Home health remedies Time and tide: MH meets surfing deity, Kelly Slater

Time and tide: MH meets surfing deity, Kelly Slater

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Kelly Slater is arguably the greatest athlete of all time – and he is inarguably the greatest surfer, idolised by legions of fans and drawing huge crowds to the best breaks around the world. But today, he is on his own. He sits on the front row of a small plane flying from Johannesburg in northern South Africa to Port Elizabeth on the Eastern Cape, a black hoody pulled over his head. After disembarking, he waits to collect his luggage from the belt; when an elderly woman’s bag topples over, he nimbly drops into a half-squat, rather than just walking past, and scoops it up. He wheels a surfboard-shaped silver case into the car park. There’s no hint of the entourage that typically orbits elite sportsmen. There isn’t even a driver with a sign.

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“I hate that shit,” he tells me the next day. We’re sitting in the back garden of a beachfront house in St Francis Bay, a short distance from Jeffreys Bay, where the Corona Open J-Bay, one of the original and best events on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour, will start tomorrow morning. Slater sometimes travels with companions – his girlfriend, swimwear designer Kalani Miller, or a photographer – but he has “sort of become a loner” over the years. “I used to travel with my group of friends, but then they all fell off tour, starting families and stuff,” he says. “Eventually, I became the only guy left.”

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Slater usually stays in friends’ homes when he travels. This time, however, he is basing himself in a property rented out by luxury watch brand Breitling to shoot its latest ad campaign, starring Slater alongside fellow professionals Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons – the Breitling Surfers Squad. The scale of the production dwarfs the film sets frequented by Breitling Cinema Squad members Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, Adam Driver and Daniel Wu. “I was out in the water, looking back at the beach,” says Slater, reflecting on the day’s proceedings. “I thought, ‘There’s actually 50 people standing on the beach right now.’”

Spirit Levels

The members of the Breitling Surfers Squad don’t seem too fussed by the scale of the operation, even if Slater is the most accustomed of the trio to five-star treatment. “He is Hollywood,” says the 30-year-old Gilmore, a six-time world champion and Hall of Famer; 27-year-old Fitzgibbons is a three-time world championship runner-up. The two beach-blonde Aussies are highly respected surfers, but the 11-time champion Slater – both the youngest-ever male title holder, at 20, and the oldest, at 39 – has a degree of seniority conferred by his age, achievements and the fact that he’s, you know, Kelly Slater. Fitzgibbons has been Googling videos of his past competitions at J-Bay, “to watch and learn”. Slater has been surfing there since 1994 (she was born in 1990) and has won the event a record four times.

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A year ago, Slater was free-surfing at the 2017 J-Bay Open ahead of his second-round heat when he came off his board, which struck his foot and broke it almost in half. “I put a new joint across the top,” he jokes. “I’m glad I’m at the tail end of my career and not the beginning, because I don’t know if they could have fixed it back when I started. At least, not in a way that would have been beneficial for me in the long term.” A potentially career-ending injury for anyone, it prompted speculation that Slater might be forced to retire – for good, this time. (He retired in 1998 at 26 after winning five straight titles, but returned in 2002.)

Undeterred, he is coming back to competition tomorrow. Well, probably. “I might not surf this week,” he says. “My foot is still messed up.” What is certain is that he’s coming back sooner or later, having interpreted the injury “in a spiritual realm” and not as a cosmic sign that he should throw in the towel. “I feel like every time I’ve been injured, it’s because I’m not paying attention to something in my life,” he explains. “Maybe I could have avoided that if I’d been a little more conscious. So, it’s been a good time to be patient and learn a lot about myself.” He won’t, however, elaborate on what he was neglecting: “Just intimately personal stuff that I’ll let pass without digging into.”

Nothing to Prove

While “a big part” of him hasn’t missed the pressure of the big events, another part clearly hungers for competition. Slater plans to surf the tour next year. “I’m building this goal,” he says. “Get the boards together, get my body together, get my diet all worked out, come back rejuvenated, and maybe finish out my career that way.” It’s a “maybe”, but it feels like the right thing, he says. His time off gave him freedom from competition and a glimpse of a life beyond the all-encompassing mindset that it demands. But to play devil’s advocate: why even put himself through the wringer for another year? It’s not as if he has anything left to prove.

