Celebrated as the greatest surfer of all time, Slater has 56 event wins over his incredible 32-year career on the Championship Tour. With 11 World Titles, he holds the record for the most World Championships of any surfer and is both the youngest and oldest World Champion in men’s history.
Although the surfing GOAT hinted that he doesn’t plan to hang up his jersey at the moment, he’s missed the Mid-season Cut, meaning that he has not requalified for the remainder of the 2024 WSL CT nor the start of the 2025 WSL CT.
The 52-year-old shared that he plans to compete in events as they come, and the WSL Commissioner’s Office will release updates to the event wildcards for the back half of the season as those event windows draw closer.
After being chaired up at Margaret River, Slater shared an emotional message following his loss:
“As far as emotions, it’s almost hitting me. It’s right there bubbling. I couldn’t quite pull a miracle off this week. I’ve pulled a few off over the years and I still had that hope out there. Even with a minute to go, I thought, ‘One might pop up.’ But to lose to the world number one. Griff is the number one guy and I’ve been close with him for a long time. It’s been fun to be over 50 and still mixing it up with the guys and still feeling like I’m there with them. Seeing this new crop of guys and to finish with Griffin, as a full-time competitor that’s cool.
“I’ve had a fight with this wave my whole career, so it’s not necessarily the wave I want to end on. I have put in for a wildcard for Fiji so I’ll see how that goes. But I do feel like, if I get a wildcard into Fiji, I could end up against Griffin again so I’ll get to pay him back.
“But yeah, it is what it is, everything comes to an end and if you don’t adapt you don’t survive and my motivation just hasn’t been there to really put in that one-hundred percent that everyone else is now.
“I’ve got a couple weeks here, Renato asked me if I want to surf on the Goldy [Challenger Series Event]. If Snapper looks good, we’ll see. Just for some fun.”