World's Greatest Athlete - Ever

The boys are back in town...

Surfing requires all of what you mention - hand (well, a little)/eye/foot coordination (with huge consequences for getting it wrong), balance, speed, endurance, core strength, upper and lower body strength...

I get your point about the opponent being a "live" environment that requires constant checking and adjustment. As a hockey fan, I agree that of the field/stick/ball sports, it may be the most demanding of quickness. Keep your head on a swivel lest it gets knocked off. And I absolutely love the speed and flow of the act of skating itself. A transition from front to back with some powerful backwards crossovers is definitely a rush of its own.

As for 25 years being proof that surfing is not demanding on your body - that's utter hogwash. It is proof that the guy is on another planet. Professional surfing ain't golf. The beatdowns you take day in and day out far surpass your average hockey practice as well. With the advent of aerials (of which Kelly is quite proficient), surfers are now landing on their boards from five feet above the lip. Sometimes those landings don't go so well, and the amount of failures in practice to get it down has to be huge - again, all without a "wave machine" to practice repetitions in a controlled environment - like you get in almost every other sport. In the ocean, every attempt is different.

The deceptively complicated act of catching the wave, getting to your feet and making that first successful turn is a skill that looks simple and routine, but all I can say is, try it. Or don't. There's already enough surfers in the water.

 

Funny story. My son is a relatively accomplished swimmer (2016 Olympic Trials, NCAA Championships, etc). When he was swimming as a little kid, any time he would set a personal best time he always called it an "Alex Peterson World Record" - because it was

 

I would toss in Kilian Jornet or Chrissie Wellington.

A friend of mine used to dance Salsa professionally. She quite when her and her partner would get passed up on awards that they clearly deserved because they didn't have the right political connections. Winning partners were usually people connected to big name studios and such that carried advertising dollars. All subjective.

 

So basically, Herz made a troll title with questionable word choice, and left a vague 1 liner, click-baiting us all to watch some surfer movie, and people are upset since their expectations were not met.

I give this a 2/10 on the troll scale. This happens so much on a global scale that it's just shameful that I happen to know the originator. Sad that he knew that this would happen. Bored? Drama-starved? Too much pent-up inside? Should I have not expected Herz to be higher than to engage in drama-gossip level stuff?

 

I think you are maybe being a little over sensitive here, Herz isn't a troll looking for drama as much as he just likes to stir the pot from time to time and even that is just a product of his joking approach to these forums. Didn't look like a troll thread to me, then again my expectations aren't the same for fellow internet posters. At least he doesn't brag about how fast he is in every post, that to me is more polluting to this site.

 

I am truly sorry. I will do my best to stop this behavior. again, I'm sorry.

 

Oh come on.... Really?

I think you are reading this way too seriously. My apologies for insulting your sensitivities. We all know each other here, so a little banter about a great athlete doesn't seem out of bounds to me. And you know me well enough to know that hyperbole and exaggeration are common tools of my posts.

Shameful? Really? Relax Dan.

 

Yeah, but I totally would if I could!!!!







(That too was humor. Self deprecating style. See, I know I am not fast, so.... oh never mind....)

 

Back on point.

Here the legendary Gerry Lopez (now 68) gets to ride the first lefthand wave created by the Kelly Slater Wave Company. Is this e-bikes for surfing? Or is it a way to practice and perhaps compete in a controlled environment, like most other sports? One thing is true - it takes away many of the very things that I was using to make my case above.

 

Lemoore is beautiful this time of year.

 

The troll aspect was an integral part of the thread, duh. I can only imagine Danraxis with a big grin, clacking out his reverse troll to add to the fun...

The only true troll we had here was banished. He was prolific, though. Probably the World's Greatest Mountain Bike Site Troll - Ever.

 

If I desensitize myself, the best I can hypothesize is that Herz feared that if he posted a thread on surfing in an orthodox way, there wouldn't be many that will bother to give it attention. So instead, he gained views through clickbait, and is trying to hold people's attention, who probably didn't have very much interest in surfing to begin with. The drama that I created by calling that out, could just be another draw, but this is where it ends for me. The clickbaiting is clear. The other stuff I can overlook.

