In March last year, Kelly Slater, fifty-three, became a daddy for the second time, although it was the first kid for Ms Kalani Miller, the thirty-six-year-old Chinese American girl boss of Mikoh swimwear.
Just as opaque was the name of the gorgeous little red-haired boy with Kelly Slater telling Barton Lynch that it might take up to a year to find a suitable handle.
“We got a little boy and my friends think we’re playing a game with him, because we haven’t said the name,” Slater told the 1988 world champion. “Because we actually, we don’t actually don’t call him anything. We gave him a name for his birth certificate, but, as of now, we don’t have a name to call him. So, we’re kind of just, like, letting him figure out what his personality is.”
Eventually, surf fans learned “Tao” was chosen, a cosmic east Asian word meaning “natural way of the universe.”
Now, Slater has revealed Tao has the middle name Druku after the beloved Fijian Ratu Sakiusa Nadruku Lalabalavu aka Chief Druku. The Tavaura chief who died in 2015 aged just sixty-three, was close to the 11-time world champ, who has been visiting Tavarua since 1990.
In an excellent obituary featured on the SMA website Simon Leslie writes.
Although known to be fiercely competitive on the ping-pong table, Kelly Slater, in his heart-felt eulogy described Druku’s magnanimous nature, reflecting on the love so clearly evident between all Fijians. Druku teed off on the first hole of one of their golf games with an enormous swing yet the ball dribbled off the tee to the side. Druku’s response with no hint of sarcasm: “I love golf!”. Druku delighted in practical jokes. After one particularly wild water bomb fight between guests on the island he told a young and earnest first time guest that because she had shown such disrespect by “trashing” his island she had to leave on the afternoon boat. He waited until she was fully packed before he told her “I was only joking.”
Druku’s final surf was at Restaurants in 2013 at the age of 61. He had accepted a bet that if Kelly won the Volcom pro that they would share a wave at restaurants. Kelly put him on an 8-foot board coached him into a wave and took off behind him surfing down the line before they wiped out together. Surfing could not have given Druku a more fitting tribute.
Slater says Chief Druku told him in 1990 that Tavarua was Slater’s home as much as it was his and therefore he gave Tao the middle name Druku to pay tribute to the great chief. As well, Slater said he hoped Tao would work as a boatman on the island some day.
“It’s my dream for him to take people surfing,” said Slater.
Twenty minutes if you wanna get straight to it.
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