1.3 KELLY SLATER: The Champion’s Journey | NATHAN FLETCHER: Live and Direct

all right so what's on Kelly Slater's agenda coming up cuz agenda I'm in Australia colonies in the last trimester we're going to have the baby in Hawaii um got another couple weeks here might try to fit some Fiji in between here and getting back to the States um I got the wild card for chopo so you know I love my chopo so you're back in you're out while you're in exactly you look I mean for years I've been saying if I if I was guaranteed wild cards to to pipe chopu and and Cloud break and Cloud break was still on tour then um which it it's back on tour now but um I I probably would have checked out a couple years ago but it was just it was just that Olympic hope trying to figure out if I could get back in there but um you know my motivation my desire My longing for competition and winning has since waned a lot um so you you know you can you make your own luck and you when you're when you're competing at the highest level you can make those wins happen in tough conditions or on days you don't want to be out there and that kind of stuff and you know I haven't been making that happen and that's fine it's you know I I had so many wins that probably shouldn't have happened but I forced it and somehow made it happen but I just I you know when you're I guess the thing is like when I was 20 21 growing up without any money and like uh you know I I mean we were lucky we had a roof over our head and our parents really supported me and Sean traveling around the world surfing but we just you know was it was on a Sho string budget and then I I um basically was in debt when I was like 22 years old and at that time it seemed to me I mean the reason I I say that is because it just sets a context for me because I felt like winning was like life and death for me at the time you know like it really felt like this is my one chance in life to do something from for myself for my for my future and that's why winning was such a a dominant factor in my life you know every day I woke up went to bed thinking about it how to how to improve my game because I wanted I I wanted that that uh success and and the things that with it so um you know when you when you feel in your mind like your life depends on it you figure it out and um and that's just part of that's one part of any person's Evolution I guess yeah but it doesn't feel that way now I I I I do like to win I love to win it's fun and if you put in a great performance there's nothing that feels better than being at the top at the end of that competition but um the way for me it's like and things got to line up for me to really have that same desire and that that same grit and um um so you know there's certain waves that are that that offer that more often like obviously you know we hope that pipeline lines up every year but there's a lot of years where it's not very good um but chopo usually has a pretty good wave and Cloud break almost always has the good wave so those are waves I I I still froth over and um you know hopefully I get a chance to Surf him a couple more times competitively but other than that here and there I'll do a contest for fun maybe I'll start surfing in the uh club events go back amateur you know nice work my way back work my way back down the ladder you know so tell me th tell me this uh because I know everybody has a different idea and we've all seen your career and everything you've done but in your eyes what do you think is your greatest success in your life you know like what what made you feel the most accomplishment was it like something in the NSSA or was it winning pipe at almost 50 or was it you know because because everybody has a diff different idea of what they think of success but like to you what was your greatest moment or your greatest attribute to what you've done in your life or surfing I would say I've almost bookended it there's two moments that just stand out to me and one was when I was 12 years old um I won a contest in Jacksonville Beach it was a super heat remember the old super Heats where all the winners have one one Heat against each other um I won a Super Heat against Bill Johnson and uh I forget who all was in there but it were there was all the best guys from Florida and the East Coast that would come surf this one event it was the heart's Birthday Bash and it was around October sometime I think and um I was 12 years old and I was not supposed to win I probably should have got third you know on paper and um I won the event and first place was a round trip ticket to Hawaii and that was the the year I I won the year championships at Makaha um but I we weren't planning on going to Hawaii Sean and I weren't planning on going to Hawaii we my parents couldn't afford it and I won that contest and that was the only thing that gave me that opportunity and uh I was able to go to Hawaii and win the US Championship say a manun at at 12 and that's where I met like Shane Oran and that whole you know I mean I I remember I was there I met Brian PCO and I remember bird I think bird had a silver cast on remember oh yeah well that was yeah I mean that was basically when I met all my friends for life you know like Brock and Chester and and um chea and like just Dave eggars and um uh Sunny obviously I believe Archie was in that event so that to me that was like the that moment going going to Maha for the US amateur Champs back then was like the biggest thing but getting back to your question winning that contest in in Jacksonville I remember coming in I remember winning it and I just started crying dude I I I couldn't hold the emotion in I was so excited like even thinking about now almost makes me want to cry again because that was it was like the most incredible feeling I ever had and I realized I'm going