Hitting The Greens With Kelly Slater

Everybody knows Kelly Slater the surfer. Eight-time world champion. Greatest surfer of all-time. Tabloid magnet who attracts only the hottest of women. Yet do you know of Kelly Slater the golfer?

It's no secret that most surfers spend their free time on the golf course. With the down time for most professional surfers occurring during the summer, when swells are mellow and fairly weak, surfers need something to do. So they head out to the golf course, practice their swing, and find peace and serenity in a whole different environment.

 

So when the greatest surfer ever Kelly Slater got the call and was formally invited to Pebble Beach for the world-famous AT&T Pro-AM golf tournament, Kelly pounced on the situation. Partnered up with professional golfer Pat Perez and playing side-by-side with fellow celebrity Carson Daly, Slater took the center stage in a very unusual arena: The golf course.

 

What was even more surprising upon arriving in Monterey was the fact that Kelly's caddy for two of the three days was another amazing surfer: The Godfather of Mavericks himself Jeff Clark. Together, Slater and Clark traded in their surfboards for golf clubs, and partnered up to compete at the AT&T Pro-Am in Pebble Beach.

 

Neither surfer is a slouch with the club. Kelly had one of the lowest handicaps among all the celebrity players, at -3.  And with Clark giving him advice, the stage was set for not just an epic weekend, but an epic interview with legends of past and present: Kelly Slater and Jeff Clark.

 

 

KS: Doing good.  Finally got the invite to Pebble, so I had to come take them up on it.  I gotta start hitting the ball right, it's killing me out here.

 

 

KS: I came in at six or seven under maybe.  Personal score doesn't really matter, let's not talk about that. (Laughs)

JC: There were some really bright spots.  He's throwing some darts at the greens.

 

KS: I almost had a two under on a par 4, so that was nice.

 

JC: Kelly shot it past the pin, it spun back, and lipped just out of the hole.

 

 

KS: You gotta go big. (Laughs)  If I got too tired to walk, Jeff could probably carry me.  And he's not really scared of anything.  If I'm scared of any shot, he just laughs at me.

 

JC: Anything is possible in the ocean, and we just bring that to the golf course.  If you could see it, you could probably do it.

 

KS: I did try to fly a couple of trees today that I landed short of.  I thought, “Wait, I was supposed to go over that tree.”

 

 

Lat34: The last time I talked to you, you were celebrating title number seven.  Now you have number eight. You have this philosophy of not knowing when you're retiring, that you're taking it one match at a time. And it's working.  Are you going to keep this going?  Are you going to be in Australia in a few weeks?

KS: Keep it going until it doesn't work and then try something else.  I mean if the non-committal's working on the tour, then stick with it you know? (Laughs)

 

I was just following how I felt.  I wasn't trying to come up with something.  Honestly, I was probably hours from quitting the tour before Bells.  And then I looked at the forecast and saw that the waves were going to be really good and I thought, “Well, it's going to be offshore and six to eight feet.  I think I'll surf.”  I don't really like the wave at Bells very much until it's the right size.  If it's too big it's not great, if it's four foot or under it's not that good.  Four to six feet, low tide and it's a really fun wave.  Everything else is a struggle to find the right wave.  And the frustrating thing is that the wind could pop up next door, and it's the funnest wave to surf, so you can practice on a really fun wave and then go out and surf a piece of crap.

 

That was probably our best event of the year.  Six to eight foot, double to triple overhead, flawless conditions, perfect offshore, probably the best from start to finish it's ever been for Bells Beach.  It was fun, I had some high scores there.  It was definitely my highest scoring event of the year.

 

JC: Some of the waves that I saw online, it was amazing to see Kelly carrying his speed coming out of the bottom turn.  It was like he was doing these upside-down carve-driving turns back down the face.  It looked like G-turns.

 

KS: I had a good board, and I was just kind of within myself.  I was really keeping to myself that week.  I was sort of in the midst of some life changes.  I really was thinking about quitting the tour right then.  A few days before that event started, I was supposed to be at MR (former world-champion surfer Mark Richards)'s contest at Newcastle.  Didn't even show up.  I was tripping out at that time in my life.  I always go to MR's contest and I always promise him I'll be there, and this year was the same, but I just didn't show up.  I called him and apologized.  Called the contest organizers as well and apologized.

 

I wasn't really feeling like it was what I wanted to do, but maybe I just needed to clear a few things out and process a few things and obviously got through it pretty well.  I had two wins to start, and had I not gotten hurt in Tahiti, I might have had three wins to start.

 

 

KS: I tore my cartilage in my ribs.  But I actually did the damage in the final at Bells, put a slight tear in it I think.  I didn't get an MRI done after that event, but it was the same pain felt after I ate it in Tahiti.  I landed on my board, fell about seven feet and landed straight on my rib cage.  Right on that spot where I had sort of torn it four weeks before.  I didn't surf between the two (contests) so I didn't know it was still hurting.  When I got to Tahiti, I laid on my board to paddle and thought, “God, that thing still kills.”

 

I did the injury, and I was out of the water for five weeks.  I got back in the day before Mexico started, surfed three or four waves.  Made a few little mistakes there and lost to Taylor Knox.

 

 

KS: Good guy, one of my best friends.  Probably my best friend on tour.  Great guy, great surfer.  Tactically I gave that heat away.  I took a small little wave when I had priority.  There weren't many waves coming and I took a bad wave.  And then a five-foot set came in and Taylor took the wave and won the heat.

 

 

KS: Taylor started great.  He had five good events.  I think he was third or fourth after five events.  Then he just kind of fell off the map.  I think he still ended up in the top ten.

