Three days ago Kelly Slater was very nearly eliminated by Dusty Payne in their Round 2 heat at the Pipe Masters. With six minutes to go Dusty held the lead and with some savvy priority play could've been expected to run the heat down and take the win. As an elimination round Old Baldy would've been bundled for a 25th, his first of the season, and almost certainly finished outside the top 10 for the first time in his career.

The amazing thing wasn't that Slater stroked into a 7.80 with five minutes to go and stole the heat. After all, we've seen that plenty of times before. The most amazing thing was that for the first time in five years all this went down without a single article debating his retirement.

Five minutes from the most ignominious defeat of his career and not one word about his exit plan?

Since 2010 when Slater tied a bow on his 10th title, Kelly Slater retirement articles have become their own genre. Following that win whole magazines were dedicated to his stellar career and, the editors were certain, his imminent retirement. The mainstream media also got aboard the retirement bandwagon. Ten in '10 – what better way to go out?

...and then Slater fronted up at Snapper, won the comp, won Teahupoo, won Trestles, and took his 11th title in a waltz. But he was 39, two months shy of 40, surely now was the time to call time? Again the op eds ran. “Go out while you're on top, Kelly.”

Yet since 2011 Kelly Slater has been subject to the law of diminishing returns; for all his efforts the titles have stopped (as have the trophies, his last win was in 2013) and so have the opinion pieces second guessing his retirement....well, almost all of them.

Since his last world title, Slater has signed a deal for a wave pool only to have it to fall flat, bought the rights to a book with film production scheduled soon, quit Quiksilver and started his own label, invested in a sustainable furniture company, and just recently he started his own surfboard company – Slater Designs.

Meanwhile a whole new mise en scene has developed on the Championship Tour. Most notably the climatic conditions that created the Brazilian Storm who bring an acrobatic buzz to the sport just as Slater himself did twenty years ago. But also the new glamour surfers in John John, Julian, and Owen. Surfers who, like Kelly Slater, cause the webcast numbers to spike.

The fans might bemoan his retirement – when it does come – but the future of the sport no longer rests on his shoulders alone. Already a new generation of surfers have Slater's number - “I love you, man” mind games don't register with them. And a new generation of fans are hearing more about Slater's past glories than current success.

The lack of retirement articles might have more to do with opinion fatigue than anything else. There's only so many times a writer can question the same thing, but then again there's only so many times Kelly Slater can postpone the inevitable.

Nudging forty-four years old, a growing portfolio of business distractions, and an inexorable slide down the rankings. If not now, when?

This week, more than likely tomorrow, competition will resume at the Pipe Masters, but unlike the situation five years ago there's just one article on the whole of the internet questioning his retirement.