#461: Kelly Slater — The Surfing Legend on Routine, Rickson Gracie, Favorite Books, and Overcoming Setbacks

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The number one. DrinkAG1.com slash Tim. Last time, drinkAG1.com. Slash Tim. Check it out. Well hello, boys and girls, ladies and gyms. This is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris show. And my guest today, I'll keep this intro short, is Kelly Slater.

Many people will know that name. Kelly is widely considered the greatest surfer of all time. He holds nearly every major record in the sport, including 11 world titles and 55 career victories. He also has the amazing distinction of being both the youngest and oldest world champion in men's history. His most dominant days were in the mid nineties when he won five straight titles between nineteen ninety three and nineteen eighty. Ninety. eight. After topping Mark Richards' previous record of four straight titles, Kelly tried his hand at retirement in nineteen ninety nine.

He failed. He then rejoin the tour full time in 2002. Suppose he sensed that he had many, many good years left, and over the following five years faced his toughest rival in Hawaii's Andy Irons, who got the better of him for three straight years. Their heated battles became the most compelling in the sports history. Propelling it to new heights. Kelly finally reclaimed the title in 2005 and repeated in 2006, and of course went on. to gather many more. Titles.

Slater, that is Kelly Slater, of course, will also be remembered for the amazing wave pull technology that he and his team of engineers at Kelly Slater Wave Co. brought to life in two thousand fifteen. The technology has the potential to reshape the surveying landscape for generations. And you have to see video. To really quite grasp and grok what that means, but I encourage you to do so. You can find him online at kellyslater.com. And on Instagram and Facebook at Kelly Slater. And without further ado, please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Kelly Slater. I

Kelly, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, Tim. I appreciate you making the time and speaking of time, I th I wanna just sort of set the table for people. So you and I are on opposite sides of the planet in a sense. And I wanted to start with something that came up when we were texting because I know in scheduling this I am in Texas, you're currently in Australia. And so the choice was do we do crack of dawn your time or really late at night. And we ended up doing late at night. Uh so it's late your time and You texted about taking a two hour bath. I actually do take a lot of baths just'cause um

It's kind of an easy way to just let your body detox in hot water and I did s you know, for about the last two months I haven't been working out or really even surfing very much, so Uh, this past week I started working out again. And Kind of

built up a lot of the lactic acid in the muscles. I was working out with a with a friend of mine who's like a brother, Tom Carroll, who was Two time world champ back in the early eighties. Fellow surfer lives right up the street here from where I'm standing. And uh we spent a lot of time together over the years surfing and and training together, but Uh did a work out the other day.

And uh I've been surfing last Couple days yesterday, sir. Pretty hard and the day before that I I surfed a bunch and uh So you know, those muscles are just getting kinda worked again that that I don't usually uh S

And uh Let the lethargic side of me build up too much. Especially this time of year. I'm surfing almost every day usually. Let's talk about we we touched on the Baths for a second. Uh And we

Can't believe everything we read on the internet, but I did see If we're looking at morning routines I did see That Uh in an interview with Huckberry, it seems that you start a lot of your mornings with a glass of warm water with lemon. Is that true? Or is that not true? It is. Yeah.

Just to uh We just get a little warmth going in the body, loosen up. Yeah, g it uh obviously Um, lemon's really good for you. It's alkalizing, even though it's an acid, it's alkalizing in the body and it's got a lot of minerals and some vitamins and And um

Just a nice clear to kind of wake your system up. And To me it feels better than putting something heavy in my body. Mm-hmm. Do you drink coffee?

I do a little bit, but I'm I'm a hundred percent not Like a coffee addict. I don't know really what good coffee is. I kinda like the smell of coffee more than I like the taste of it. Mm-hmm. Has that always been the case? With coffee or

Was there a period I drank? No, I've never been a coffee drinker. I Intentionally have really kind of stayed away from coffee. I I feel like I drink it a little bit now. Just to be ready for it, but Uh this one time I went to Th this is the reason I really don't drink coffee. I went to France

And um We spend sort of the two months prior to going to France to compete. On West Coast time and Tahitian time. And um

Those are the events prior to going over to Europe. We get to Europe and we compete within like a day or two of getting there. And it's a nine hour time difference going east. And that's the hardest thing. When you fly east you just I don't care if it's from west coast to east coast. I it just the even three hours is tough to get back on track, but when I fly over to Europe it's really hard for me. It takes me almost a month to feel like I get

Into like a morning routine. Mm-hmm. And uh I was going for a world title and The early two thousands over there. And

I drank a coffee one morning to wake up. And I got the jitter so bad. I fell off on every wave I was I caught in this heat. It was a really crucial heat for me. To try and win. And uh if I win that heat, it was pretty much a shoe in for the world title that year in.

I did everything possible to lose that heat and somehow won it. But it was'cause I drank a big coffee in the morning and didn't have any food and So it really kind of scared me away from coffee. Now this might be and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I I had asked you for and I appreciate you contributing to my last book, Tribe of Mentors, and the the question was how has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success? Do you have a favorite failure of yours? And you mentioned I narrowly lost a world title in surfing in two thousand three.

After basically having locked it up the month prior. And then you went on to talk about how it felt terrible, but drove you to clear up a lot of things. Was that the same Competition or a different competition? That was a different competition. Could you speak to that that loss in two thousand three?

since we're on it, just how that came to be and What it drove you to do afterwards. You had to bring that up, huh, Tim? I did, you know. I just to humanize the the immortal superhuman Kelly Slater, you know? No I'm kidding. Actually I I do look back at that as I mean, obviously there's no world title it It's sitting in your hands, it slips through that you're not

upset about on some level, but if I could go back and change anything, I really don't think I would because it it was a real Very clear. Indication of where things were going wrong for me. And Also

to sort of charge the battery back up. Make me dig deeper and uh competitively speaking. And uh skill set speaking with my surfing. And motivation, all these things. It was just kind of a reset.

For me is rebooting the software in my brain in a lot of ways, and those are tough lessons. I I lost that world title to Andy Irons. And I was in a relationship that was just wrong. Um I literally didn't sleep the night before that competition.

in a fight with my then girlfriend the literally the whole night. She was fighting with my mom. It was just a nightmare. Mm. That's terrible. Oh, it's terrible. It's terrible. I woke up the next I didn't even wake up the next morning, I didn't sleep. Maybe I got Thirty minutes, forty minutes of sleep at night.

I walked out of my house the next morning walked behind the house. And I saw two friends of mine and uh I believe my little brother was there too and I just Just started bawling. I just broke down like Everything felt wrong and I was

You know, I knew in my heart I was gonna lose a world title that day. And Thanks. If you're on the right. Frame of mind, I think as a competitor.

