By Lincoln Feast
(Reuters) – Kelly Slater, the greatest professional surfer of all time, said “everything must come to an end” after his final season of full-time competition on the World Tour came to a close with defeat at the Western Australia Margaret River Pro on Tuesday.
Slater’s loss to current ratings leader Griffin Colapinto in the Round of 32 meant the 52-year-old misses the mid-season cut that reduces the field of the top tier World Tour by one-third.
While the 11-time world champion did not officially announce his retirement, Slater said he was heading into a new chapter of his life.
“Everything comes to an end, and if you don’t adapt, you don’t survive,” said Slater, who is awaiting the birth of his second child. “My motivation just hasn’t quite been there to really put in that 100% that everyone is doing now.”
Slater said he had struggled to recover from injuries and surgery in the off-season and broke down after second event of the year at Sunset Beach, where he told his partner: “This feels like the end.”
Fighting back tears after being carried up the beach stairs by fans following his loss on Tuesday, Slater said he had put so much emotion and dedication into his remarkable three-decade career.
“It’s not all roses, you know, but it’s been the best time of my life,” he added.
UNRIVALLED CONTRIBUTION
Slater’s contribution to the sport is unrivalled.
He became surfing’s youngest world champion at 20 in 1992 and its oldest at 39 in 2011.
He earned a record 56 World Tour victories, including his last just before his 50th birthday at Hawaii’s infamous Pipeline, drawing comparisons with sporting greats like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
Slater redefined the sport in the 1990s, bringing a new era of explosive, fast-paced surfing with radical new aerial manoeuvres and deep, technical tube riding.
He also rode the waves of fame as professional surfing’s popularity exploded at that time.
Forming friendships with movie stars like Bill Murray and musicians including Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Slater appeared on numerous magazine covers and had a role on the hit show “Baywatch” whose star, Pamela Anderson, he dated.
Born Robert Kelly Slater in Cocoa Beach, Florida in 1972, Slater was talked about as a future world champ as a teenager and won six world titles, including five in a row, before his first attempt at retiring in 1999.
He returned to the tour in 2002, establishing a fierce rivalry with the late three-time world champion Andy Irons from Hawaii.
Slater went on to win a further five titles and has remained a threat against the best.
“You know why I was the best competitor ever?” Slater told two-time world champion Tom Carroll during the last event at Bells Beach. “Because my heart was stone and nothing was going to pierce it.
“I think people don’t understand what a life it’s been, this tour … I really don’t care about the contests very much now, it’s more just the memories, the experiences, the richness to my life.”
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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