Getty Image / Ryan Pierse
One thing I low key love about covering Kelly Slater news is that it is not even the slightest bit controversial to call him the greatest surfer of all time.
In most sports, the true ‘GOAT’ is up for debate and can send fanbases into a rage defending exceptional athletes. The LeBron James vs Michael Jordan debate would be a perfect example of this. But in professional surfing, Kelly Slater is the undisputed GOAT after winning the World Surf League tour 11 times and he has won 56 WSL events. Tom Curren has the 2nd most wins with 33 to give you a sense of how wide the gap is.
Suffice it to say that any advice Kelly Slater has about safety in the water is advice worth listening to. Sitting down with Steve-O recently, Kelly Slater discussed shark encounters and how best to handle a close encounter.
Kelly Slater: “If you ever have a situation in the ocean with a shark face. I don’t care what your instincts tell you, face the shark. You have to because it’s ‘predator vs prey’.:
Kelly Slater: “And you know, you see if a lion gets spotted it changes the (hunting) game. There’s no difference with sharks. If you face a shark they realize. I’ve seen some of these (videos of) some of the people who swim with the sharks in Hawaii the Tigers. They do these experiments to film and show where maybe the shark’s 20-30 yards away they swim away splashing. (The) shark comes up at them quick.”
Kelly Slater: “As soon as they turn around and face a shark it goes to about half the speed and calms down. And it’s like oh because they’re investigating things that are splashing in the ocean. Like they’re dying and they’re the cleaners of the ocean so they’re just after anything that’s erratic so you got to like somehow pull together and be calm and see a shark and face it.”
Of course, if you see a shark in the water the safest thing to do is get out of the water. Full stop, get out if you want to be safe. However, Kelly Slater is about as knowledgable on the human-shark unspoken laws of the ocean as any human can possibly be so I trust him on this. And I hope that next time I’m surfing or diving and I come face to face with a shark that I can at least remember to keep it together.