If you lose it hurts, but You know it's not life. It's just a loss. But that was deeper'cause I I had all these other things that It was it was such a clear Indicated that

I was off in a lot of different areas and I had some work to do and those things are painful sometimes and You know, it was one of those days. Did you find that that loss Took you a while to climb out of or was it waking up the morning after and immediately

deciding on changes that you were gonna make. Could you just Perhaps describe what the Days or weeks were like following that? It definitely wasn't. The next day. It was I would say it was the next year.

Maybe. About a y it it took me about a year. Okay. To the You know, get my act together and um

Straighten a lot of things out. I remember going into the next year. My my father died in O two. And then um I'm pretty sure it was his birthday the following year that I lost the world title. Actually on his birthday.

I was still a little bit down in the dumps about that and the loss hurt so bad that I kinda just went into my shelf for most of the next year competitively speaking. And At the start of Two thousand five.

I remember we went to our opening It's sort of the end of the year, beginning of the year banquet. Yeah, were they They crown the world title officially, but they also start the year. And I remember walking out of there and

Um At that point Andy Irons had won two thousand two, three, and four. And I remember walking out. As we were leaving and I saw Joel Parkinson who was You know, also a a world title contender.

And I just said to him I said, Who's it gonna be this year, me or you? One of us gotta take this guy out. And I remember in that moment. Just feeling like I'm ready. You know, I'm not scared to lose.

And I really felt like I could be Joel and would be Joel. And I felt Very confident that You know, with no fear. And just

going out and feeling it that I could that I would be Ante. So that year was it. A huge turnaround and Andy and I had a lot of head to heads. And the rivalry really peaked that year.

You know, like he won a contest in Japan. And then I won a contest in Uh South Africa and then He wanna con us and I want to con us, and we're going back and forth and I was thriving in it. I just

It was exciting me, you know, I just Thought in my head, you know. I've already lost this guy before. It's not gonna hurt any worse this time, so I might as well put everything into it I can and I just took a totally different headspace than two thousand four when I just kinda shied away from the whole thing. And then it just all It all just fell in my lap, really. It all it all just everything just kinda lined right up and it was almost unbelievable'cause it it felt like

the matrix kind of thing where you just see it playing out. Even if you make a mistake, it plays out in your favor somehow. And that whole year that whole year went that way for me. What did your Self talk or prep. look like that particular year when you're seeing the Matrix unfolding, say in some of the more important competitions, how did it differ from

Years before. If at all. I don't think it differed. Necessarily. I think it got back into the groove, you know, I think I felt out of that. confident place and

out of that. You know, when you get in a flow and you get in a zone. You don't question it. And If you start to question it, you kinda Um You know, you start to fall out of it.

But then you get to a place where you're really You know, I feel like if you're really mastering that feeling and that that place for yourself that you can kinda step back and watch it also. And it even gets stronger. You you kind of embolden yourself into that. So I f I felt like my surfing was there, my competing was there. I felt unstoppable. And

I just built on that confidence and I never questioned it. You know, I knew it wasn't gonna be easy to be Andy'cause Yeah, I really did have this. Light and dark, good and evil kind of. Love hate.

All that kind of a rivalry between us. And You know, we're very different kinds of people, but we also Identified with each other a lot. And he grew up watching me and saying I was kinda like his inspiration and then when he became

My rival, he said he hated me and wanted me to die, you know? So it was like be it felt real personal. Like he just he had made no bones about it. He was like the first person I ever competed with it. I felt was really on that level and just said I'm you know, he he he just goes, I wanna just smash all his dreams and he would say that in interviews and stuff and Sometimes. You gotta step up to that or um

You know, step away. Yeah, it was the first time I ever felt someone that way in my face before. And uh In the end it was I think it was really good for me. But it was it was tough at times. If we look at two thousand three, if you're willing to go into it, one of the things that popped out because I I think that the wins and we're gonna talk about obviously a lot of the successes people are aware of a lot of the successes, but how you have

maintained and honed your skills with such longevity, I think, is one of the more impressive things. And so I I like to talk about the bumps along the way. And in two thousand three, coming back to that, you mentioned your dad died in oh two. I was reading an outside magazine interview and I'll just read this and then I'd love to hear you speak to what it means. But losing his father paved the way for what Slater described as an expanded awareness. Then while taking an early season break in two thousand three between events in Australia, his adopted second home, a close friend challenged him to lead his family's emotional recovery, not be victimized by it. The words were penetrating and Slater. with his friend's encouragement enrolled in a series of local therapeutic workshops that helped him identify troublesome behavior patterns and emotional sand traps. Now there's a little bit of context we need to fill in here, but could you speak to, I guess, a bit of your childhood for those who don't have any context and then What happened in two thousand three, if what I read is any way to lead into it.

You know, my childhood I think as for most kids it feels normal, you know, like what you know seems like the normal thing, but looking back now my My dad was drinking a lot. My mom, it really made her crazy. And um

You know, when you have alcoholism or gambling or whatever you have in your family if you have, you know, some kind of big issue like that in your family. Everyone else kinda falls in line, you know, like Some people are enablers. Some people are mediators, some people are

you know, become aggressive. Some become you know, the you react to it different ways. And um and y it kind of creates this sort of maze and puzzle that all sort of makes sense in that In that environment, but there's a lot of unhealthy Survival skills and Yeah kind of thing.

You know, but there were other families that were worse off than mine that were friends of mine, you know. So it didn't seem that outlandish or anything. But my mom probably harbored us from a lot of the stuff and We didn't know, maybe. Yeah. Some of the things that were happening. Like kids shouldn't.

But you know, a lot of my feelings are a lot of my m memories are Pretty good, you know. I I don't feel like I grew up in like Any kind of a physical abuse situation like some people have or Whatever, but getting on with it. I also didn't Learn a lot of skills that

Help me. Evolve and mature emotionally at a young age. So I was at times really shy when I was Younger in my teenage years. For me I was a strange mix of um

I knew I had Talent. You know, surf wise it was kind of a place for me to show that. Right. At the same time.

with people or with media, that kind of thing, I was really kinda shy. To the point where it's not. I didn't like to take pictures in front of people'cause it embarrassed me and that kind of thing. You know, I didn't like signing autographs and 'Cause I d I just felt silly.

I actually remember my first autograph when I was ten years old. How'd that go? My mom worked at this uh This little cafe on the beach that we Grub. Surfing in front of called the Islander Hut and uh

The owner's wife. W I won this contest the East Coast Championships and When I got home, she was like, Oh my gosh, you're gonna be a famous surfer one day. You're gonna be a professional or whatever. She's like, You won this big competition. You need to sign something for me. And I was so embarrassed. It took me like a half an hour to sign this piece of paper. I didn't know what to do. I didn't I didn't know how to sign it on a girl. And like I remember like fifteen, twenty minutes later, she's like, You got that autograph from me yet? And I was like, I don't even know what that means, you know?

