Nearing Retirement After 3-Decade-Old Career, 11x WSL Champ Shares Rare Memory of One of His Smallest Surfboards

Time to turn through the surfing archives and flip to the chapters of the 90s icons. A tribe of the early 1990s school crew of surfers included Kelly Slater, Ross Williams, and Shane Dorian. The young and wild boys were part of the Momentum Generation group, which had ten core members. These men discovered the biggest waves, and despite their shenanigans, took surfing as a serious profession, creating history in the sport. When Kelly Slater won the ASP World Tour title, the boys rolled him down a steep hill wrapped in a blanket, in a trash plastic with a pink helmet on.

The squad won the biggest surfing titles and remained connected through the sport, eventually leaving a legacy in their names. However, Kelly still holds onto his competitive surfing spirits and is yet to retire as a professional surfer. Surfing fanatics often share old memories of these legends on the internet, and recently Slater shared one such surfing memory.

Nostalgia hit the trio like a Kahuna wave

In a recent Instagram story, Kelly Slater reposted a post shared by @oldschool80ssurfmags which had a surfing picture of Ross Williams from the 9os. The picture has power and style written all over it as Williams cuts through the waves flaunting his signature back knee tilt. The marvelous shot was captured at the beach park in 1991 on Kelly Slater’s surfboard. Slater posted a story captioned, “@rosswilliamshawaii on one my small boards in 91-92. I had 4 boards with this airbrush and Ross and @shanedorian rode a couple for a while. Looks like it went pretty good.”

The two shared the nostalgic moment acknowledged in their stories. The group remains close than ever while Slater surfers on to his next big game. 11X surfing champ mentioned having a 5’2” thruster as his first surfboard in an interview. He further described his board saying the “bottom had an airbrush of Jaws,” revealing his fondness for small boards. Slater shared that the 1998 World Title was the closest to him, saying, “Ross Williams took out Danny Wills and then Rob [Machado] and I had an incredible heat in perfect waves, which I won [and] that sealed the title.” In the interview, Slater also confessed wanting to surf with Dorian at Jaws, back in his 2015-2017 era.

Slater’s surfing journey seems to be nearing retirement as the surfer has mentioned about it quite a few times since 2018. The surfer won his first World title at 20 and his last at 39, coupled with the all-time leader wins. Having what looks like a partial retirement, Slater just cannot keep himself away from the waves. He continues to compete at 51, becoming the oldest surfer in history with about 56 career championship tour victories. In the 2021“The Rich Eisen Show,” he stated, “At some point, everything comes to an end,” remaining skeptical about his fixed plans to quit surfing.

Kelly Slater hints towards his best before his professional surf exit

The greatest surfer of all time is all set to hit the coasts of Tahini to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics selection. He has previously participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics selection but lost one spot away from his debut at the Olympics. Since surfing was only added back in the 2020 Olympics, Slater sure wishes to leave no title untouched in the surfing world before he retires, as he said, “If I make the Olympics, I’ll retire at the Olympics.” The coast of Teahupo’o, Tahiti will witness the Paris Olympics 2024 selection, where Slater has professionally surfed many times in his career.

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Slater earned the World Surf League (WSL) lifeline, enabling him to enter as the wildcard at the 2023 Championship Tour. Well, his excitement is driving the surfing community to look forward to his performance as he turns to the waves, which earned him five World Championship titles. The icon expresses confidence in himself as he nears the Tahini coast by declaring, “I have a really good chance of a medal, but I think the harder part is going to be getting there, to be honest.” Fans continue to be overjoyed to watch the 90s surfer triumph at Teahupo’o, giving him his sixth greatest win, as the WSL route opens up to the last of his legacy.

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