Kelly confirms: I’m out
ELEVEN-TIME world champion Kelly Slater has officially withdrawn from Easter’s Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.
The surfing legend put an end to speculation surrounding his participation at the event yesterday, pulling out due to the ongoing rehabilitation of a foot injury he sustained in South Africa last year.
Slater, a four-time winner at Bells, is expected to rejoin the tour when it heads to Margaret River after Easter.
“I think it’s best that I properly rehabilitate the injury and choose to surf wholeheartedly. I’ll be back when the time is right,” Slater said.
It’s a shame because everyone enjoys watching the greatest surfer of all time compete, even though these days his dominance of the sport is over and he’s actually no longer among the favourites to win an event like Bells.
While he has won four Bells titles, they were achieved in his prime and if Slater is to achieve another World Championship Tour victory, most likely it would be in a super hollow wave like Tahiti or even the beach breaks of France.
Slater’s position will be filled by young South Africanborn surfer Mikey February.
“It’s a weird way to get on the CT — it’s cheesy, but I guess everything happens for a reason,” said February.
“With the possibility of me being a part of this Tour for the year, I want to look at all these match-ups and improve.
“I think the year’s going to be full of a lot of learning.”
Despite no Slater, the interest in Bells will be intense this year, mainly because Australia’s favourite surfer Mick Fanning will, at some stage, surf his absolute final heat as a touring world championship league surfer.
Fanning’s performance on the Gold Coast was mediocre at best. He was eliminated in Round 4 and his early round victories were not all that convincing.
Regardless, I still think Fanning is a real chance to end his career in a fertile manner and he could well win or make the final at Bells.
He is just so suited to the wave and if we get decent waves he will be extremely hard to beat across the famous Bells bowl. No one knows the wave better than Mick.
It’s too early to start predicting swells, but right now the winds and surf are terrible, and to me that is a good sign that conditions will improve very shortly. The event starts next Wednesday.
Four Day Forecast: The terrible winds from the past few days will back right off today and surf conditions are looking reasonable through the forecast period. Look for peaky fun beach breaks today and tomorrow morning with a swell increase on the reefs tomorrow afternoon. The weekend should be clean with fun waves on beaches and small reefs.