Um you know, fast forwarding to Taking I don't know, there's a book I read as a kid that was adult children of alcoholics or something like that. Mm-hmm.

And uh I read that probably when I was like my early twenties. And I was experiencing a lot of Um I was going through a breakup.

And As you do, you get really emotional during breakups and experiencing a lot of things you You wanna You want to evolve. You wanna learn and

And grow quickly in those situations so you can maybe save the relationship or You know, not blow it by making stupid mistakes. It should be Natural. Mm-hmm. So

You know, at that age I started identifying like oh there's some weird Stuff going down in my family. There's some really Unhealthy dynamics around Money and

Around um Communication. All those sort of things. And As a gut. Older.

Because I did real well, you know, I Obviously started winning world titles and Making money and You know, in some ways. A lot of the

Family Pressure or Focus was around me. And I I think if someone

stands out as doing something. Extraordinary in a family that's Kind of natural. So my my godson. He's thirteen. I have two gods and and one of'em's thirteen and

He's a really good surfer and his dad's one of my oldest best friends and I heard him saying the other day on an interview, he he said uh You know, the thing about When you have a kid, he has two kids and you said something about When you have a kid who's doing really well at something it takes so much time up

For the rest of the family. And so much of the focus of the family might be around that one person as opposed to Equally amongst everybody. And it made me Just in the past week since I heard that has made me think about that a lot.

Because I have an older brother, Sean and I think As we got into teenage years, that was probably kinda funny for him that You know, I started doing so well and He didn't keep on that same trajectory as when we were kids.

Yeah, I think it was tough for him. I know it was tough for him. He recently said. Something to me To the effect that he

Wished he wasn't a pro surfer. You know, he wished He had done something else. At that time. Which was really sad for me to hear, you know, because

We grew up just loving surfing so much and It created a life for us. It created all our travel and friendships and And uh all these memories on the round the world and work and you know, it was it just became everything. And uh as as a lot of the pressure I think

Was on V You know, I bought a house when I was seventeen and I was paying for a lot of things, you know, for everybody and that kind of thing. So it there's a certain control that happens for Someone in that position. And

It needs to be handled. With care. And it needs you know, might need some help. And We didn't have that helper understanding and

And so all of us, I think, suffered through that time. So w you know, in two thousand three If we're gonna fast forward to then. Um When my friend said that to me.

My friend Trevor, you said Maybe you're the one who needs to Sort of. Handle this because you're aware of it. You know, all the problems that are going on, your family and

You know, there's there's things you can see about Your mom struggled that you could help and your brother and Blah blah things with your daughter and and I really kinda resented that because in some ways I took on a fatherly role in my family. But I was the middle child. Right.

I think I kind of longed to be put back in that place of like I'm the middle child. I'm not the oldest. You're my mom, you're my older brother, you're my dad. I'm pro I'm probably getting ahead of myself here'cause I you know, some of these conversations haven't Fully been aired out, but

You know, there's just a a dynamics and I'm I'm not Placing blame on Any one for those, but Um You know, just trying to kind of

Objectively. Look and understand because I'm still growing through this stuff and You know, wanting to understand it from from all perspectives. I I did become like a mediator in my family. You know, I was scared for my parents to break up as a kid and I just imagined in my head I I think I lived in this dreamland where everyone got along and it was a movie and it was a happy ending. And um

You know, that's not always the case. Yeah, the happy ending comes when all the lessons are learned usually. So when I was confronted with the fact that I might need to be the person to kind of Help.

mend a lot of these issues in the family. I I resented that because I was longing for someone else to do it but I wouldn't have to do the work. And I wouldn't have to Come up with those answers and It's easier if it's not you. Why why did tr why did Trevor say that to you? What was it about that Point in time or the the surrounding conversation or background that led him to say that to you.

Well,'cause Trevor You know, he was one of my best friends or you know, st still is on a deep level, but We just don't spend a lot of time together these days. We've been kinda off in different directions, but Trevor was like a six time Um Iron Man champion in Australia.

And uh He'd been through a lot of the Sort of emotional and And uh financial And

Stardom, if you will, pitfalls that can happen. Yeah, he on his own level he'd he had had a lot of that stuff. Happened to him and He was able to Get through it.

He had You know, and I I I wouldn't say anything that he hasn't stated publicly or whatever, but You know, he he went through divorce and Uh money problems and all sorts of things. And He was able to eventually work it out and

He got married again. Is current wife and his ex wife are best of friends, all the kids get along, like He he really has a A happy, healthy situation.

Coming at us and Some things that were. Not so pretty at the time. I think he saw that with me, you know, he just he saw that I was learning quickly. We were doing these courses together and he was helping me a lot and

I was able to talk about things that I couldn't talk about with anyone else before in my life and So I think It wasn't so much a challenge to me as it was Yeah, I see something.

Special here that Can make you feel good and I think you could fix these things up and it'll make every uh other aspect of your life better and More coherent and And uh happy.

So it's kinda one of those things. What ty what type of courses were they? Were there any particular things that you Found helpful or that stuck with you? They were

Well there there were sort of Like Personal exercise courses, maybe metaphysical, if you will. Um I don't know, just where you

You spend a lot of time with other people and do these processes of being the listener or being the person who has problems or overseeing Those things. And doing these little exercise and then just talking about your feelings. Just like simple stuff. Like Really simple stuff.

In the course they kinda ask you to not really. Talk it too much outside of it. But it we would just do these exercises. And then afterwards you talk about how you feel and you relate those feelings to the rest of your life and the way that you as a person approach and experience life. So you just kinda look at all your filters. And

It's just an experiential kinda exercise. And I started realizing that even in the simplest things that you do every day, the way you wake up And think about them and approach them is how you approach life. And So everything's kind of a metaphor of another thing.

Yeah. the the sort of filters and stories that we might not even be aware of. You mentioned metaphysics And we don't have to get super metaphysical here, but th I I think metaphor And for twenty minutes. Hold on to your panties, everybody. Uh there there were two books that that you mentioned in in Tribe of Mentors. I'd be curious

Uh to know when either or both of them came into your life. Just i in terms of influence and sort of shaping your thinking. It's actually the second one you mentioned, but The Prophet by Khalil Jabron, which I I also have That's a beautiful little book. And uh why don't we start there and then we'll get to the second one. But how did that into your life?

