Kelly Slater's wildcard-drama (and who is Kelia?)

Why this will be the opener of Kelly-news this season

By now you know our standard ritual: every episode starts with the question of what Kelly has been up to this time. Usually, that involves a penthouse or a golf course. This time, it was simply about surfing, and what surfing it was. Something happened at Teahupo'o that we will probably keep discussing every week this season: a 54-year-old man with a titanium hip who literally fought his way back into a heat against the heaviest wave in the world.

The hip, the wildcard, and why not everyone was happy

Kelly received a wildcard for Teahupo'o, a wave where he has won five times before. Not everyone thought that was a good idea. Age wasn't even the biggest issue; the criticism stemmed mainly from the fact that he was taking the spot of a young local surfer, someone who might never get that chance again. Add to that the fact that Outerknown, his own clothing brand, also happens to be the title sponsor of the event, and you understand why the comments exploded.

And then there is that small detail: he has just come off hip surgery and had to cut short his last competitive outing. So, on paper, it sounded like a publicity stunt by a man whose best days were long behind him.

The Battle of Medina: from complete disaster to 19.06

Day one, roaring, unpredictable conditions of 2.5 to 3 meters, and immediately the highest combined score of the day. After that, he faced Gabriel Medina, a three-time world champion, and his biggest rival in these kinds of waves.

The heat started off as a disaster. Two heavy crashes and a board that broke in two on the rock-hard Teahupo'o lip. And then the tide turned completely. Two monstrous barrels: 9.73 and 9.33. A total of 19.06 out of 20, enough to push Medina into an impossible combo situation and snatch the heat.

His run eventually ended against defending champion Jack Robinson, but with such a comeback against Medina, he silenced all his wildcard critics in one fell swoop.

The board that is never allowed to leave the island

And this is where it gets really beautiful. On that heavy day, Kelly surfed his 6'1" Slater Design Gamma, somewhere between 30 and 31 liters. A small, light board for such a heavy wave. But this isn't just any board from his board bag: it is his magic board for Teahupo'o, the board he has been surfing here for years and which actually never leaves the island. While the rest of his quiver travels the world, this one board simply stays in Tahiti, waiting for Kelly to stand in front of it again.

And who is keeping watch there? Raimana, the famous Tahitian local. You might not know him by name, but you know him from his work: he is the one who, at the Surf Ranch—Kelly’s own artificial wave—pushes the biggest Hollywood names and celebrities into the barrel on their knees on a soft-top, so they can brag about a good story back home. That same Raimana was also in the water when Laird Hamilton surfed the infamous Millennium Wave in 2000, a moment that rewrote the sport's history books (and with a little shout-out to Oxbow, because yes, Laird surfed that wave under their flag).

While the rest of the tour experiments with the latest materials and shapes, Kelly simply wins with a board that had been waiting for him for years.

And then, of course, we also have the women.

Naturally, we also have to talk about the women, and there happened to be a very remarkable story there as well. Kelia Mehani Gallina, 14, lives in Teahupo'o itself, with a view of the wave from her bedroom. She has been surfing there since she was three and already won a Guinness World Record in 2025 as the youngest surfer ever on the Championship Tour.

In this edition, she went a step further. During her birthday week—she turned fourteen in the middle of the competition—she simply knocked out Tyler Wright, the two-time world champion, and then also Caroline Marks, the 2023 world champion and 2024 Olympic champion. She eventually reached the quarter-finals before losing to Anat Lelior.

And we really have to pause here for a moment: Kelia. Doesn't that sound suspiciously like Kelly? Where was Kelly Slater actually fourteen years ago? Had he perhaps been to Tahiti before as well? We certainly don't want to insinuate anything here, but in our opinion, coincidence doesn't exist.

One last extra: Europe in yellow

Another thing we cannot simply let pass: Leonardo Fioravanti, the Roman warrior and our European pride on the Tour, is currently simply surfing around in the yellow leader's jersey. Europeans on the World Tour are rare enough as it is, let alone one in yellow. That deserves its own place in Kelly-news, even if this time it is not about Kelly himself.

Our conclusion

Forty years of history, a fixed plank that is never allowed to leave the island, a teenage girl with a suspiciously fitting name, and a European in yellow. If this is the opener of Kelly News this season, then it is going to be a long and enjoyable year of updates.

Do you have a question of your own about Kelly, Teahupo'o, or anything surf-related? Drop it in our SEPAMA via the website or social media, and we might cover it in the next episode or blog post.

Let's Go!