordy’s contract with O’Neill was the biggest rookie contract of all time, that he’s obviously feeling a lot of pressure that would be difficult for anyone to handle. Slater contends that a real champion accepts the big contract and deals with the pressure and manages it. “He took his lumps this year and I don’t expect that to happen again. He’s definitely a standout in the world of surfing. He’s just phenomenal. He can do crazy stuff. He just needs to get a little more experience, a little more confident and worry a little less.” Solid advice and a seal of approval from the nine time World Champ.
Slater on his competitive spirit
Ever the competitive being, Slater avoids watching contests when he’s not involved. “I’m almost completely disinterested in pro surfing when I’m not in a contest,” he says. This is quite different from his level of interest when he’s in a contest. Slater clearly lives for the challenge. “I enjoy challenging myself to see what I can pull out of my bag of tricks. It also kind of gets me going when guys talk shit. Then you know how much it matters to them and that they want to beat you. It gets you all pumped up. It’s always good for people watching if they know there’s a little hassling between guys.” With the way the ASP World Tour is devoid of real rivalries today, Slater says, “It’s always squashed once a heat is over. It’s not like a fight or anything.”
It’s easy to see why after nine World Titles, Kelly still has the drive to get out there and compete. Here's to many more years of amazing surfing.