God, that's so weird. He just brought that up. One of my best friends is named Khalil. Mm-hmm. And I I met him about

I don't know, eight years ago. Seven or eight years ago. And he's just become such a Big part of my life. And uh

He's an ex drug addict. Who was nearly dead and homeless and Pennyless. And got himself together and now he's More or less a

Health food addict. And uh owns a bunch of smoothie stores in LA called Sun Life Organics. He just really like this guy's a success story in his life, you know. But the the book And I'd never known a Cleo before, but I just Flash on that because

My mom gave me that book, The Prophet. And I Think I wanna say I was in my early twenties, maybe Late teens to early twenties and she gave me this book and I don't know how she knew about it. It was

I don't know. seemed like an extraordinary book. To me it became like my Bible because I felt like I could read A little piece of it and it would Hold me over for a month. You know, maybe one or two pages.

Totally. Yeah, you might just Open to some aspect of life that you're questioning or whatever and you read

You know, they say all the great things are simple things. And you that book. Really. Kind of. Cliff notes to life in a in a simple way.

But I just felt it really it was a really inspiring book. Um and it didn't take a lot of effort to Yeah. Something from it.

Yeah, it's a very uh This book found me in a very, uh tumultuous period of my life and I ended up reading Like you mentioned, one or two very short chapters. two pages perhaps each day. And it sh it had the effect of taking what could seem like a overwhelmingly complex world and distilling it down to something simple that you could

Reflect on. And use for the next few days. The second book, I'll bring it up, is One with a longer title, and that is The Tow of Health, Sex, and Longevity by Daniel Reed. R could you speak to this book and same idea, how it came into your life and what you take from it? What are some of the takeaways or impacts in your life? Yeah. Um I started reading that book

In the early two thousands, maybe two thousand Three, four, five, somewhere in there. And I am I just found a lot of the

Well If I were to rewind a little bit, in the late nineties I started to learn A lot about The Gracies, um Jujitsu. I didn't start practicing, but I was reading a lot about them and reading about Hickson who I later became friends with.

And they talk about a diet. A food combining diet where you don't mix proteins and carbs together in meals. And you don't mix fruits with either. And you could have greens with sort of anything. Um

That's essentially What food combining is. I I had read a book In a mid Nine around ninety six or ninety seven called Fit for Life, which was kinda the same thing. And I think I'd been inspired by the Gracie's to read that and then

I don't remember who gave me the Dow of Health, Sex and Longevity, but I started reading that and got really, really Into the The diet aspect of it, getting into the food combining thing. And started following it kind of religiously.

I think I read it in ninety eight originally and I kept I I sort of kept it with me for about ten years. Is what it was. And in ninety eight I was traveling with Shane Dorian.

That's whose son is my godson. And Shane and I were traveling around the tour together that year and I became kind of like our sh the chef for both of us. He just told me just tell me what to eat because he knew I was super into diet. And so we got really into our diets and um I felt like he was helping me be a guinea pig to.

See if this thing worked and I found myself sleeping like six hours a night and feeling like I was totally rested. My body just felt much more relaxed and energetic. Mm. And um

You know, there's other things in the book that were helpful to there's a lot of breathing techniques. That I tried to incorporate myself. Didn't really do them practicing with anyone else. Then it it gets into All sorts of things around, you know, o obviously it's the title of sexuality too.

Um So it it dives into all that kind of thing too, but like they just Using everything in your life In a healthy way. And um

I don't know. It was one of those books I just I had to travel with it for years. I just would always keep it. It was like just in case I need to read something, I'll have it with me, you know? It was always in the bottom of my bag for a long time and I probably recommended that book. literally disappointed tens of thousands of people. Maybe hundreds of thousands or or millions even.

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I You mentioned a name that I'd love to come back to and that's Hicks and Gracie, so I I know quite a lot about Hickson. I've only met him in person once very briefly so that he wouldn't I don't think he would remember me, but he has, now that I think about it, an incredible physical practice that in some ways, if I had to guess, shares some similarities with your physical practice. I remember long ago watching a documentary largely about Hickson called Choke, which was um about I believe his initial competition in pride, the early, early iterations of pride, and watching his yogic practices, his abdominal work. His

Breathing, cold exposure, et cetera. How would you say the two of you are Most similar or different. What similarities and differences do you see? It's so funny'cause

You remember uh years ago everyone was doing that ice bucket challenge, you pour some cold water on your head and that's like a big thing. Right. And I remembered back. Watching choke. And That was before I knew.

Fiction and watching him go into like basically a Ice cold temperature water and it In Japan and training for these fights, just getting his mind strong and

you know, physically, mentally, emotionally. Totally. Prepared for war. And his breeding techniques are just Like out of this world, you know, like

Wim Hoff's the The guy who's famous for his breeding stuff, but Hickson was Doing that. You know, twenty five years ago or more.

And You know I had heard that Hickson could move every muscle in his body independent of any other muscle. Yeah, such control. And

Like for people who don't know Jujitsu. You know, the Gracie's are learning jujitsu by the time they're two years old in that family. You know, kids wrestle. All boys wrestle, but They were wrestling at a young age, tiny kids with technique and learning the skills. And learning how not to hurt each other.

And so It was As natural as breathing or Anything for them. And um I always

Had real admiration from afar for Hickson before meet him and then We became friends. I I'm not quite sure the first time I met him. I met him at Ringcon. Surfing. I I think it was the early two thousands or late nineties. minimum day in the car park and then few years later, a couple years later, I got invited over to his house to go do a private

Uh session with him and Taught me and my friend Travis and Jiu Jitsu. And then I Kind of thing, he gave me a few Uh one on one. Sessions and

I sort of sponsored him for surfboards and we pay for his surfboards. And um Like an informal kind of You know. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, but uh

I always had this huge admiration for him and I was just really You know, happy to know him and get to pick his brain sometimes, but And about Two thousand. Mm.

It was about two thousand eight. I was I saw I saw him one day came to the Surfard factory where I was who I was sponsored by and We're up in Santa Barbara and he goes. He's like, You know, man. I think you should stop now. I think you should I think you should quit. And I say, Why? And he goes, You know, you're gonna give all these young guys

a chance to beat you and you you're not gonna be as sharp. You're gonna You're gonna lose your desire. You're gonna get it complacent. You're you know, and then guys who shouldn't beat you are gonna beat you and When you look back, you're gonna be upset about it. And about

Three years later I saw him And I had one. Two or three more world titles in that time. And I said, You know, if I listen to you, I wouldn't have this many, you know. If I listen to you, I would only have eight and now I got eleven, you know. And he's like, Oh man, you're right, you're right. And uh

There is always that question for athletes, like when do you stop and And what's the right time and You go out at the peak or Shortly after it. And you know. It's a weird thing because

Depends on your purpose, you know. It depends on What message you're sending, and that message can change too. And and I feel like mine has, but that message That doesn't have to be so centered around your ego. There can be an evolution.

