ASP surfers criticise Kelly Slater for missing Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay
The legendary American surfer, Kelly Slater, has been criticised by some of the elite Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) surfers for not turning up at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa to compete in the latest stop of the ASP World Tour, Billabong Pro
Jeffreys Bay.
After remaining absent from the event site during his heat in the opening round of the competition on July 15, the 39-year-old Slater was relegated to the second round, giving him an extended life.
After a couple of lay days due to incontestable conditions at the coastline of Jeffreys Bay, the second round got underway on July 18. The very first heat of the day was supposed to feature Slater against South Africa’s Shaun Payne in a man-on-man battle.
However, the elite American surfer was a no-show yet again. As per the new ASP rule, there was a waiting period of five minutes, after which the absent surfer was to be replaced by another surfer, which turned out to be South Africa’s Travis Logie in this
case.
The failure of Slater to turn up for the ASP World Tour event has received criticism from both, the fresh as well as old ASP surfers. However, while the older guys, such as Australia’s Mick Fanning and Taj Burrow, have remained a bit soft in criticising
the American surfer for not attending the event, the younger surfers, such as Australia’s Julian Wilson and South Africa’s Jordy Smith, have been a little less shy of expressing their disappointment and annoyance.
While talking to a reporter, the 22-year-old ASP rookie, Wilson, said, “If he wants to go and chase good waves then that's fine, I can't see why you wouldn't want to [chase good waves], but don't say you're going to do the World Tour and then not show up
for your heat.”
He further continued that Slater’s decision to not show up for the competition was disrespectful to other surfers who were chasing the world title this year. The surfers want to compete against the best for the title and not give people an opportunity to
take away the whole joy of winning the title by stating that the outcome would have been quite different had Slater been in the contest.
The 23-year-old Smith expressed his disappointment over the Surfing legend’s absence from the competition, saying, “I really wanted to see him here and I was looking forward to seeing him surf J-Bay ... but you don't want to win event without him so it really
s**s.”
The reaction by the young ASP surfers does not come as a surprise. It is every surfer’s dream to compete and test his skills against the biggest name in surfing. Hopefully, the surfers will soon get over the disappointment of not finding Slater in the field
and start focusing on the event at hand.
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