During the winter of 1995, something extraordinary happened at the Pipeline Masters. With a world title on the line, two legends of surfing, Kelly Slater and Rob Machado, high-fived mid-heat. It may have changed the course of surfing history by switching priority. Soon after, Machado became one of the first “professional” free-surfers, while Kelly, of course, went on to become the most successful competitive surfer of all time.
Since then, the moment has been dissected over and over again. It’s been called a strategic maneuver. It’s been used as an example of why surfing shouldn’t be considered a sport. But like everything else that’s been under a microscope, the most obvious answer is the correct one, at least according to Slater and Machado. It was just two friends hitting the pause button to take a moment to celebrate what was happening: just two best friends surfing perfect Pipeline with no one else out.
“I think it’s disrespectful,” Kelly Slater said at the premiere of HBO’s new film, Momentum Generation. “I think it’s a slap in the face to the spirit of surfing, to be honest with you. We were stoked. Two friends surfing at perfect Pipeline with no one out. Yeah, there’s a world title on the line, but it was like, perfect waves. I don’t know… what do you say? We were just in the moment.”
