Kelly Slater is an Idiot!

[Grooter]

I thought the Red Rooster ads were nice. I would have liked to see Chairman Mao in there as well. Maybe some socialist realist pictures with a MacFeast in their upturned hands. Mao morphing into The Coln Sanders.

Heh! Good one

[ric_vidal]

Waste of space RV ?

luverly, kk, devoid of emotion but better than white space, unless you are a designer oh hang on, you are, of sorts...

Olympics, hmm, I dunno, not many alternatives most of the time. Just give me the highlights.

[oldman]

If Simon hadn't invented the thruster, well, someone else would have.

So no matter what happened, the thruster was coming our way anyway.

just around here was where I got that idea oldfella.

A complete imponderable presented as reality.

- unless

and completely qualified by 'unless'. You've quoted me without the context, you cheeky bugger.

[Nick Carroll]

You've quoted me without the context, you cheeky bugger.

well for christ's sake I AM a journalist.

[Lucky Al]

you blokes are just rambling on now because you like seeing 'kelly slater is an idiot!' on the front page! i wouldn't actually mind one day sitting down with kelly for a chat (in between his pashing sessions in the corner with 2nd reef, of course), but i'm afraid i might have ruined my chances at that for good now. so, let's talk about something else in another thread!

[oldman]

well for christ's sake I AM a journalist.

Indeed you are Mr Carroll.

[oldman]

you blokes are just rambling on now because you like seeing 'kelly slater is an idiot!' on the front page! i wouldn't actually mind one day sitting down with kelly for a chat (in between his pashing sessions in the corner with 2nd reef, of course), but i'm afraid i might have ruined my chances at that for good now. so, let's talk about something else in another thread!

Just don't tell KS that you're Lucky Al, and he'll be none the wiser.

Unless that dobber 2nd reef dobs you in in a vain attempt to lure KS into a pashing session in the corner.

[Buff_Brad]

You've quoted me without the context, you cheeky bugger.

well for christ's sake I AM a journalist.

Gossip columnist Nick ..... that's your calling now mate. A move to North Bondi and that would complete the picture.

[oldman]

the absolutely s**tful advertising content. :

I haven't watched that much this time, so I have largely avoided all that cloying hero worship crap they go on with.

But as for ads, I would like to turn at this point to the advertising in the 2nd rugby league match on Friday nights.

I'm not sure about you, but I think they have been cutting away from the Kentucky Fried hot box ads too frequently. You know the ads where someone asks 'what's it like', and they get a double handed slap.

It's very annoying how much rugby league you have to put up with before you get back to the real action, the KFC ads. I do wish they would stop interrupting the advertising with short snippets of RL. What do they think it is?

[Nick Carroll]

Rugby League players. cripes and we're calling Kelly an idiot!

[Grooter]

Yep just like ex-AFL players glassing the missus seems like the thing to do.

That's the problem with professional sport in Australia now. These footy players just get far too much money and it makes them believe they are invincible. Especially in Melbourne where the cult of the AFL player is worshipped on almost every street corner.

Used to see plenty of the St Kilda AFL players partying hard in Frankston about 10+ years ago carrying on like they were some untouchable force. Fcuking idiots.

[oldman]

Yes, rugby leagure players. You have to admire how Kelly handles himself compared to these buffoons. The adulation probably isn't as concentrated geographically as in NRL or AFL, but it more than makes up for that by crossing borders, time zones, hemispheres.

And he has handled it for around 17, or is it 18 or 20 years now.

My head would just be a complete mess by now, would have been long ago. I reckon he maintains a level of humility that is incredible. His biggest problem with women seems to be that he falls in love with them, a problem that afflicts many of us. Can't remember too many stories about him pushing beer glasses into their faces.

[SharkBoy]

I don't see Kelly as such a huge problem to the contribution of kooks in the water. If you ask me, it was the resurrection of the fun and longboards.

When I was a teen, and we were surfing, some would want to try surfing. They'd buy the state of the art 6'1" x 17 3/4" x 2" Kelly Slater 'potato chip' regardless of their size.
Paddle without surfing for 6 weeks.
Eventually break it and say,
'surfing is not for me'.

But ever since the bigger boards started becoming more and more popular, it seems like the handicap surfers are the ones who have the advantage.

