But first, a quick review: Slater has been threatening retirement for years. Then last year he rocked a the ASP to its core by threatening to start a rebel tour if the ASP didn't clean up its act. The ASP (ultimately controlled by Quiksilver, Billabong and Rip Curl) did its best to respond. Depending on who you talk to, they've made modest improvements.
So what's Kelly up to now? Why bother with the ASP tour this year after all the crap he took last season? It couldn't have been easy on him. Slater was getting the short end of most of the judging sticks while watching Mick and Joel battle for the title. Meanwhile, he was getting excoriated by his peers for trying to blow up a system -- broken or not -- that's been in place for 30 years. He certainly doesn't need the abuse at this stage in his career.
Why not just walk away? Why bother coming to Bells? What's the motivation? Well, we thought we'd ask Mr. Slater these questions knowing full well that, while he's always very gracious to the press, you're going to need a bit of a hammer to get past his armor. So we sent Mr. Slater some pointed questions via email and he was kind enough to respond from Bells...
1. GTV: Why, exactly, are you at Bells?
Kelly Slater: Great golf and Easter parties down here.
2. Which of the following is closest to your primary motivation for donning a jersey these days...
A. Proving equipment theories.
That's fun when it works out and probably the best arena to do it in once you have it sorted out.
B. Battling young guns.
That's a good challenge and it's fun to watch em surf.
C. What else am I going to do?
This is where the beat surfing happens. If the waves were always good on it I would never question being anywhere else.
D. I have to stay in the game to keep hopes of another tour alive.
Seriously?
Hmm... It seems he took a little offense to our last question, but hey, we had to ask. We thank Mr. Slater for his rapid response. We would now would encourage you to read between the lines in search of his true meaning.
1 Comments
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Posted by johnny33405 April 3, 2010 11:47pm PDTReply | Report Abuse
Kelly Slater can pretty much surf when and where he wants I suppose. Who really is to argue? Not even the best tour pros should give it a second thought really. Why? Duh....
Also, the last question posed by Chris Mauro asks if Kelly needs to be in the game to keep tour alive? In a real way, probably no. YET, if he is still in the game it will only benefit the tour for sure. Only benefit the pro surfers no matter their tour experience and ramp up the competition.
What else does Kelly Slater do to the tour. He KEEPS IT PRO. Keeps it from degenerating into either a WWF type tour or nothing but a new X GAMES type tour. No offense to professional wrestling or any of the X games BUT this is pro surfing. All surfers want to see CUTTING EDGE surfing for sure but we also want it to be a pure surf competition sport with emphasis on QUALITY. Right? Shoot. There is a HALL OF FAME list of best of best surfers over the decades but Kelly Slater is... well Kelly Slater. Any surfer who follows the ASP would also know that if there is one surfer who could really shake up the ASP tours credibility and even start a new type of pro surf tour it would be Kelly Slater. Surely ASP will always be willing to hear out his suggestions and help them keep up the QUALITY of the pro tour if he feels it needs something more.
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