And um People who Say like guys people need to go out on top. Why? So I mean, yeah, that's great too, but

Obviously if you're at the top of your game, you're still You're still beating people. You're still beating everyone. And um Passing the torch sometime is You know.

Somebody's gotta take you out. Mm-hmm. And uh You know, that can be a respectable and respectful way to And uh

I've always kind of welcomed that. Uh in my later years. Here on tour of sort of welcome like I I wanna see the level.

Fifteen, twenty years old. Not somewhere behind me. You know, I want it to just keep going and and I wanna be part of that evolution to push that. And you know, at forty eight years old, I know nobody takes me lightly in a heat.

When they compete against me. And You know, that's I think that's an honor in itself, you know that they still

Yeah, the best guys in the world are still Word when they get in the heat with me. And I'm I'm not. Dumb no, I know where my level is. You know, there's certain times that I'm I can be the best guy and there's

Other times where I gotta work on it. Or uh you know, or I'm not right there, but If you're enjoying it and you love it. And it's it's your passion.

And it Yeah. Surfing's a different thing, you know, kinda like What would I compare it to? Strangely enough, golf.

They're both sports you can do till you're old. You know, you can do Way up in. Late into your life. You're not gonna be doing that with football and baseball.

Or basketball. So much. You know, not hardcore anyways. I'm gonna ask you about the evolution of surfing in a in a moment, but I wanna come back to Hicks just just for another minute, and that is w what were what were some of the things you learned from Hickson or that most impressed you? You mentioned picking his brain about things. Was there anything that you picked up from him or that really astonished you? about him. You mentioned that individual muscle control and I had referenced the abdominal exercises, which kinda makes it sound like crunches, but what I'm talking about is what you saw, and you probably remember this in show, Grace He's in this freezing cold river, snow everywhere, and he's also

Moving. independently as he breathes his abdomen, where it looks like his guts are just moving in every possible direction like an octopus under his skin. It's one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Uh but what are some of the things that you picked up from Hickson, if anything? Or took note of. Funny enough, probably one of the simplest things is the first thing that swings to mind in That is efficiency.

Because when you Any time he's given me A jiu jitsu lesson. He's given me a few privates and and he did the same thing for my little brother one day with me. And it was all about

Efficiency of movement. You know he said look. You know, I can fight a guy, I'm like one seventy or whatever, one seventy five. He's like I can fight a guy who's two hundred fifty pounds. And I'm stronger than him.

Not because I have more strength, but because I understand leverage. I understand how the body moves. And the efficiency of trapping someone's joint. And using leverage instead of just energy, you know, instead of just wasting my energy and using strength. I'm using

superior method and technique. One thing I really have always respect about Higgson is how disciplined he was. Especially like seeing that that footage of him. Knowing it. the level he got to with his breathing and his stomach, you know, his muscle movements and

This mastery of Jujitsu and His arts. The amount of time it took to get there. And he obviously had something special, you know, he had a certain way to look at it that no one else did.

And That's why he was the greatest. So it's taking all the best techniques, all aspects, you know, from diet to breathing to You know, understanding his body. Understanding his opponents and what they're good and bad at.

And using all that. It becomes an equation. That you You know, when you get to a h the highest levels you don't think of the equation. It just You understand the

You know the answer. And um So you d and you just trust that and use it. And so

In the simplicity there's a A mastery. And um I think that's what I've Picked up from The times I've spent around Hickson.

I promise I would come back to the evolution of surfing. Where do you think the evolution of surfing might be going? Is is there anything that would be inconceivable for most people today to imagine that you think Is coming down the pike. Where where do you think things are going? I've said to a few people In the last few years, last five or ten years that I would hate to be a young surfer right now.

Because The levels you gotta go to. Whether it's gonna be Just competing. Like just small wave.

Performance and technique. Or it's gonna if you're gonna be a big wave guy, like the stuff guys are doing now is so crazy. But Young kids who have any fear of big waves right now must be just like having

No understanding of what they could do to get to that level. Guys are surfing. Regularly surfing sixty, seventy, eighty foot waves. And um You know, you need to do a lot of

Preparing for that ahead of time. A lot of A lot of putting yourself in And Safe. Not unsafe. Um

Unfamiliar. territory, you know, pool work, underwater work, breathing. Breath holds. You know, water safety classes big they they have these classes Called uh

Big wave rescue There's an acronym for it, B W R A G Anyways, it's all about big waves and practicing and Practicing all the water safety. Mm-hmm.

So there's these courses, you know, they're they're really good for Young guys to go to. Actually they'd be they'd be good for it. They could translate to anybody, even people who don't surf, you know, but They're they're kind of built specifically for like Being able to

Be comfortable in big gnarly situations and also go save people in the middle of you know, the surf. Mm-hmm. And I'll link to that in the show notes for folks. Yeah, all aspects of water safety. And it's really like

a passion play by the surfers who do it. You know, everyone's kinda looking out for each other and Yeah, I've had a number of friends drown and not make it and I've had a number of friends drown and be saved. And a lot of those who most of those who were saved were because of all these kind of techniques that everyone's been learning from Yeah.

Divers and Life guards and All sorts of water safety people. In fact there's One friend of mine.

Who uh Drown and was saved. And then About Uh, I don't know, a couple of years later he actually did C PR on another friend of ours who drowned and saved him.

So there's a there's a real tight Fraternity. community in in the surf world, especially in the big wave world. And you know, guys are looking out for each other'cause they know it's it's a life and death thing all the time. And if you if you look at the

the evolution just size wise, performance wise, technique wise over the last, say, five to ten years. I mean, as it seems to be mirrored in many other places like MMA, it there's this almost exponential curve That seems to be persisting and I'd be curious to know what you think things might look like in say five years time. And and you've been part, of course, of innovating with technology, right? The Kelly Slater wave company producing the longest man made high performance open barrel waves. I remember the initial videos making the circles and just blowing people's minds. What do you think the state of the art training Well

look like for people who do want to hone their skill. Given how intimidating it can be. now if they want to compete as as an example. What what do you think it might look like five years from now? Kinda wonder, um

Yeah, I think this last five years was really A fast evolution in wave pool technology, wave tech man made wave technologies. I think it might I don't know if it's gonna speed up or slow down right now. I think I feel like it's gonna slow down a little bit because we're there's a number of different technologies and now it's about Perfecting them.

Just innovating on what is already there. And then to having surfers ride them. And give feedback to what else they would like to see. But there's quite a lot of good waves being made by machines at this time. There's I wanna say three.

Distinct different technologies with different kinds of waves. Five years from now. I just expect there will be more of these made. You know, there's probably Six or eight. around the world that have become sort of destinations for people to go ride.