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“It’s not about that. I’m not trying to prove anything,” he says, then stops himself. “Well, that’s not necessarily true: as a competitor, there’s always something you want to prove. But I see announcing and doing a final year as my victory lap: saying thanks to all the fans and the people who have taken me in over the years.” He intends to spend his valedictory tour “consciously”, fully appreciating everything, everywhere and everyone along the way. “Maybe I’ll do a few events after, but it’ll be my see-ya-later thing.”

First, there’s his body to get together, his diet to work out. Slater has been experimenting with veganism and, this week, has switched to a new supplement protocol with “some Chinese herbs, mushroom extracts and things like that”. What is it supposed to help with? “Oh, everything,” he says. The regime comprises nutrients for the foot, joints, brain and general health: silicone, iodine, magnesium and other supps. Some are for overall maintenance, some “to clean out heavy metals and detox the body”. He is excited about the potential benefits. “I’m super-passionate about health,” he says, before adding wryly: “Men’s health.”

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Slater starts each day with warm water and lemon to “flush out” his system, then a smoothie chaser that might contain spinach, broccoli, greens powder, banana, raw cacao and chia seeds. (Slater is an ambassador for the Chia Co.) He likes the idea and smell of coffee but not the taste, diluting it with almond or coconut milk when he needs a caffeine hit. He has been all but dairy-free for two decades, and not just for ethical reasons: “I wasn’t super-healthy in the past, and I think there’s a correlation.” He drinks beer, but not much. “I’m a two-beer guy,” he admits. “All the fun happens in the first two.”

As for his body, he has been doing Pilates, which he enjoys, and “stretching, yoga-kinda stuff”. He also undergoes a lot of physiotherapy. Other than that, Slater finds that he naturally recovers the required level of strength for surfing simply by surfing. A bit of cross-training is good, but he doesn’t like to overdo it. Flexibility, leg strength and cardio are advantageous for his purposes, but bulk is not: “Building up too much muscle could make me a little stiff.” At about 5ft 9in and 73kg, he is shorter and slighter in person than you might expect, despite an enviable V-shape that is all the more impressive for a dude in his late forties.

A Perfect Storm

Even for younger athletes, surfing pounds particular body parts to breaking point. “At the moment, our feet,” says Fitzgibbons with a grimace. (Slater has suffered broken feet four times in his career.) Ankles and knees also take a beating. Nor does the upper body escape unscathed. “Shoulders get worn out after paddling,” says Gilmore. “Three of my best friends have bad enough lower backs right now that they can’t surf,” adds Slater. Then there are the ever-present risks of drowning and sharks – tour veteran Mick Fanning fought off a shark at J-Bay in 2015. So, what’s the secret of Slater’s protracted success?

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“My story is a perfect storm of a lot of things: family dynamics, socioeconomic position,” he says. His father was born into money, but Slater’s grandfather lost it by letting people (“mostly women”) take advantage of him. Nonetheless, Slater’s father grew to become a beach guy who drank a lot of beer and didn’t have many boundaries, or a steady job for long stretches. Slater grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, a surfing backwater known as the “Small Wave Capital of the World”, where the family owned a bait and tackle shop. It was mostly left to his mother to keep them afloat. At one point, they came close to homelessness, losing their house with just a few payments to go.

“All these things add up into who you are,” says Slater, who competed with his elder brother at everything and discovered that he had the edge in surfing, so focused on that. He began entering competitions at the age of eight. His mother once sold her banjo so Slater could go to a contest in Cornwall. Eventually, he made enough money to take care of those close to him, but lost it all in his early twenties. He also had “a number of things happen relationship-wise” that broke his heart. He channelled all of his emotions into serial winning:
“I never wanted it to end,” he says.

