WAITING GAME
SURFING STAR SLATER IS ON STANDBY TO HELP OUT THE U.S.
LEMOORE >> An overly hot day in the Central Valley found the greatest surfer in history walking barefoot around a sprawling facility that manufactures perfectly sculpted waves.
Kelly Slater, 49, was in his element at the Jeep Surf Ranch Pro, the last competition before the Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan.
An unexpected turn of events has led to the possibility that the 11-time world champion will enter a new arena next month in Tokyo, a twist that could draw more attention to an outdoor adventure sport making an Olympic debut.
Slater is on standby after injuries to America’s two qualifiers this year left an opening for the team’s famous alternate.
A lot has to happen before Slater can paddle for gold at Tsurigasaki Beach in Chiba, Japan. But his presence would add a celebrity vibe to the waves.
“I don’t want to make it that way,” Slater said. “But if that is what it is I’ll take my spot.”
Surfing was a niche sport for Slater’s generation well before Olympic
officials saw the need to attract X Games crowds to energize flagging viewership.
“Not to minimalize it, it is more for kids in the future,” Slater said of the Olympics.
Slater failed to qualify by the slightest margins in the 2019 World Surf
League finale in Hawaii. Now his status depends on the recoveries of Olympic qualifiers Kolohoe Andino and John John Florence.
Andino has resumed training at a surf break near his San Clemente home while recovering from two ankle sprains.
Florence, a two-time world champion from Hawaii, injured his left knee in early May during a competition in Australia. Florence had surgery to repair the damage and needs his recovery to go well to compete in Japan.
Slater saw Florence on a paddleboard on the North Shore of Oahu last week with a brace on the injured knee. He said Florence was not kicking with his left leg “so it makes me think he is in pain or really, really protecting it just to be careful.”
Slater and others worry about long-term damage if Florence tries to surf the small waves of Japan 12 weeks after the injury.
“It’s going to be up to him to decide, but he is going to be really susceptible to injury again,” Slater said of his friend and protege.
It seemed Slater’s Olympic hopes had been settled in a semifinal in December 2019 at the famed Pipeline on the North Shore, generally regarded as surfing’s ultimate playground.
Slater needed to defeat Brazilian star Italo Ferreira in the Pipe Masters heat to pass Florence, who had compiled enough points despite withdrawing from the world tour after an anterior cruciate ligament tear.
“I literally missed making the Olympics by one wave, by one heat,” Slater said. “If I had won one more heat from the whole year I would have made the team.”
Greg Cruse, chief executive of USA Surfing, expects Andino to be ready for Tokyo. So it comes down to Florence and Slater again but without waves determining the outcome.
Cruse is confident Florence will be honest about his capability.
“John John at 70 percent could still medal,” Cruse said. “I want him to make the best decision for him.”
ThemeetinJapan would be the first competition in months for both U.S. Olympians if they are healthy enough to surf.
Cruse said the final rosters have to be submitted by July 24.
Slater also has been injured this year with ankle and hip issues. He has competed in only two of six WSL Championship Toureventssofar.
But he looked good in his first competition since the injuries when finishing eighth over the weekend.Slaterdidn’ttakeany practice runs at the artificial wave pool he developed in the Central Valley. Instead, the surfer arrived 20 minutes before his first heat, advanced to the next round and then spent a day doing promotional work and hanging with friends.
“I hope he decides to come to Japan just in case John John can’t surf,” USA Surfing’s Cruse said. “He needs to be there and be recognized.”
The WSL’s chief executive Erik Logan said having Slater at the first surfing Olympics would be a fitting tribute “for us to sit back and enjoy the career that he’s had and the fact that he is in the top five in the sport today at his age.”
Slater is the caretaker of professional surfing, having ushered the sport into the 21st century as its popularity exploded. The Olympics provides the sport with a big stage beyond the ocean, which causes Slater some concern.
“Surfing has gotten more mainstream but there is an importance in keeping the DNA on the right side,” he said of the counterculture lifestyle.
Slater proposed buildingawavesysteminJapan for the Olympics to ensure a good showing. But he said Tokyo organizers wanted to use their beaches instead of an artificially produced wave.
That leaves the surfing competition at the mercy of weather gods. It’s a gamble that a swell will arrive for the Games.
“That time of the year it literally could go lake-flat for a week,” Slater said. “That could be much more harmful to our sport than helpful. If guys can’t speed upanddoaerialsanddo the good standard of surfing that we have it’s just going to be a non-event really.”
Another issue is the competitive field. Each country was allotted two Olympic spots, which is standard for many sports. Theproblemismostofthe world’s best surfers hail from Australia, Brazil and the United States.
The Olympics won’t be as competitive as any given WSL tour event. Filipe Toledo, for example, missed the cut on the favored Brazilian team. He is considered the world’s best small wave competitor.
“They couldn’t make a little more room for clearly the best guys?” Slater asked. “I think there is a good case to be made that you should take the top 10 in the world wherever they are from and then figure out the teams.”
If he winds up competing, Slater isn’t interested in winning medals for his country as much as meeting athletes to share cultures. It is something he has done for 35 years while on an endless summer.
“I’m from Florida, but I don’t necessarily feel like an American,” Slater said. “I feel like I came from the Earth.”
From the ocean is more like it.