There's one in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, there's There was two in Texas, now there's one, but I think the other one's gonna be rebuilt. There's one going in in f at least one going in in Florida, if not two. Um there's

One in England, there's one in us down in Melbourne, Australia, and an I think another being built on the Gold Coast right now. And then Potentially we're building one on the Sunshine Coast as well. So Five years from now, I don't think there's gonna be a time where Surfers Or

completely stumped for waves, you're always gonna have somewhere within Your access, you can go get a wave on any given day. The wave for they have in Australia right now is down in Melbourne. And I was talking to a friend recently and he goes, Oh yeah, like a bunch of my buddies have

Gotten a flight from Byron Bay. Flown all the way to Melbourne in the morning. Surf two sessions at the pool and get home by dark. Or get home like just for a late dinner. And that's a two hour flight each way.

And He said they're happy to do it again next month or in two months or whatever. So Things are becoming You know, destinations for people and y it's a it's just like a supplement.

To your surfing. Just like a vitamins would be to your diet. It's Just another way to get Get your fix. Getting in the water and

Getting something done, but Now you see people advancing, evolving their surfing a lot quicker and That's gonna be the case. That's gonna be a thing, like

My godson Jackson, I I'll probably just keep talking about him, but he's thirteen and He's one of the best aerialists at his age in the world, if not the best at his age in the world right now. And He's really only been surfing about four years and You know, I've grown men all the time just going, Oh my God, how's Jackson? He's unbelievable You know, people watch his edits and see the things he's doing, but he's spent a lot of time in the in these different wave pools already. Packing the errors over and over again and

Shane was saying how he's like, Man, the first time we went, it was crazy to see Jackson's evolution. Over the course of like two days or three days. Mm and how much better he got in that amount of time'cause There's a real crossover now between skate and surf. So you see all the guys who are really good at airs I would say

Ninety percent of many ways are good skaters. And um so they they understand the rotations and the grabs and that kind of thing and When we were kids we didn't really have access to skate parks and ramps and stuff. And now there's a skate park and every

City. Almost all these guys have a bunch of friends who are great skaters or pro skaters or even someone in their family, you know. It's a great skater, so There's a real solid crossover there. It's just

More access, more time on the mat, you know? Yeah, it also seems like with the wave pools, at least, I recall a friend of mine joking that surfing, he's very good surfer, he's said surfing should really be called paddling because you're spending a lot of your time paddling. And it would just seem that with a wave pool, I've I've I feel free to chime in, but he said uh With a wave pole, it seems like you get a density of repetitions. Yeah. is difficult or impossible to replicate.

Elsewhere, just in terms of number of reps per hour in that sense. I heard you made a sound. How would you respond to that? No, totally. I mean because in the ocean you might search All my years I've look good for a certain maneuver and I might go and surf that wave once every few years.

And it might have that section I'm looking for only Once every couple times I go there. And I might Get that wave. You know, even less frequent than that.

So But the the point is that the sections we need with the right speed and size and all that thing to do certain maneuvers is so rare to find in the ocean. And now we can start to design those into man made waves.

So that if you ever have that situation in the ocean. It's not unfamiliar. It's you can master that before you ever take it to the ocean. So then you go out in the ocean, you go into competition or whatever, and you've got something in your in your back pocket and then nobody else has or That you're not. unfamiliar with.

If you were saying Twice old. And Had the level. of surfing that you had when you were twenty. What if that were today, what advice might you give yourself about the learning process?

Doesn't have to relate to technology, but Is there any advice you'd give your twenty year old self? About Honing the craft, improving the learning process. Gosh, I mean I would probably just say go skate a lot.

Okay, just get on a skate go get on a skateboard,'cause you can go carve and you can do airs and Those are the two things you need in surfing. You need a You need to really understand And differentiate the two. You know, you're either In surfing your

N most guys are either a power surfer or an air You know, maneuver. Trick surfer. And um It's almost

rare to see somebody who's really great at both. Mm. Um we're starting to get more and more. There's like You John, John, Florence and there's um Gabriel Medina and there's Jordy Smith and there's quite a few guys now but When I was on tour and when I got on tour when I got on tour, I would say there's nobody.

And as I was on tour, there were very few over the years that were Good all those different aspects. I mean My mind almost draws a blank until just this modern era now, who

Have been able to understand There's a real difference in the approach of doing those maneuvers. The the base of power surfing where you're just carving up and the air stuff where you're you kinda have to be more horizontal and lateral and stay over your board unless you're doing grabs and then You know, when you start doing grabs and rotations and in inverting stuff. then it's the everything goes to a little different level and you you have to be Gold.

Skill set. You know, like skating or gym, you know, gym work if you if you're to go work with a gymnast, specifically with a gymnast who understands flips and rotate and spinning and that kind of stuff and and landing back on your feet. If you're really gonna dive into it all, you can't discount your diet, you can't discount body work, you can't just count Doing yoga or Pilates and staying supple.

getting some extra strength and bone density, but Not getting too big from using weights. So there's always this kind of balance for surfing. You don't wanna be a Giant strong dude. But

You don't want to be a little weakling either. Uh you just kinda need this nice balance and blend between all those. Things. You mentioned body work. This seems to be an important component

Uh I suppose just ph physical practice for you or regeneration. There are a million and one different types of bodywork. How do you use bodywork? What are the types that you have ended up focusing on for yourself, if any? I've gone through Most everyone you can imagine from She ought to

Time massage. It's sweetish deep tissue. Um Biosync. Um I mean all sorts of different you know, I've tried everything, all the chiropractic and osteopaths and All that kind of stuff. But in general I do need a little bit of adjusting, some chiropractic,'cause I have scoliosis.

I have a pretty big curve in my back. And from that my muscles get really imbalanced. So I kinda need them. Blend I mean My neck will go out and my lower back will go out. So I need to get adjusted and kinda put that back. I sometimes throw a rib out.

Sounds painful. Yeah. It's a it's different than break and rib, it's just more annoying. You can still kind of surf through it with adrenaline, but it it Is annoying. The way I usually do it, it kind of Pinches something in my neck so I can't turn to the left.

I feel like Zoolander. Um, I can't turn left. I really like time massage'cause it's it's deep. It's almost like lazy man's yoga.

In a in a way. Yeah. You know, I've been disciplined. for many years. I've been I I spent over thirty years being pretty disciplined with my body and

What I put into it. And um You know, all that kind of stuff and But I'm Yeah.

Uh in doing that I'm never too obsessive about any one thing. I'll go through like Binge periods where I'm really obsessive about my diet, but I don't love to work out. So I I like to kind of Consistently get some body work.

I like to surf enough. Surfing's fun. You know, I just love to surf, so It keeps me fit. And if I surf enough, I'm at a level that's pretty good for my cardio.

