Taking his first win at Teahupo’o 26 years ago, Kelly Slater, the 54-year-old 11-time world champion, came into the 2026 Outerknown Tahiti Pro as a wildcard with nothing to prove. At least nothing to prove to the general public. But this is Kelly we’re talking about. In his head, he always has something to prove.
After a statement-making outing in the opening round, in Round 2, Kelly found himself matched up against three-time Brazilian world champ Gabriel Medina. If there’s anyone on tour that Kelly would consider a rival, it’s Gabby. A rematch of their 2014 final at Teahupo’o, the heat started with a flurry of heavy haymakers. Gabe opened with a 6.50, while Kelly absolutely ate shit on his first two waves.
Settling down with a short but potent seven-point right, after another beating and a broken board, Kelly recomposed himself, refocused, and scratched into a hell pit that was anything but perfect. Being the GOAT, he made the late drop, stalled deep, and came out with the spit. The judges threw him a 9.73 for the effort
The biggest score of the event so far, with 18 minutes left in the heat, Gabe, who’s in the world title conversation this year, found himself needing a combination of two scores to claw out of the hole he found himself. But Kelly was having none of it. With six-minutes later he dropped a 9.33 for a near-perfect 19.06 heat score.
“There’s some big lumps coming in,” Slater said after the heat. “It was fun, a lot of fun.”
Strider Wasilewski described Kelly as a “possessed demon,” which pretty much sums it up. Given his age and how much time away from competition he’s taken, not to mention a hip surgery and two young kids, it’s fair to say we’ve never seen a performance like this at Teahupo’o.
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