Kelly Slater is already the world’s Ultimate Surfer, now he wants to find an heir to the throne. Photo: WSL
If you didn’t catch the stream of press releases over the past year about Ultimate Surfer, the World Surf League’s new reality surf TV show, don’t be put out. I didn’t catch wind of it until the WSL’s Instagram post last night, and it’s my job to be in the know. Here’s the quick-and-dirty recap: Kelly Slater will host some of “the world’s greatest up-and-coming surfers” at his Surf Ranch in Lemoore, where they will live together, train, and compete to become the “Ultimate Surfer.” So far it’s sounding like a cross between Survivor and The Bachelor (hard to imagine there won’t be romance), with plenty of surfing, of course. “Alliances and rivalries will be front and center in The Ultimate Surfer as men and women compete in individual and team challenges focused on specific surfing disciplines,” The WSL noted in a recent release.
The show’s existence has been a matter of public knowledge since November 2019 when the show was announced, but it has been mostly radio-silence since then on the nitty-gritty details such as the who and the when. Well, we’re still wondering on the who, but at least now we know the when: This summer, August 16 at 10 p.m. EST/PST. The release date coincides with the end of the long anticipated 2020 Olympics (if they ever actually happen), likely to capitalize on the amount of attention surfing’s Olympic debut will bring to the sport.
Kelly will be the “on-air talent and special correspondent,” fitting for any number of reasons, including the fact he probably has more reality TV experience than most surfers alive. As for the competitors, we’re still in the dark on that one, but since “Weekly eliminations will leave two men and two women as finalists who will vie for the male and female titles of The Ultimate Surfer and the opportunity to compete on the elite WSL Championship Tour,” I doubt we’ll see anyone who is currently on the CT.
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Stay tuned in the coming months via the @ultimatesurferabc Instagram. I, for one, am dying to know who the competing surfers will be (and who made that “Kelly Green” Outerknown wetsuit).
