At 51 years old, Kelly Slater has had an illustrious surfing career.
He’s the most winning surfer ever, the proverbial GOAT of the sport, and he’s not done yet…he’s hoping to compete in the Paris 2024 Olympics, to be held at Teahupo’o, Tahiti (one of his all-time favorite waves), amongst a field that’s mostly half his age.
And throughout his career, Slater’s seen surfing evolve. He talked about that, among other things – including his early days, leaving the Tour, drugs, suicide, mental health, business, legacy, etc. – on the Everyday Warrior podcast from Men’s Journal.
Host Mike Sarraille talked with Slater, with a few of the big questions highlighted below.
Did you see some guys jump into the party lifestyle, and it was just a slow decline from there?
“Yeah, it was actually a rough thing to learn about people you look up to. I got on Tour, and I’ve always been a little bit of a loner when it comes to travel. I always have kinda kept to myself. I remember going to France when I was like 18, 19 years old. You’re super jet-lagged. And I remember going to clubs until the sun came up. I would drink a Coca Cola and some water, and I’d see these guys just raging until the sun came up. Then they’d go straight into the surf, still drunk. I couldn’t believe it. These were guys who had such a huge impact on my life growing up. It actually fueled my fire, because I just wanted to beat them competitively.”
Are you a big advocate of plant-based medicine now for growth and expansion of the mind?
“I really haven’t talked about that much publicly. I think it’s a really personal decision. I know the wonders it can do for people. Medicine of all types, used properly with the right approach, is beneficial. I’ve always been very anti-drug, anti-drinking; but you see now that there’s more people dying of prescription drugs than street drugs. I do think there’s a big opening for what you’re talking about. Aaron Rodgers has talked about it a lot. Been a lot of people in popular culture starting to open those doors. I just think there’s not enough known about that stuff for the average person to understand what it is.”
You’ve been an advocate of suicide prevention. You’ve tried to use your influence. Can you talk a little bit about that? I know you’ve suffered some loss of friends to suicide throughout your career.
“Over the years, I’ve lost a lot of friends to suicide. More than I can count. Most of them being men – boys, guys – dealing with stuff they don’t know how to deal with. There’s a lot of different components to it. There can be drugs, mental and emotional problems, there can also just be you don’t have the right person to talk to. Just in the last couple years, I’ve unfortunately lost a lot of friends. A couple really tragic ones happened recently, and I felt like they were preventable.”
We talk a lot about legacy and impact on this podcast. Sometimes the impact we leave isn’t necessarily the one we want to be known for. When all is said and done, what’s the legacy you want to leave behind?
“As a kid I wanted to be the best surfer in the world. As you get older, that doesn’t really exist. You can be the best competitive surfer for that year. Maybe you’re the best at a certain skill. But I don’t know that there’s the such a thing as the best surfer. Or there ever will be. I just wanted to be as good as I possibly could, and I wanted to be World Champion. I’m proud of that stuff. At the end of the day, I want to be remembered as a good person, have a lot of friends, and treat people the right way.”
Listen to the entire episode here.
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