The world’s most recognizable surfer slipped through the beach crowd incognito, his hooded sweater draped over his clean-shaved head, hiding his tanned face.
A few heads turned as he passed, their faces bewildered, wondering: Was that Kelly Slater?
But there was no mistaking as Slater emerged an hour later in his white competition jersey on Tuesday, June 10, crowds sprinting on the sand to get a glimpse, cameras whipping out ready to capture footage of the world’s most accomplished surfer – 11-time world champion, a man in his 50s who has defied age limitations and naysayers who with each passing year wonder just how long he can continue to compete.
“I see all these young kids under 10, they know who he is, the older generation, they all know who he is,” said Slater fan Veronica Wold. “As soon as he comes out, the buzz is electrifying. You know he’s around, you know he’s close.”
His appearance at the Lexus Trestles Pro was short-lived, a rare early elimination on the first day of competition after losing two pivotal heats at a surf spot where he’s historically the most winningest surfer, ever.
It’s hard to know – because with Slater anything is possible – but his appearance this week at the Trestles Pro could have been one of, if not the, last chance surf fans got to see him up close wearing a competition jersey, at least locally.
“The battery is running out, for sure,” Slater said in an interview with The Orange County Register following his first heat of the day. “I’m happy to be here and be in the event – but I don’t live and die for it anymore … there probably won’t be too many more times.”
At 53 years of age, he’s starting to feel the impacts of a hip injury that he’s been fighting now for three years, his back also giving him trouble. He’s decades older than other competitors, the youngsters boosting into the air, flipping their boards around, pulling off maneuvers that once came much easier for Slater.
“I’ve been fighting injuries. I had surgery two years ago, it’s really affecting my ability to get in the water and be surfing the way I want to,” Slate said. “It’s been a bit of a tough pill to swallow. But I’m fortunate that it didn’t happen earlier in my career.”
While Slater grew up in Florida, he’s always considered San Clemente a second home. He received a key to the city more than a decade ago, also a key to Huntington Beach in 2011. Just a few days ago, he was honored with the “Icon” award at the first-ever OC Sports Awards held at Angels Stadium in Anaheim.
“I nearly moved out here for high school, they had surf class and they didn’t have it back home. Obviously the waves are better in California than day-to-day in Florida,” he said, noting that his girlfriend, and mom to their newborn son, grew up in nearby San Clemente.
Slater won his first-ever big contest in 1990 at Lower Trestles, the Body Glove Surf Bout, a Professional Surfing Association of America event that he nearly didn’t qualify for, he said.
He was 18, just starting his senior year in high school, and the win was a pivotal moment in his career, propelling him onto what’s known today as the World Tour.
“It was incredible,” Slater said. “It was really exciting, it felt like a new style of surfing, a new generation emerging and it was a special time for guys my age.”
There was no way to predict what was to come in the following decades.
“I knew what I wanted to do,” Slater said. “A lot of things have to happen just right. The biggest thing is just being present, and being really aware of everything that’s happening, at every event.
“It’s been a lot of years of being hyper-focused, obsessively focused, and aware,” he said. “I think awareness is a really key part of it all.”
But, there’s “a million different ingredients in the recipe,” he added.
Whatever he mixed in worked. He earned world championship after world championship, after world championship. And just when people thought he was done, after he announced retirement in 1998, he came back and won more titles, again and again and again, his latest world title in 2011 at age 39.
He’s won several events since, a big one at Pipeline just ahead of his 50th birthday; a few months ago he finished fifth at the same barrelling surf spot that sits in front of his home on Hawaii’s North Shore. He was knocked of the World Tour due to a mid-year cut in 2023, and these days enters events as a “wildcard.”
If he can get a wildcard spot into Pipeline, he said, he’ll surf that event.
“To have one or two (events) for a couple years, that would give me motivation to keep my level up,” he said. “Coming into this one, I don’t think my levels are high. I’ve been out of the water a bit from just being in pain.
“As far as the jersey goes, if there’s one dangled in front of me as a carrot in the future,” he added, “it does give me that motivation to keep my surf level up.”
The surfers in the water talked about Slater’s influence on their careers. San Clemente’s Cole Houshmand this week posted photos of himself as a young grom with Slater and the words “Chase your dreams.”
“The first memory I have is of watching him,” Houshmand said. “For me, it was like watching Michael Jordan or something. You see him in person, and you’re just starstruck.”
Fans will show up for as long as Slater does. Wold was clutching a Frisbee and marker, the 60-year-old waiting long after most others had given up, hoping to get an autograph.
“Kelly represents the mantra that no matter who you are or what you do, you just show up and go out and you can do that year after year after year,” she said.
Not to mention those baby blue eyes, she swooned.
“His eyes are so piercing. He’s just such a beautiful man,” she said. “They melt me.”
Slater’s competition time at Trestles may not be completely over, even if it’s not in a jersey. Surfers for the LA28 Olympics to be held at the break have yet to be selected — even if he doesn’t earn a spot among athletes, he could possibly put his hat in the ring as a coach, he said.
“I do have a lot of experience here at Trestles. I could probably help out,” Slater said. “So we’ll see.”
Locals in Day 1 competition
Local surfers had mixed results during the first-day heats of the Trestles Pro on Tuesday. San Clemente’s Cole Houshmand and Griffin Colapinto won their heats to advance to round 3, while Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi and San Clemente surfer Crosby Colapinto came in second spot and were forced to surf in the elimination round. Igarashi won that later round and will advance, Colapinto will surf his elimination round during the next day of the contest.
Two-time world champion Filipe Toledo, who calls San Clemente home, won his heat to advance.
Local surfers took the second and third spots in the women’s opening round, with San Clemente surfers Kirra Pinkerton, Sawyer Lindblad and Caroline Marks, as well as Oceanside’s Caitlin Simmers, all scheduled to surf in the elimination round when the contest resumes.
Organizers make a call each day based on conditions, with the waiting period running through June 15. More info:worldsurfleague.com.
