Chris Kendall has been a magician for 15 years, and he loves surfing too. A short time ago, he spent seven minutes with Kelly Slater and created a surf-themed magic trick.
You will love it. Kendall, also known as the Surfing Connoisseur, has recently invented a magic trick based on the 2016 World Surf League (WL) Championship Tour (CT).
The (imaginary) chat with the king of professional surfing, Kelly Slater, resulted in an eye-catching card trick. While the surfer-magician speaks and shuffles the deck, the cards confirm his speech and thoughts.
"For this one, I was really keen on making it more surf-orientated. We've had a pretty interesting season, and I thought that it would be cool to use the story somehow," Kendall told SurferToday.
"Given that I'm a card magician and numbers play so heavily in surfing, I thought a story with cards would be the way to go - not to mention the fact that Kelly is obviously the King and Matt Wilkinson the Joker, which made it hard to resist doing!"
Kendall says he based his routine on an idea by a magician called Bill Malone, who tells a story about a bellhop using a deck of cards. He always loved the trick but never used it due to the story not fitting his personality.
"As it took a heap of practice to dial the story and the sleight of hand, I thought between the Portugal and Pipe events would be the perfect time to release the trick - the season is still on everyone's mind, and I'd have enough time to practice and film," adds Chris Kendall.
"I decided to release the trick on my Surfing Connoisseur channel, as opposed to my magic channel on YouTube, because I figured as much as the sleight of hand works for anyone, to get the story, you really have to be a surfer."
In no less than five minutes and 18 seconds, Chris Kendall talks about the season, Matt Wilkinson's early feats, John John Florence, Slater's age and his final 2017 campaign, Mick Fanning, and Gabriel Medina.
In the end, with no cards left on hand, the Surfing Connoisseur announces the end of his seven-minute conversation with the surfing magician, Kelly Slater. Delicious. How does he Kendall it?