to Hawaii I couldn't believe I was going to Hawaii because it was the only way I was going to get there and um so my parents uh scraped together enough money for uh sea to get a ticket too so both of us went and we we flew there ke picked us up we stayed at Mark fuss for a week and then we stayed over with Tony Sutton and his dad for a week um because they lived Eva near um on the Air Force Base and and they would take us up to the contest so the first week we were checking out pipe and all that and getting to watch what was going on and the second week we started the US amateurs and Matt had and kley had gone back to Florida so um funny Side Story is obviously that's when I met Mark Fu the first time and um Fu Fu's spot to stay was like I think it was $20 a night it was1 or $20 a night to have a to sleep there and Sean and I stayed but we didn't have enough money I think we had like maybe $200 between us for the two weeks to be in be in Hawaii for food and everything and we didn't have any money for anywhere to stay and uh so one night it was like the last night we were at foo's house and Sean overheard Mark Fu and his girlfriend having an argument about how much to charge us for rent because she knew we didn't have any money and and food and care so basically um if we if we paid rent we weren't going to have literally any money left and so she convinced Mark to only charge us it worked out to be $2.50 a night total for the two of us to stay there and uh so he paid like what is that it was like $20 for me and Sean to stay for a week at at foo's house and um I just remember feeling so um I remember feeling so insignificant that I couldn't that I didn't we didn't feel wanted you know and we didn't feel welcome because and we couldn't pay our way and and so there were there were times like that in my life that really cemented in this desire to do so well and not have those stresses that we had as kids and um but so winning winning um the heart's Birthday Bash in 84 was my first really great win in my life I mean I won the East Coast championships a couple times before that already but that was the one I remember just crying after like I I I remember going in back in the hotel room laying in the bath turning on the shower and and plugging the bath and just crying for like an hour cuz that was I was just so happy you know and uh look he's almost crying weird yeah it's so weird man it like it it's like the happiest I've ever been and then and it like it was a real life-changing moment and then um winning pipe at you know 49 and and and 51 weeks I was five days for my birthday and that was just such a crazy one because that heat with Baron you know he Baron's like the new charger at pipe and he's so good and he had me on the ropes and then I had one hope and I need like an eight and the wave comes and I get it and I I knew in that moment I'm like you know what I I think I'm gonna win this thing um because I've had a few magic moments like that at at cloudbreak and choo and different places over the years and when something like that happens where I have a really close one and something magic happens in the last minute I almost always have come through and won the event and so I just felt something special and I knew I just had to just be present just pay attention to all my little ticks and my little signs and and um and I I felt really like in the moment that whole week and and um yeah I just I I kind of saw it lining up and I couldn't believe it was happening and uh it was almost like watching it was I almost felt like I was watching a movie of it happening and and um it was just uh it was so special you know and and I and in time I knew it'll probably be the last one I win or you know if not the last one right close to it but maybe it'll be the last one I ever win I don't know well that was beautiful howan uh I really like the heart contest uh that's just too good um but I I knew there was something it was called heart too Dave heart but you know being the word heart it like it the thing really changed my life and and pipeline the number of PE like grown men I've had come up to me since then Nathan and be like man I cried when you won that meant so much and it felt like it was it felt like it meant a lot to a lot of people and uh I I think the good message there is that you know we all want people to like us we all want want to um you know feel that happiness from other people as well and that support and that one more than anything all around the world since then for the last couple years I still have people every week come up and go man I that just was incredible I cried I was so happy for you so well it gives it gives a working man hope as well you know because a lot of people are like oh I'm this age I'm you know my life is like this but like to see you do that I feel like most people they could almost relate with that because you know you're just at at the same level like an age and stuff but then it was like just conquering huge I mean the PIP Masters is the biggest greatest contest on Earth and it has been in the craziest way I've been like to accomplish that at an age that you did and that's that's what I was saying too is like you growing up in Florida and I just did a little thing prior to us talking but I was just saying how when you were a kid and you would come to Trussel and Surf and you would bring for your snack you would have cheese whiz and Ritz crackers and surf for like 8 hours and uh but oh man but it was like what made you and what drove you like you were talking about and then to see you now traveling with all your supplements and being on a full like other side of Health um it's just pretty trippy like I said as a sideliner just to watch the whole thing unfold and see where you're at it's been a great honor [Music] [Music]