Continuance: The Kelly Slater documentary series - video
The limelight might be slowly slipping away but ol' Baldy has engineered a way to stay in the game: a web series! Just like John John, Mason, Seabass, and even Dion all those years ago.
It's called 'Continuance' and it'll follow him around the world this year as competes on the tour. At least I assume that's the plot, the first instalment is mostly filmed on the Gold Coast.
Ostensibly it's to celebrate the people and places that are close to Kelly, but there are some subplots to consider. How much of it will be Kelly controlling the retirement narrative? And how much is it a platform for Kelly's business interests such as OK, Slater Designs, and his hot tub? In answer to the latter, there's no free embedding from Vimeo, you'll have to click through to the OK website to watch it. I don't know, maybe buy a beanie while you're there.
Watch it through to the credits and you'll see the name of the director and producer is Alek Parker. Slater and Parker have some history and not just because they're both from Florida. Ten years ago Slater's Komunity Project sponsored Alek Parker, but this was before he quit pro surfing and took up photogaphy and film work, eventually landing a gig with Vice.
It's a plum job for Parker and he's got a fully kitted production team behind him. I look forward to seeing how this series unfolds.
Comments
Cool :P
Top shelf production .....
simba
Great production and vision.
Does a pretty good Aussie imitation too.
Ignorance is Zen
Very engaging, also great to listen to someone talk without all the umms and ahhs. Gonna help his scores by elevating his profile by .5.
Add a Brazilian style claim and thats an extra 2.5 pts to a score.
I actually think Jordy Smith and Mick Fanning are 2 of the biggest culprits for over-claiming.
Julian Wilson is no slouch either when it comes to the claim.
Ignorance is Zen
Jordy's Bells claim was really bad.
We are so lucky to have an articulate, emotionally wide-open, 11 time world champ guru. I love that he is responsible in his position of leader. Nobody is perfect, it is great that he acknowledges his flaws.
Billie
Sick production, what other content has Alek Parker put out?
Kelly's board may not have had huge fans of spray shooting skyward, but from that footage it looked pretty suited to tight arc vertical surfing with speed. I think Kelly is getting a lot of satisfaction out of being involved and putting back what he can into surfing along the way. If Kelly could combine a Woodward style skatepark with a snake run down the side of a mountain with his wave pool, I think it would be a holy grail of a fun park. Great to watch as always KS and good luck with the year ahead.
WHAT ABOUT PURPS, HAS EVERY ONE FORGOTTEN PURPS HUH HUH ???
Never, ever--seen anybody with a Purps in their hand, and a OK beenie would set you back about 60 or 70 U.S.$-- As far as the hot tub--the wave tank--there's now a world of the haves--and the have nots. OK by me--stoked I've got the real thing......
I am amazed he is totally engrossed in surfing still. He has never done an Occy and got sick of it. The intensity about competition is also incredible. One driven human that is for sure. Although there were no ums or ahhs there were plenty of the dreaded 'likes'. How the F&$'k did that creep in to our day to day conversations.
Looks like Kelly has all but given up on chasing the title this year:
" have been working through some injuries the past several seasons and, unfortunately, I need to take some time off to mend my body,” Slater said. “I won’t be in Rio and I don’t know how long I'll need. My lower back has been in constant pain for the last three years and although I’ve been able to fight through it with short stints of rehab, it hasn’t fixed the problem. If I don’t do this now, at some point, I’ll ruin my body. I’m spending the next five weeks rehabilitating with WSL Doctors in Australia and we’ll see how I feel after that. I’m hopeful that I will be in top form again this season at some point. Thanks everyone for the support.”
This means he'll carry at least one 13th into his 'title race', and while people have won before with 13ths it makes his job that much harder
Also, the language used in the above statement doesn't speak of someone fighting for the title.
I for one would not miss Slater in comps - that much, I would much rather watch web clips of him riding waves I can only dream of, doing things I cant even dream of. Sure competitive surfing may be entertaining but lets not kid anyone, I want to see insane surfing in insane waves. How often does that happen on tour? A handful of times per year max... Lets see Kelly get right into the Tomo relationship and do something we have never seen before. Will also shake up the WSL nicely
Like a button up
Father time catches up with all of us eventually even Slats. Injuries are that much harder to get over the older you get plus your natural flexibility ebbs away as well. I think his crack at another world title #whatever is done and dusted. Been a brilliant competitive career to witness and I dare say there is lots more in store out of the arena.