Kelly Slater - For The Love - (Page 4)

Preface Kelly Slater world title. We’d spent the past two years and more traveling to all corners of the globe together (why are they called corners?) and he’d taken photos of pretty much all of it, so we thought we’d compile a scrapbook of our adventures. We decided to start by putting together shots he’d taken in that time, collect others from friends and photographers we know that filled in the gaps, and go from there to build a story of one amazing period of time in both our lives. Our idea was just to make a scrapbook, really. But as we went on, the idea transformed into something a little different. As I write this I’m in California after having surfed and won the first two events of the 2008 World Tour in Australia—the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks, run by my sponsor of eighteen years, and the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach. I have been in the mind-set that I won’t complete a full year on the tour, again sort of going into semiretirement, which I did for three years after winning my sixth title in 1998 and being completely burned out on living the competitive life. 6 In late 2006, I was traveling with my friend Bruce Gilbert and had just won my eighth I finished third in the world last year and found at the end of it (and actually during it) that I wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic about competing at the one thing that has always been my first love. I’ve always said that if I wasn’t loving what I was doing, I would simply do something else. Being in this place, having two wins under my belt, feels good for sure, but at the same time I’m still not certain it’s exactly what I want to be doing at this point in my life. I’ll keep going for however long feels right, and I’m sure the right thing will happen. And it’s pretty cool to be a few years past what many people thought was my prime and still be having some wins. Kinda hard to just walk away from it when that’s happening! I think we surfers are mostly addicts of some sort or another, using waves as our fix. I’ve probably spent most of the years of my life using surfing as my getaway from things I didn’t want to think, feel, or deal with on some level. Many times surfing was the only thing I wanted to feel at all. Yet at the same time, I’ve been intrigued by questions of life, death, family, music, politics, spirituality, and many other things. For me surfing is my own way to read the world, or at least it’s the place from which I can read things most easily. When I started out on the world tour, I was really excited by the idea of it but basically bored by the standard of surfing. That’s a strong statement, but I actually saw very clearly how easy it could be at that time to win a world title against what was being done by the top guys. I don’t say that with any spite or disrespect for the surfers who came before me at all. If not for guys like Martin Potter, Tom Carroll, Tom Curren, Occy, and many more heroes of mine before them, I wouldn’t be anywhere close to the level I’m at, nor would I have a love like I do for surfing. They planted all the seeds I grew from. As a grommet, and even as a young pro surfer, nothing else mattered like riding waves. (Well, once in a while there were other things, but I found girls way more complicated than waves!) But as we grow and experience things our minds grow, our questioning grows, our ideas get bigger and broader, and the purpose of our lives becomes clearer. Life and love is far more important, I know, and surfing is just one aspect of my or anybody’s life.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Kelly Slater - For The Love

Kelly Slater - For The Love Preface by Kelly Slater Chapter 1: For the fun Intro Chapter 5: For the road Intro Chapter 6: For the show Intro Chapter 9: For the love Intro Back Cover

Kelly Slater - For The Love

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