Kelly Slater, the greatest competitive surfer of all time, has confirmed he will compete in the 2016 World Surf League Men's Championship Tour.
The 11-time world surfing champion is not quitting. The 43-year-old Floridian has told British newspaper The Guardian he will return in 2016. Slater has also opened up about his personal life.
"My daughter thinks I'm cool because I know [Australian actor who played Thor] Chris Hemsworth. She's 19 now and has just graduated from college. We're pretty close, but it wasn't always that way. I'm realistic about my situation as a father. I've basically spent her whole life traveling, and she was raised 99% by her mother," told Kelly.
Slater says he feels "pretty old. Not mentally, just in my body." He is doing everything he can to overcome his injuries so that he can attack the upcoming season in full power. "I have every intention of being 90 and surfing Hawaii's Backdoor and Pipeline."
Kelly told The Guardian he had a fear of drowning when he was young, and that he lost roughly 40 people in his life. "The one I still cry about is Peggy. She was a lady from California, a sort of second mum who was murdered when I was 15."
The most successful surfer ever is not afraid of sharks - "there are 460 species of shark and 456 of them aren't bothered about eating you" - his heart is in Fiji (Where he spends six weeks per year), and he can mind-surf when he is "really tuned in."