And for my strength. But I generally always need a little bit of extra You know, I I should spend more time stretching, especially my Hips and my hamstrings. If you can picture a surfer paddling, we got our

Our our back arch the whole time. So I can actually bend backwards. Amazing. I can put my feet on my head and that kinda thing. But bending forward I'm stiffer because I spend my whole life with my shoulders back and my back arched.

You know, blend for me is just if I feel like Something's out. If my back goes out or something, I I gotta get adjusted, let it relax. It's in anti inflammatories once in a while'cause the stress around contest if your body's out of whack is Annoying too. And then um

Yeah, just get the get that body work, get those muscles work out that are Imbalance, you know, if you're a little too tight there and a little Two week there. The ones that are built up too much. You gotta kinda like stretch out. And just for folks who don't know, time massage, I'll do my best to do a quick description and then please add anything that we're missing, but you described it as lazy man's yoga. Uh you ri it's uh a lot of it is done on a mat. people will often stretch you. I've this is the one form of massage I've explored quite a bit.

And use pressure, right? The feet. Lots of uh might use blood stops. Lots of walking. And also traction, I mean, depending on the style. So it's a it's a really comprehensive system. Uh I've I've also found Time Massage extremely Uh helpful. How often do you get How often do you have body work done?

Well, I'd like to get something done every week, but You know, sometimes I'll get it a couple of times a week. If I'm in one place and I got somebody I like to work with. I'll go two or three times in a week sometimes and then I might not go for a month once in a while. If I'm competing though I like to

Try to get something at least once a week. It's a week. Jump in there. If I'm at a contest, we usually have massage therapists there. So Each day I'll get a little bit of something during contest days.

Just a few more questions, Kelly. I know it's uh it's late. What time is it over there at the moment? It's gotta be on the late side. I don't know. One thirty. Oh my God. One thirty AM. We're partying, man.

We're partying. And uh yeah, this is an another surprise in the Kelly story is your history as a as a night owl, which is pretty astonishing. At least was unexpected for me. But uh just a few more questions for you. This is one on behalf of a a friend of mine who is uh If you haven't ever met him, I'd I'd actually love for you guys to meet at some point. But his name is Josh Waitskin. I don't think he'd mind being named. He was uh the basis for searching for Bobby Fisher, so he was considered a chess prodigy as a kid. He hates that word prodigy, but nonetheless um very uh very, very successful chess player and then um was a world champion in Tai Chi push hands, the first black belt under Marcello Garcia, who's Sort of the Michael Jordan of grappling. Yeah, he's one of my all time favourites. Yeah, yeah, so Josh

co founded a school with him in New York and now he is spending his time on the water and this is his new passion. And uh he's fascinated by all water sports. And I'd love to and this is uh this is a a question that he posed Ask you about foiling. What is your opinion of foiling or e foiling as a supplement or adjunct to surfing or otherwise. That's my add on. But really what he was wondering is does it connect or not connect to surfing?

In your mind. Well, the best guys in the world are surfers, so Yeah, it connects. When I was a little kid There used to be this sort of slogan, Coco Beach, the small wave world you know, small wave capital of the world.

For whatever reason. There was like You know, big emphasis of surfing in Cocoa Beach. And it was probably a slogan from Ron John's surf shop or something, but Somehow it became known as like a small wave capital. Mm-hmm. And then Yeah.

twenty thirty years, Coco Beach is not on the surfing radar at all. No one comes to Cocoa Beach to go surfing. Yeah.

From anywhere else in the world. They do from like Orlando. And they might from down South Florida, but they don't it's not like a destination for people from other places in the world. You're gonna go to Hawaii or Indo or Tahiti or

France for that matter. Portugal. Um But With the foiling thing.

So you know, for people who don't know Fourling just And then just Google it. Go on YouTube. It's like a surfboard on a Hydrofoil. So you don't have the resistance of the board on the water. Yeah.

Yeah, you're riding under the water and you're riding like it's it's it's probably the closest thing you can imagine to flying, but being in the water. Just think of all the America's Cup boats now, the ones that lift off. Or those ferries, those super high speed ferries that l that ride on a foil and all the energy All the weightless above the water. So there's just so little resistance in

The bigger the foil, the more the The more lift you have. So the faster you're going, the less Foil size you need. I can't really speak to it'cause I'm a complete kook and novice. I've done it like three times. I've done the e foil once.

And I think the A four is a little goofy. I'm gonna throw it out there. I think it's really good for learning. It's kind of training wheels for for foiling. In my eyes.

Um You you do it to kinda get the feel of being lifting up off the water and not having not relying on your board edges and stuff to create The turns. And it's Foiling's a little counterintuitive. When we serve When you lean into a rail and do a turn, you're pushing all your energy and weight down into that rail.

And you're getting a lift back from that rail. When you foil it, when you push on one side Wherever you put your force It lifts back against you in a way that kinda throws the board the opposite way you think it might.

So if I if I'm surfing and I lean my right rail down in the water. That rail goes down. Of course I'm getting A push back against it, but In foiling when you lean to the right, if you put if you lean to the right and then put your

Energy down to the right. The foil kicks the board back up against you and you kind of Fold in half. So when you when you lean right, you almost gotta put equal amount of pressure on the left at the same time. I it's hard to Try to explain because I am such a novice. So there's a little bit of counterintuitive. It's almost like

If you're riding a bike. And you're turning right. You have to turn the steering wheel a little bit to go right. It's it's the weirdest Sensation. Right.

It's so cool looking. Like the amount of speed you can get. And what I was saying about Florida being like Cocoa Beach being the smaller capital of the world um I'm just starting to think that Florida might be a good destination again for people. That wanna go foiling'cause

We have these really shallow offshore Shoals off of um Cape Canaveral. Uh basically where NASA space center is. And um My friends have been getting like mile long rides out there.

You can just catch these open ocean swells and they don't break and you just You can go so fast back and forth on the things and it's so cool looking. It's completely silent. And um There's just no way can I don't know, it looks like nothing else in the world.

I kinda wanna get into it, but I'm scared once I do it's gonna mess my surfing up. So I'm kinda kinda waiting. I was I was telling you I was working out with Tom Carroll the other day and Tom foiled almost every morning and he says. Soon as I'm done foiling, I gotta get back on a surfboard so I don't forget. That feeling you're also.

