Mesmerisingly awsome, some great lines almost Terry Fitz like but better

Beautiful surfing

Beautiful surfing from both of them. Great vid.

(had sharks in the back of my mind though)

Slater looks like he's riding a 5'4" or something crazy short at the start of that vid.

Awesome clip

Like a dream.

Great surfing.

Slater hangs around and scores quite often after an event. I ember reading a quote from his caddy / manager belly that was one of the reasons for his success. No ties and just focussed on surfing the best waves possible. He noted that whilst other competitors were gone after the event, if not before Kelly had no were to rush home to. No pressures or commitments......

I still think he could do with an extra inch in his boards. His short designs remind alot of mccoys. Derived from the lazor zap school of thought. Geoff McCoy. Now there's a legend that doesn't get enough recognition.

When Kelly's relaxed and not competing, in waves like this he is the most intuitive and flowing surfer alive. To think he's been competing for so long ... The momentum is very like Terry Fitz but the effortless flow so reminds me of Wayne Lynch. He's a real Freedom Rider now.

Great clip, no 10 point rides, just synchronous big carves and perfect positioning

Looks like Curren went bald.
I know he's emulated his style in the past, but his style and lines in this clip are the closest I've seen him actually look like Curren.

that was some next level shit.. slater can see the matrix

Dunno, his tube-riding is still stellar but those turns were unconvincing, he always seems like he's nursing that little board., especially on the bottom turns.
Would love to see him on a bigger board surfing with the authority of Tom Curren in his prime.
To my eyes Slater is still a few notches down from that standard.

Great to watch some effortless, aerial-free surfing.

I agree Steve, I wasn't convinced at all, a lot of the turns/carves cut short (sometimes the nature of the wave), board looked too small, nowhere near the best surfing I've seen Kelly do.

I was more referring to the style than the the size of the hacks. Was very fluid. He looked very relaxed to me and still did some great turns. Wasn't competing, just enjoying the flow.
I would like to see that too FR, much prefer him with a few more inches, but Tom wasn't in his prime at Kelly's age either.
Looked pretty cold too, and super uncrowded.

Yes - agree with free ride.
is it does look like he is often nursing the board and his turns.

Thats about as good as Jeffreys gets, fellas. Well, Slater sure makes it look better.

OK, I change my tune (skipped through this clip last night).

First half of Kelly's bit during the morning is excellent.

But from 4 minutes onwards, afternoon surf, he looks disinterested, not putting in much effort and it's far from exciting.

I would like to see Kelly in waves like that surf on a board that he had nil input into absolutely nil
a board by a top shaper [spider for Jbay] or even 1 picked by Nick Carroll ?.....I think Kelly overthinks shapes and lengths or is trying to hard to be different....dunno but sometimes his surfing does suffer a bit by his experimentation ?
Thinking about Curren just taking one off the rack for that Jbay Occy heat [ if that really did happen] spied one with a nice plan shape quick look at the rocker..yep feels good under the arm..this will do
Kellly I think would be checking every thing in the rack checking nose widths tails etc etc and probably take all day to pick one.

Always great to watch Sean Holmes doing his thing. Re. Freeride's comment on Kelly's board size - this was especially true at Margies after he broke his magic stick and ended up taking a pen knife to a gunfight. In this vid, the zippy little epoxy (?) looks perfect when he stays right in the pocket, which he mostly does...compared to the drawn out, long arc turns of Holmes.

To me it just looks like he is having fun and enjoying his surfing and surfing for himself and no one else in a cruisey free surf kind of way and letting the wave dictate what he does.

Just a different edge to Kellys surfing kind of at the opposite end to his I'm looking for a ten point ride in a heat kinda surfing.

Lovely surfing by both guys.

Kelly on a shortish quad. Not the ideal board for biggish JBay. It seems surfing on a not ideal board helps to keep Kelly interested. A very mild version of Derek Hynd's approach.

Phew. I am happy others beside my kook self brought it up - would love to see what happened on a longer board with more rail. Although, he is clearly jazzing in this clip and it is cool to watch. Sean Holmes knows that wave pretty well, hey? lol

@ Freeride "Dunno, his tube-riding is still stellar but those turns were unconvincing"

True for the last few waves, but the first few were there for me. I was convinced by 2:12 and 2:51 - little bit of a wobble and heave in the latter, but does it get much better than 2:12?

Maybe he was suffering a bit of thigh-fatigue in the afternoon: who knows, maybe at 40 even His Baldness is not immune to it.

I didn't realise the water got that cold at Jbay. I always assumed it was around a mild 17º. With the need for gloves on must be closer to 12 or 13º unless Slater is a wooz. Agree with the short board not working well on the face. Can't, not enough rail. Remember when he won Bells in 2006? Beautiful carving turns on a much longer board than he was riding here. It was mentioned recently that he hasn't won a comp forever doing turns it is always a hail Mary or a tube. No wonder Sean nearly won it one year, he surfs it beautifully.

In one sense, yeah I can see what you guys mean, definitely not his best for sheer on-edge rail to rail surfing.

On the other hand, you've got to be fucking kidding me. The guy is out on a free surf, may well have taken out a board not suited to the conditions to learn something about it, get a feel for it in conditions it wasn't necessarily made for, find its limits, take in information for the future.

Or perhaps he just wanted to have a fun surf and wasn't out to impress the cube monkeys.

Seriously, who are you guys judging his free surfing exploits? I don't believe in the tall poppy syndrome, have argued vehemently in other forums why it doesn't exist/isn't peculiar to Australia, but by god you sound like a bunch a sloth brained Aussie knockers.

Best surfer ever, without question. Sure Curren had better style, Mark Richards made bigger leaps in the surfing of the day than any other, Occy had a better backhand attack etc.

All true. Still, Slater, best surfer ever.

Just enjoy it. Be a bit zen about the bloody thing. You don't have to have to be a critic, just soak it up. Don't get sucked into that modern mentality of critiquing everything.

Especially you Shearer!

With ya, batfink.

Kelly always wears rubber. spring suit in pacfic Fiji / tahiti/Hawaii when most others in boardies

Ahh comeon batsy when they are all on a ridiculous level it is a great armchair sport just like comparing different batsman, bowlers (just not the Aussies right now please), etc. No one is trying to bring him down just observations. Non of the comments were bagging him. Me thinks you have taken it the wrong way.

Im also with batfink got to love that effortless surfing soudtrack was awesome too.

That last bit where he comes off the back of the wave and the spray is raining down on him and he stands there for a split second..awesome stuff.
Great song by Silversun pickups

A wave around the 4 min mark, no big turns, airs or hacks just total freedom in his surfing letting the wave dictate. That to me is beautiful surfing no point to prove just been in sync with the wave, the surroundings and himself.

Slater's still the master. So precise and relaxed even across the wind ripples on the wave face. Will never tire of seeing his speed and controlled looseness. Amazing athletic ability to rescue himself from impossible situations.