Kelly Slater gave a candid and revealing interview to Tom Carroll this week (with the editorial coaching of brother Nick just off camera) while overlooking Winkipop and Bells — a whole 32 years after his first event there and the one that is truly looking like his last (right?). Watch the interview below, but my takeaway is this:

Surfing has benefitted from Kelly Slater being our north star, our champion, our hero, our authentic and true — but totally handsome and articulate and core — surf representative for over 35 years. When you talk about being a surfer to a non-surfer, you talk about Kelly Slater. And when you talk about surfing to surfers you’re going to talk about Kelly Slater too.

This got me thinking: Who are we going to talk about now? When Kelly goes off to daddy daycare and finally takes the jersey off and fades into the surf archive as the penultimate GOAT, what happens then? Tom Brady handed the football to Patrick Mahomes. Lebron James has been handing it to Steph Curry for some time. But if you look at surfing, we don’t have anyone really wanting to inherit surfing from Kelly. Let’s review some options:

Dane Reynolds definitely didn’t want it and smashed all his surfboards on stage and spray painted them with reverb and the indie life in his garage (God Bless him). Kolohe Andino could never get anyone to give it to him. John John Florence can’t be pried away from his bee farm on the North Shore long enough to resonate on a global scale. Filipe Toledo had it for the green and yellow of Brazil…but just sorta walked away from it. Gabriel Medina seems too erratic (which I kind of support) but his grip on surfing has gotten loose. Ethan Ewing will never surpass Mick Fanning’s legacy (he’s too shy). Griffin Colapinto maybe… if he can ease up on posting the culty breath work mantras. Jamie O’Brien has a hold on a large swath of people but even gramma in Missouri prefers Baywatch over pink soft tops at Pipeline. Stephanie Gilmore’s grace and free spirit was sterilized by the WSL for too long. And Carissa — the queen from Hawaii — got the bad end of a competitive change that never let her reach her full quiver of World Titles. Other than that, I don’t see us talking about any surfers in the mainstream any time soon. We have a lot of new blood, but we have no new Kelly Slater coming any time soon. Not even close.

As we enter a time when surfing has no magazines, very few relevant voices, no context provided on the next generation, a dribbly industry and another new CEO from an outside background coming into the WSL promising content and global recognition — I fear our hero factory is closed and the rebuild is going to take a page one rewrite. But who are we gonna champion? I’m taking names.

My first inclination is someone like Noah Beschen. Who seems to be doing something that would resonate i.e. riding biggest Teahupoo ever and doing 720s at Rocky Point all packaged in a fun, really likable and modern way — but he’s out there doing it all on his own. And while there is beauty in that, if he (or anyone) wants to be the face of surfing for the foreseeable future, you’re gonna need a competitive career and a Baywatch-esque thing…Maybe Jack Robinson? I feel he’s one World Title away from being a family man.

I suppose this interview made me nervous about what the departure of Kelly actually looks like for us all — and it’s worrisome. But I do take peace in knowing that the last vision most non-surfing people still have of surfing is Kelly Slater with a black Quiksilver sticker on the nose of a white banana shaped Al Merrick surfboard under one arm and Pamela Anderson wrapped around the other. Because there is no chance that will never not be cool. —Travis Ferré