My surfing goes downhill. Mm. Mm. A beautiful and eerie. visual.

to see foiling. If people haven't seen it, we'll put some links in the show notes, but uh it's very It's unlike anything you've ever seen, particularly if you're not familiar with with water sports at all. It just looks it's kinda hard at first within the first few seconds to even compute what is happening. Yeah. Somebody can be on a tiniest little wave and they're going twenty miles an hour. Yeah. It's or whatever, just flying. It's really wild. Just a few more questions, then uh then we'll break here. Uh

Are there any Any really great moments in the water that come to mind that we're not captured on camera. Any Obviously there's all of the practice. And lots of sessions on the water, but does anything come to mind? Uh not that you regret that it wasn't captured on camera, but uh like a a standout moment for you that uh

Has has just been kinda locked in the amber of your memory. I went on a trip down to Central America one time and there's this really great wave that was happening years ago. Funny enough, strangely enough, it got ruined by the Two thousand eleven tsunami, which wasn't huge when it hit there, but it was really powerful and small and it Change This break.

In particular that we were surfing. Um But we went down there and then I brought my friend to shoot like thousand frames a second on a Phantom camera, like the best footage you could ever get at the time.

And we shot. The best day I've ever seen at this place. Like a day you get very few times in your life I Maybe the best A S or if I ever had. And he filmed the whole thing.

And We flew from there to Tahiti. And we got Tahiti and I said hey. Um let me know when I can see that footage and like the next day I called him and I said

Have you looked at it yet? He's like uh um There might be a problem with it or something, but I'm I'll I'll let you know later. I'm like, What do you mean? He's like I don't know. I just like Trying to go through the hard drives and stuff. So I go down and I go and see him the next day.

And I said, All right, well what's going on? And he goes There's no footage. I go, What do you mean there's no footage? Like you miss some waves or like He goes no there's There's no footage at all. Yeah, it's like what do you mean?

And he goes, There's just there's no footage. Like some he goes, I think when we were going out on the jet ski, something came loose from the hard drive to the camera and it just never even got one frame of footage. S. We we don't have any footage at all. That whole Okay.

I was equally like Upset and Thought it was funny. Yeah. Actually In a way I I kinda I'm I'm kinda glad that it didn't happen because

This was this place was so magical. And um I felt cheap filming it. And showing it to the world. Mm and uh

And and it's renowned for people like dropping their cameras that have filmed good sessions. Like there's like kind of this mystique around this place. And like a whole bunch of people, my friends that have been down there and filmed and stuff, like my friends that live down there and And they they've drop cameras in the water after a whole day of filming and like Somehow somebody erased the footage. Like all these things have happened. So like The the footage of this place has never really gotten out and

And um And then the site then the The tsunami hit and and ruined the sandbar. That had built up for You know, who knows how long decades.

And um So it's kind of funny it it sort of hit itself and And uh Although I wanted to see that footage. We didn't have it.

Yeah. The Bermuda Triangle and then the beach was like enough of these people with their cameras, let's change the landscape. Yeah. That's amazing. Uh

Kelly, last question, what are you most looking forward to? In terms of of goals. For yourself. Doesn't have to be related to surfing, but really it could be, of course, a over the next handful of years. Like this obviously this period of time with the Covid thing

Has been a I hope it's been a time of reflection for everybody. I think it's a time for all of us to sit back and Think about our health. Think about what's important.

Put some money away. You know, I think about all the people who lost their jobs and who Live on credit and who don't save her rainy day and you know, people are in far worse situations than that that don't have a Don't have a roof over their head.

I think it's it's one of those times to really think about kinda everything that's important in your life and Strangely enough, if you look at my YouTube feed I would say half of the stuff that I watch is converting vans to a home. Mm.

I have this sort of After all these years of like Wanting to You know, make money from when I was a kid so I could buy a house to then buying homes in different parts of the world and now I'm sort of looking forward to either living on a boat one day or or living in a van that I can just live anywhere.

Yeah. Kind of simple. The only problem is they have too manfars and too many golf clubs. But um

You could have a you could have a caravan. You could have the first van be the home and then Well, and you know too many countries I like to be in, so But um Yeah, I c I I think just um Taking some time after being on this whirlwind for Thirty

Last year is I mean Nearly nearly thirty years on tour, but You know, another Ten years on top of that.

Chasing waves from when I was a young kid. To just scaling it back to You know. Who I like to surf with and wear.

What else I wanna include in my life or or take out of it. Just Looking forward to enjoying the next forty years of life and And um

Fifty years. Eighty years. I don't know. How long can we live at that point? Yeah. Looking forward to Yeah.

And um No, more more I think more. personal Uh growth. Uh

The surfing has become real crowded and You almost have to become spiritual to enjoy it sometimes'cause there's so many people in the water. Um So you know, learning to to enjoy and enjoy what I have and and to be able to share it.

You know, a kid. That I surf with yesterday wrote me a message today online and He said, Hey, you know, I really want to Like be a pro surfer, I w I really want to as good as I can and try to be a pro and make a career and he's like, Any advice? And he's like sorry for bugging you.

And I was like no like It's it's sort of s it's probably strange how much I I enjoy sharing All this Stuff that I've learned with

younger guys if they want to ask me. You know, I think maybe some Times people are intimidated to ask me or Don't think I'll Wanna talk about it or something, but I'm really happy to kinda

share any of those things I can with younger surfers who are hungry for it. I thought it was cool that he kinda had the balls to just say, Hey Can you help me out here and Like game on like nice long run down, do all these things. Go all these places.

Don't fake it. Put your heart into it and give it your best try and if it works out. Great, but you know a long road ahead to get to that point. Mm. Totally know how good the kid this particular kid is. I saw a couple of clips of him and

Anyway. In all honesty, there's some work to do there, but Yeah, somebody who has the desire and and is willing to say, Hey, this is what I want to do. All the best to those people, you know.

It sounds like somebody like that's willing to to work and to be humble and When you're humble You're teachable. You know, you're you're able to learn.

It's like you know, even Someone in my position who's you know, I've won a lot of contests and all that stuff and I I still A lot of times I need to just sit back and be willing to learn and and be humble and not think I know something and

Or know it better than somebody and A lot of times just They say teaching is the best way to learn. Because you know. Going back to that theme we started with early on with that

Two thousand three when I lost that world title. When you when you teach you mess up. You know, and and you learn something from that. And uh you learn. Better and better how to Understand and comprehend something and and be able to share it.

somebody not from a place of righteousness, but of a place of like you lived it. Yeah. Well we'll try to track down the the the comment and the where to go and what to do to put in the show notes. But uh Kelly, this is uh this has been great. I look forward to watching the next fifty, sixty, eighty, a hundred and fifty years, depending on where where medic medicine takes us. And really appreciate you taking the time. I uh I know that you have uh lots of demands on your time. So I appreciate you carving out a bit of it.

For this conversation. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. And uh you can find show notes, links to everything at Tim.blog forward slash podcast, and until next time. Don't be righteous, be open minded. If you think you really understand something. Try to go teach it to somebody who's an up and comer. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up.

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