 

 

KS: That's not very nice.  (Laughs)  She's actually tougher, she's probably pounding him - wait, did I say that out loud?  (Laughing)

 

 

Lat34: You competed in Mavericks one year, back in 2000, and you finished second.  Are you ever going to come back?

KS: That's a good question, I haven't really talked to Jeff about that one.  I don't think I've seen an invite since then.  (Laughing)

 

JC: He's got a standing invite.  One of the funniest things.  The finals come that year, and Kelly's surfing in 25-foot surf for three heats.

 

KS: I thought I had lost.

 

JC: He thought he lost, and he rides a wave, heading in.

 

KS: I ride in to the beach, and I had a 5/4/3 wetsuit with a built-in hood.  And I went in, I took the suit off, pulled it down to my waist, and maybe I even took it off.  And then somebody goes, “You're in the final, the jet ski's waiting by the beach.  You gotta go back out.”  And I was like, “Oh that sucks.”

 

JC: So he's late for the final.  And he got two waves in the final, and after the second one he's just riding it in.  He rode the wave to the end, and was just paddling it in.  And there was 40 minutes left in the heat.  Victor (jet ski rider) picks him up, brings him back out, and we're like, “Where are you going?”  Skinny (jet ski rider) drives up and he goes, “Where're you going?  Flea's out there kicking your ass!”  Then Kelly goes, “Expletive you Skinny.”  And he paddles back out to the lineup.

 

KS: I never said that! (Laughing) I said something about his mother.  No just kidding, I would never do that.

 

JC: Richard Schmidt, this great big wave surfer, goes to Skinny and says “What are you telling him that for!  Now he's gonna go win the thing!”  Kelly goes out and catches another bomb.

 

KS: I don't remember this.  I honestly don't remember because two days before the event, I was in bed for 24 hours.  Couldn't eat.  I had a 24-hour flu bug, it was really bad.  So I couldn't eat, I was dehydrated, couldn't drink anything because I was throwing up.  And so for 24 hours literally I stayed in bed, didn't leave.

 

I woke up the day prior to the event.  I had a little toast and avocado and could drink some fruit juice.  Then I flew in and got there late that night.  Al Merrick and I flew up, got there late, got about four, maybe five hours of sleep.  I was messed up.  Then I get down to the beach and it was like 40-foot faces that morning.  That was a big swell.  Short interval, giant swell, and all I had was a couple of Odwalla drinks that morning.

 

My first wave of the day was a 20-footer.  I made the drop, got a late drop, came around and thought, “I got this thing.”  Straightened out, and then the wave just rolled me.  I was under water for so long.  I thought, “God, I'm going to drown right now.”  I was out of it.  I really thought I was going down for the count that time.  It felt like I took about 30 strokes to get to the surface.  I finally came up, and I was like, “OK, I'm not falling again today.”  I didn't fall once more the whole day.

 

JC: He went back out at the end of the final and he ended up second place at that event.

 

 

KS: I took second to Flea but you know what?  Even if Flea didn't make a wave he should have won that event just on charging alone.  That kid's out of his mind.  Remember the cover of him going over the falls at Waimea?  I was probably the closest person to him when that happened.  When he landed he was like 30 feet from me.  I was on the shoulder paddling back out.  I saw him paddling, and I knew he wasn't going to make it.  He stood up on the lip of a huge, thick, hollow, meat-eating 40-foot face, and you could see him hesitate so he could time the jump.  He wasn't even trying to make it.  He was standing up, timing his jump so that he could jump into the barrel and land before the lip did.

 

When he hit the water he was going so fast that he didn't really penetrate.  Instead of his feet going down and going straight under, he kind of fell forward onto his body.  And he didn't really penetrate that great.  I was looking back and it was a cauldron.  I was thinking that there's no way he's coming up from that thing.  I thought I watched him die!

 

He jumped up, and he paddled back out, and he caught the next wave.  He just popped up and did a no-paddle take-off on probably an 18-foot wave.  He just flew over the lip and ate it again!  And he paddled back out and I was like, “Are you ok?”  And he said, “I'm fine.”  And I said, “No no no, I mean, are you ok in the head?”  He said, “Calm down, that was nothing.”  He's nuts dude.  He's probably the craziest guy I've ever seen.

 

 

KS: You tell me man. (Laughing)

 

 

KS: Honestly, I can tell you 100% that that is not in my contract.

 

 

KS: It doesn't really affect anything.  It's basically just a paper transfer.  Al's still shaping the boards, he's under contract to do it.  That's the difference now.  He's under contract to shape for a few years.  Eventually boards, I believe, are going to go into the computer.  Ten years from now, it's going to be more common to have a completely computer-shaped board than it is to have one that's hand-finished.

 

 

KS: I think it's good that people are trying things.  There needs to be definite advancement in boards.  There hasn't been monumental change since the thruster, and all that was was a fin added on to the board.  Arguably not really much of a change, just an addition.  It was monumental for the way we're able to surf now.

 

I think there's going to be a little more work on the quads in the next couple of years.  I don't think it's necessarily this fad that's happening right now.  I think for small waves they're unbelievable.  For tow boards everyone says they're faster.  The modern surfing that's coming I think is fed by tow surfing especially because you can test things out faster with higher speeds and velocity.

 

 

KS: I've been riding some quads, yeah.  I'm just trying to narrow the tails a little bit, because I feel like the tails are a little bit wide when I get going faster.  In small waves, I don't think any of my other boards can touch a quad in a one to two-foot wave.

 

 

KS: I've been playing for 16 years.  I actually learned with Jack Johnson.  Eddie and I go back, we're good friends.  He's been trying to get me to play with him for some time, I finally decided  to do it.

 

 

KS: They're mountain lions. (Laughing) I didn't know you had those on the Monterey peninsula.  They're obviously prevalent.

 

 

 

- Cyrus Saatsaz