I don't know if many people see clickbait the same as me, but anyone that uses it on me loses a ton of reputation in my book. Future pings go straight to the spam/ignore filters.

Now that I got that out, I'll take your advice and relax.

 

@Varaxis Dan, if you put the energy you've used to criticize herzie's blatant call for some spirited conversation into starting a thread or responding with good information to a thread, IMTBT would be better for it. FWIW – an idealist thought to consider while you're relaxing. Or be really bold: Ride your bike and post about it. It's therapeutic, ya know.

Happy weekend, one and all!! Go paddle out, saddle up or whatever keeps ya whole. The weez is embedded; mate extractor useless, so I'm off myself. I can hear the elk calling. AYE

 

W. T. F.

 

Thank you for the education on the potential offensiveness of what you call click baiting. I didn't know it was a thing. I have added the appropriate information so others can make sound decisions as to whether or not they want to view the video that goes with my provocative claim.

I realize you won't see this, since it's now going straight to your SPAM, but others will benefit.

 

A pretty good explanation here: https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/25/wtf-is-clickbait/

With normal click baiting, the reader feels ripped off. Inundated with ads or at least misled. Not so with this thread, IMO. A strong title and well-backed up content. Hard to disagree, really, at least that KS is one of the greatest athletes in the modern age.

But can he bowl?

 

Totally tubular!

 

Didn't ESPN used to trip all over each other while calling tiger the greatest athlete, and that he could've been great at any other sports of his choosing? Has anyone ever seen him run or throw or surf? I laughed at ESPN then...

 

Oh come on this is a ridiculous statement. The top world tour surfers would be highly competitive at just about any athletic discipline they choose.

 

Anyone whom has surfed a 3 hour session in a 6' or bigger swell on a point with ripping current will attest to the cardio requirement. And that's just the baselevel stuff to be able to stay in position let alone surf.

 

Opposite side of the sport as Kelly, but Speaking of surfers as atheletes. Let's not forget that Laird has spoken many times about bolting over 50pounds of weight onto his mountain bikes to climb with.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bicycling.com/culture/people/ride-laird-hamilton?amp

 

Brilliant! Ima try that too!

 

Slater gets my vote. I just hope that his busted foot doesn't mess with him too badly. I saw the X-ray of it and it looked pretty bad. He doesn't exactly have the luxury of youth anymore to heal and recover quickly. Let's send him some healing vibes

I apologize for the derail- but it's surf-related-

My son and I really scored some perfect waves at a spot called Ollie's Point in Costa Rica this last June. It was a solid 4-5 hour session in insane conditions.

And if we ever have an IMTBTrails fun day at San'O, that could be a good time

 

Great wave! Jealous!!!!

Look who I ran into today in Newport - just a few hours ago...



OK, sure, it's a cardboard cutout, but, gotta admit, he could pass for my little brother.

 

Oh this is a load of horseshit. What Herz did was NOT clickbait. I take the stance that it's not clickbait unless the poster has something to gain from it, usually financially. In this example it's a fun post for a KS fanboy to share and discuss the accomplishments of an athletic champion whom has reinvented himself to remain at the top for longer than just about any athlete.

 

Well, the shear volume of prositutes the Tiger kept busy is a telling example of his endurance. No?

 

Now boys, let's play nice in Mikie's house. I appreciate your support Dusty, but Dan is a unique dude entitled to his well-earned views. @Varaxis was offended by the tone of my thread so my (amazingly entertaining) posts are now banished to his SPAM folder. Oh well. I was kinda hoping he could come up with some awesome graphs or matrices to scientifically prove who the greatest athlete is considering all pertinent variables, perhaps even developing a formula of athletic greatness!

(Slater would win, BTW).

 

...and that Jagr guy who put the nail in Gretzky's career coffin in OT at the garden back in 1999.

 

What a great shot, amazing wave and awesome father/son experience!!!
Can I "like" this like 50 times?!? ...