I have been on a swim team all my life and have surfed since I was 9, but I can't compete at 78 kilos on a 6'0" x 18 1/4" x 2 1/4" shortboard against someone of the same size on a 6'10" 7fish. Especially now where there are 50 000 of them at every spot.

I remember reading an NC article (could it be called Kookacracy?) that illustrated this nicely.

If you ask me, Point Break, Blue Crush, calling internet using Surfing, and handicap surfboards are all worse than anything Kelly's ever done.

[marlowe]

Having surfed alongside KS a few times I have to say he's neither a kook nor an idiot, as much as the average punter would wish him to be at least one of the above. He's actually a pretty nice guy. I have to wonder how many surfers could really truly place hand on heart and swear there is absolutely not the slightest hint of sour grapes in their attitude toward Slater. Don't feel bad, it's OK. The guy rips like no-one else, gets paid big bucks to surf a selection of exotic locations around the world, has won everything he ever cared to aim at winning, and on top of that, every man and boy's fantasy woman falls at his feet. Kind of frustrating that he sets the bar so high. Makes us average joes look ...well...average.

Well, here's the thing; we need guys like him, they're called heroes. We're supposed to try to be like him, but very few, (if any), will ever achieve what he has. And don't expect to see another Slater in the next hundred years or so.

For the rest of what seems to be agitating posters here, if you've only just realised that surfing is actually now a fairly mainstream cultural phenomenon, WELL HELLO, ya shoulda been here yesterday! It cracks me up that so many people can be so blissfully unaware of the amount of ceaseless activity going on in the "global market place" aimed squarely at getting your hard-earned money out of your pocket. You certainly don't sidestep all that by paddling out at your local break. Urban surfing in the 21st century is not exactly a country soul sort of thing. If ya want truly uncrowded waves, take the back roads, surf with sharks and stay away from large concentrations of people. Never know, you might run into Kelly.

If there is such a thing as a surfing society, then every surfer has a social function within it. Just as the garbageman contributes to society the same as does the doctor or the butcher, so the pro surfer contributes to surfing as much as the "soul" surfer or the weekend warrior. It's just the kind of contribution that differs.

[Dingus]

I have a small problem with this 'hero' and 'idol' stuff. Does someone really want to try to be like somebody else or do you just want to develop a skill as much as you can, and that who you have classified as a hero is the highest level of competence in your eyes? I know this is different for each person and the degrees of 'heroworship' varies, but is it a case of wanting to be another person or to have the life they lead? The bloke before me says that we need these people called heroes, and that we're supposed to try to be like them. Why? Why supposed to try? Are we each supposed to vainly try to be another person for the duration of our active lives? Can we just support them, cheer on their efforts, swing allegiances according to current tastes and competition dynamics, go for the underdog, appreciate excellence, and just generally lead our own lives?
I see a (somewhat tenuous) analogy between extreme heroworship/supposed to be like another stuff with the paparazzi. They follow someone else around who is living their life, without actually doing any constructive, independant living of their own, just sucking off the fortunes of someone else.
For me, I rarely follow competitions and would have trouble naming more than half a dozen pros, and know bugger all about Slater. He seems to know exactly what he's doing and was celebrated long enough ago and has been exposed to surfing and all its range of participants for long enough to make a well reasoned decision.
On the other hand, I value LuckyAls opinions, and if he says he's an idiot....

[moreorless]

Nelson Mandela is a hero. "Weary" Dunlop is a hero. Kelly Slater is just a sports star.

[2nd Reef]

Nelson Mandela led a paramilitary group that violated human rights and killed civilians: an angry bastard.

Weary Dunlop was in the wrong place at the wrong time: an unlucky bastard.

Kelly Slater does rodeo-clowns and roots supermodels: just a bastard.

[kreepykrawly]

F-ck i cant believe i agree with 2ndreef on something.

I don’t rate Nelson Mandela as a hero. He was responsible for the murder of innocent women and children.
Ignore the facts and you run the risk of ignorantly hero worshipping monsters.

South Africa has a higher crime rate than it ever had under white rule. Corruption and murder rates have sky rocketed and the general standard of living is slowly sliding into something resembling the dark ages.

When the colonists started leaving Africa…Africa countries started plunging backwards into the savage continent that they started off as.

Sure everyone is free now. Free to die at an early age. Free to be raped. Free to get AIDS.

KK barricades himself into the bunker for the eminent assault.