After being eliminated from the Margaret River Pro, Surfings undisputed Greatest of All Time Kelly Slater retired from professional surfing. Sort of. Well, he is still coming back for Tahiti and Fiji this year, and probably Pipe as well as those locations for years to come. And he never really said the word retired. But it’s generally assumed that he is done with full-time work on the professional tour. Seeing this coming, there were small acknowledgements through the days leading up to the event. Plus, we saw a rare introspective Slater in interviews. This however was far short of the massive fan-fair and celebrations this man would receive had he announced the retirement previous.
Yes, I know the fierce competitor within our GOAT probably somehow believed he was going to make the cut, or otherwise continue, but that simply does not matter. The sports world, and famous people in general, have a long and storied history of retiring and unretiring on a whim. Unless referring to senior citizen retirement benefits, retirement is a fluid state. Tom Brady retired for approximately 15 minutes back in 2022 (actually 40 days). Swimmer Michael Phelps retired in 2012, and 4 years later was still winning medals. Everyone remembers Michael Jordan’s 3 retirements needed to end his basketball career. Boxers Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Floyd Mayweather Jr are some of the many boxers to come out of retirement. In MMA its practically a right of passage to retire and come back like Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, BJ Penn, and Connor McGregor. In entertainment Jay-Z, Ozzy Osbourne, Phil Collins, David Letterman, and Cher just to name a few more.
My point is this: Kelly should have announced his retirement at the start of the season, and we could have honored him all year long. If then making the cut, he could continue postponing indefinitely. It does not matter, and the GOAT cannot, and would not be held to it. Opportunity missed.
Kelly most likely doesn’t care at all about the fan-fair he’s missed out on this year, but it would have been nice. I know it’s not an easy decision, and he does seem to be in a good place. Thank you and can’t wait to see you in those big beautiful barreling lefts.