Kelly Slater bid $5,000 on this broken surfboard, but it wasn’t about the surfboard. Photo: Albee Layer//Instagram
Just before the calendars flipped over to 2025, Albee Layer decided he was going to do something nice for the people who do nice things for surfers riding huge waves. He announced that he was auctioning off a broken surfboard, with the proceeds going to Maui water safety crews. When the bidding was done, it was none other than Mr. Kelly Slater who opened his wallet the widest.
“Going to do a little informal auction on Instagram for this half board and a 24×36 Crystal Archive acrylic face mounted fine art print of the @christopheregangalleries photo from the last wave it rode,” he wrote on December 30. “…I will be giving all the money to a handful of the local water safety crew here. Most of us do our best to pay water safety but it doesn’t come close to what they deserve. I want to get them a little holiday bonus for how hard they all crushed during this insane run.”
The water safety crews are very important to those who surf waves like Jaws. They are talented PWC pilots and risk their lives for not much else than their love of the game. It’s not a career, not by any means, but they do it anyway. Layer named a few in his post, calling out Andrea Moller, Olie Shipp, Kurtis Chong Kee, Kolomona Fernandez, Kaipo Stevens Soledade, and Daniel Silvagni.
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“Most of these guys and girls are running full time jobs, with families and on their days off instead of chasing waves for themselves or fishing (when it’s glassy) they use that time to be our guardian angels,” Layer continued. “Will do my best to stoke out the ones who need it and have always looked after myself and others.”
The board, a 9’4″ gun that snapped on a huge Jaws wave a few days before Layer decided to try and raise a bit of cash, was snagged by Kelly Slater with a $5,000 bid. All in all, Layer managed to raise about $10,000.
Now, he’s passing the buck — literally. “Thank you so much to @christopheregangalleries again for donating the insane photo and beautiful art print of it. Thank you so much to the 🐐 @kellyslater for the winning bid! Seriously surreal man,” he wrote. “We are not worthy!!!… I’ll hit up couple of the water safety crew and work out how best to spread the love and hopefully stoke out as many people as possible as quick as possible.”
