Kelly Gets A 10, Then Nearly Drowns, 2010
Kelly Gets A 10, Then Nearly Drowns, 2010
It was one of those freak Kelly Slater moments of which there are so many, up there alongside the no-hands drop 10 at Teahupoo the same year, the airs at New York and Bells, the 720 in Portugal, the 4.17, etc.
A little context, first: the spot was Culs Nus, the heat was the semi-finals, and Slater’s opponent was Brett Simpson — Brett Simpson! In the semis! — who managed a combined heat total of 3.00. I’m not making this up, honestly. It was as though Brett had been possessed by a demon with a cruel sense of humour, inspired to greatness, then abandoned in the latter stages of a world tour event, surfing against Kelly Slater, 10ft bombs discharging all around him.
Anyway, Kelly’s wave. Waiting for the wave to reach the shallower part of the sandbar, Slater stalled aggressively as he slid down the face on a board that looked a touch small for the double-overhead conditions. He slid too far, losing the grip of his fins and pivoting around his nose; as he tried to adjust, the curtain fell and obscured him from view. From a certain angle it looked like the show was over.
Slater reemerged however for an encore, and you’ll probably never hear a score drop faster: the perfect 10 — just the 2nd of the year at that point — was broadcast by the beach announcer within ten seconds. In one sense, of course, it had been a mistake, and some felt that Kelly was unduly rewarded for solving a problem of his own making, ingenious though the solution may have been. But it was undeniably functional, wiping off additional speed — which was after all his intention — and positioning him deeper in the barrel than he could possibly have been otherwise.
Slater lost to Mick in the final, and during the subsequent freesurf suffered a two-wave hold-down that he described as being the closest he’s come to drowning anywhere in his entire life. The lesson, I think, being never to underestimate the power of a pumping French beachie.
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