The WSL paid tribute to the GOAT with a heartfelt Kelly Slater career retrospective. Photo: WSL // YouTube
It’s hard to overstate Kelly Slater’s dominance in the sport of surfing. He’s won the championship 11 times and holds the distinction of being both the oldest and youngest champion ever. More than anyone else, he is the face of surfing.
However, after falling below the cut line following the 2024 Margaret River event, Kelly began dropping a lot of strong hints that this Championship Tour season would be his last. “It’s not necessarily the wave I want to end on,” he said after his loss to Colapinto in the round of 32. “I have put in for a wildcard for Fiji, so we’ll see how that goes. It is what it is, everything comes to an end. If you don’t adapt, you don’t survive and my motivation just hasn’t quite been there to really put in that 100 percent that everyone’s doing.”
Afterwards, he unsurprisingly landed that wildcard entry to the recently-concluded Fiji Pro, giving him one more stab at CT glory. However, Slater didn’t make it past the elimination round, where a defeat at the hands of Yago Dora forced the legend to once again confront the reality of his position. “This is probably the last heat I’ll surf out here,” he said afterwards. “I have a million great memories. Tavarua, you’ve been my family forever. Thanks so much you guys, love you.”
In the wake of Kelly’s Championship Tour swan song (though he has not specifically uttered the word ‘retirement’ just yet), the WSL released an emotionally charged tribute to his career. Titled “GROM to GOAT,” the retrospective touches on not only the competitive dominance we’ve come to know him for, but also the doubts and criticism Slater faced at the onset of his run. Of course, the whole thing also has a hell of a lot of fantastic footage of Kelly’s banner moments over the years.
“Kelly, from Grom to Goat, you’ve been a huge inspiration to us all,” reads the caption to the video, posted to the WSL YouTube channel. “We asked our friend, Taylor Steele, to direct this video featuring some unforgettable moments in your unparalleled competitive career which continues to unfold today. Narrated by many of surfing’s legends who are equally in awe of the greatest of all time.”
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