[Cassette tape winding]
[David Gerlach] You're listening to Blank on Blank,
where lost interviews come to life, distributed by the Public Radio Exchange,
prx.org. I'm David Gerlach.
[Soft, acoustic music, Kelly Slater sings] "The days are passing so fast, man I
make it through this. My self belief: I'm better on my own."
[Kelly Slater, spoken] You know, I mean early on it would be like if "I just win
a contest on tour", or whatever, win a regional contest when I'm an amateur.
It eventually became "I want to win a world title", then
"I want to win multiple world titles."
And. You know, I was going for all these "things", and, but I never felt
comfortable in that moment in my skin. I was always worried about the past
and, or worried about the future and thinking about something that happened in
the past, and never like in that moment.
[Soft, acoustic music, Slater sings] "the time is now, please don't let this go.
so let's just sail away and find our place today,
forget the yesterdays we're living."
[Slater] When you break through whatever it is you need to break through
to actually live in the moment, and have the experiences
that are happening right now. It's a... you know...
For me that was a very special thing. Which only, probably happened.
Um... you know... in this decade, for me. And, I uh... I had a few situations.
Um... uh... you know my personal life where, I was forced. You know, my dad
dying, cheated on a girlfriend. All these kind of things. Like a bunch of things
converged in one year for me, [Josh Baron] Mm-hmm.
[Slater] in my life. And um... And I just sort of, uh, saw it pointing to the fact
things, my life was getting worse not better. And it should be getting better, because
I've done all the things, met all the people, been all the places,
and accomplished the things that I wanted to accomplish.
[Baron] Mm-hmm. [Slater] But life was somehow
getting worse, you know. [Baron] You sort of, uh, alluded
to it a little bit earlier, eight world titles. Sounds like you found some...
[Slater] ...Nine actually... (laughs) [Baron]...nine. Excuse me. Sorry.
Nine. My bad, a little embarrassing. Nine. Um, it sounds like you found someone that
you care, and, you know, love deeply, and, you know, traveled to, you know, pretty
much any place you want to travel on Earth thus far.
[Slater] Yep. [Baron] Has anything alluded you?
[Slater] Um, probably just like experiences at home with
family and friends, and um, with my daughter. Um, who's twelve now.
Um, I have some, uh, some residual guilt there, cause I'm just not home much.
And uh, you know I just don't get to see her that often.
[Gerlach] Slater really opened up here about troubles in his family life,
and a few minutes later, he again picked up his guitar and continued on that
train of thought. Here it is. [Soft, acoustic music]
[Slater] I woke up on my mom's birthday and wrote this one, you know. It was like,
uh, probably three years ago. I'll just sing a verse.
[Slater sings] "I never really needed a father.
I've never been that close to my daughter. Oh but I,
I'm coming home to you."
[Slater, speaking] Sorry, I haven't played it probably since then. (chuckles)
[Gerlach] That's champion surfer and musician Kelly Slater on his
not so perfect life, and this is Blank on Blank. Thanks again to Josh Baron,
Editor-in-Chief of Relix Magazine for adding his interview to the archive.
For more interviews that you can hear nowhere else, head over to
blankonblank.org. I'm David Gerlach, keep listening. Blank on Blank is distributed
by the Public Radio Exchange, prx.org. [Soft, acoustic music]
[Slater singing] "Just like heaven,
in your eyes.
Now I think I, I realize."
[Slater, spoken] Something like that, but. Kind of summing up, my uh, you know the
people around me, and...
Subtitles by the Amara.org community