“Hip works.”
Four days ago, the 11-time world champion Kelly Slater shocked surf fans with his sudden withdrawal from the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, an event notorious for the number of crucial heats held in the ghastliest conditions due its proximity to Atlantic Ocean storms.
Kelly Slater, who just turned fifty-two, blamed his no-show on the slow recovery from surgery to repair the ring of cartilage that lines the rim of the hip joint socket.
The pelvis of Kelly Slater has been an ongoing issue with the star, his hip real bad ever since he did the splits on a wipeout at Sunset thirty-two years ago when he thought he’d snapped his femur. A few years later he was towing in Tahiti and doing flips off the back of waves when he landed weird, hurt his hip, and then in the summer of 2000 he went in for surgery to clean up the mess.
Announcing the withdrawal Slater wrote,
“Still dealing with hip recovery and still in pain with basic mobility. thanks for the messages from Portuguese fans and apologies I won’t be seeing you in Supertubos. Hoping to feel better for Bell’s (the first event I surfed as a full time tour surfer in 1992). Fingers crossed the World Surf League scores some good waves in Portugal and good luck to everyone.”
Portugal has never been kind to Kelly Slater. A couple of world titles were pulled from his grip after losing to local wildcards in awful low-tide conditions. At the time it seemed an undignified end for the greatest of all time, like an old-aged In-N-Out worker slinging burgers and fries in his eighth decade.
In a subsequent Instagram story, Slater admitted “I may never sue there again.”
Anyway, surf fans were delighted to see the injury hasn’t slowed down the champ who was filmed by his anti-woke crusader boy-pal Peter King digging a fjord on a broad Hawaiian canvas.
“Hip works,” quipped Parker Coffin to which Kelly Slater replied, “Hip hurts but not twisting much or doing airs and she goes a little. Still quite a bit of pain.”
(Can’t post on BeachGrit ’cause PK blocked us etc.)