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The stormy sea that drove him to relentless, often joyless victories has since subsided. “At some point, you grow past that,” he says. “Now, I’m comfortable with what I’ve done. If I don’t compete ever again, I’d be happy. From that place, I could compete for another year without worrying about if I win or lose, and enjoy it for what it is.” Slater is still trying to beat the other surfer, but is equally intent on having a “fun, memorable time”. It’s a positive attitude that helps him to deal with his own reputation: he is now high-profile bait for hungry up-and-comers looking to make a name for themselves.

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Part of what has made Slater so good for so long is the “so long”. Experience and fitness are inversely proportional; as the former increases, the latter diminishes, with a sweet spot in the middle of most athletes’ careers before the inevitable physical tail-off. But if they can maintain their fitness, or better manage its decline, then, like Slater, they can augment that capability with skills and decision-making honed over decades. “It’s not a matter of ‘pick that wave’, but of how to ride it,” says Slater, who has been surfing since he was five. “What head space are you going to be in? How are you going relax, or be motivated by your situation?”

The Love of the Game

In his recent book Play On, US sports journalist Jeff Bercovici explores the phenomenon of high-performing older athletes such as Roger Federer and Tom Brady. (Slater doesn’t get a namecheck, despite being the biggest outlier of them all.) For all the occasionally woo-woo practices adopted by sportsmen in a bid for extra time, what’s crucial is intrinsic motivation, or the love of the game. That’s not a given: when sport is your job, play soon becomes work, never mind the daily grind of training, eating and sleeping correctly. Passion makes the constant sacrifices maintainable: as Brady says, “Other than playing football, the thing I love to do is prepare to play football.”

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“The motivation now is to enjoy what I’m doing, to share that with people around me,” says Slater, whose 2008 book was called For the Love. His goal starting out was to own properties in the best surfing spots; when he bought his first apartment in Australia, his flatmate equated competitions with furniture: “You’ve got to win a new couch, mate.” Slater thinks the “greatest athlete” argument is moot. “How do you compare Roger Federer to cricketer Don Bradman?” he says. “It’s apples and oranges.” That didn’t stop one online outlet comparing him to darts legend Phil “the Power” Taylor – unfavourably. “He’s a much better beer drinker,” concedes Slater.

Making Waves

Everybody on the Breitling set is convinced the competition won’t go ahead tomorrow: the weather forecast is unpromising. But it does and, after losing his first-round heat to Kanoa Igarashi, who wasn’t born when he won his fifth title, Slater announces his plan to retire at the end of next season. In the second round, he is eliminated through a combination of rustiness and bad waves.

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Slater jokes that keeping the lights on in his properties is a motivation for carrying on, but though his career earnings of $4m (£3.5m) pale in comparison to Federer’s $116m (£103m), his other business concerns should keep him comfortable. He founded his own sustainable fashion label, Outerknown, after ending a 23-year sponsorship by Quiksilver over environmental concerns. Breitling will soon be collaboratively creating eco-conscious watch straps and packaging. Slater also has a majority stake in surfboard manufacturer Firewire. Meanwhile, the World Surf League has a majority stake in the Kelly Slater Wave Company, which has converted an inland waterskiing lake in California into a “surf ranch”, using artificial wave technology that Slater has helped to develop.

Given the unfavourable conditions at today’s tournament, it’s not hard to see why Slater’s biggest legacy in the sport may well be this innovation, which will open up surfing to countries not blessed with access to natural spots – not to mention make it more broadcast-friendly and attractive for sponsors. Developed by a fluid dynamicist from the University of Southern California and generated by a hydrofoil pulled through the water, it could revolutionise surfing while also challenging the sport’s philosophy: the perfect wave is no longer an elusive white whale to be chased quixotically to exotic locations, but something available on demand.A similar pool could be used when surfing becomes an Olympic sport at Tokyo 2020. (Japan isn’t blessed with the greatest breaks.) Don’t bet against the then-48-year-old, who captained Team USA at the WSL Founders’ Cup in May, going for gold. The tide, if not time, is at his feet.

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