Kelly Slater The Hunter … Not The Hunted

Justin Cote

October 06 2009
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Kelly and longtime friend, Stephen "Belly" Belle. Photo: jackenglish.com

Kelly Slater was in France for the Quiksilver Pro and talked to Ben Mondy for Magicseaweed, about his chase for a 10th world title, board experimentation, mind-games and what ‘life’ would mean after the tour.

How good is it to here in Europe for the Quiksilver Pro and the following events?

It’s fantastic. Look, I love coming here, especially to France. I’ve been coming here for almost 20 years now and I have some good friends that live here, the food is great and yeah, you can drive real fast, which I like, a lot.

What’s best case scenario for you for the European legs?

You know I need a repeat of last year when everyone that was in running all fell by the wayside pretty early. So I kinda need that to happen, for me to be somewhere steady with the guys that are chasing the leaders. And then if it all went to plan I’d have something maybe to go to Hawaii with.

How different is it being the hunter and not the hunted? It hasn’t happened that often in your career.

Yeah, it’s a different experience for sure. You know I started this year with a really bad string of results and wasn’t very focused, but still I wasn’t too worried about it after the first event. I’ve been messing around and experimenting with my boards and you can’t really focus on the event or competition side of things when you are doing that. I mean you have to try and do both, but it’s always going to take away from your competitive aspirations at some level.