Late Tuesday evening, Kelly Slater and the ASP released a statement describing the severity of an injury he received a few days ago while surfing at Cloudbreak. On Tuesday morning, Slater reportedly visited a doctor in Orange County who confirmed that he had broken two toes (his second and third) and sprained “three or four toes” on his left foot. Doctor’s estimate that the healing process should take three to four weeks but were confident that he could be competing by the time the waiting period for the Pipe Masters begins on December 08.
Under the hashtag #FootPrognosis, Slater posted that there will be “three weeks or so of healing in a walking boot and a couple more weeks of some rehab but should be good to go by the Pipe Masters” on his Instagram account.
Slater went on to give an account of how he injured himself at Cloudbreak. “The foamball from the lip landing inside the barrel bounced back up and flipped the board into my foot, hyper extending the toes backward. My second toe was sitting kind of across third one so I knew something was a little off. The worse thing about it was how good the surf was and having to watch from the sidelines afterwards. At least the boys scored a few before the wind went bad and swell backed off. The day before that I went over the falls and broke my fin off with my knees so I’m actually probably lucky to not have gotten hurt worse. Good times to reflect and cleanse the body after two weeks of bacon and barrels on Tavarua. Thanks for all the messages from friends and strangers the last couple of days. #ExcusesExcuses.”
From yesterday:
On Monday morning, the media reported that Slater had suffered an injury at Cloudbreak while filming a Virtual Reality clip for an upcoming Taylor Steele project. In response to the story and the rumor that it would affect his showing at the Pipe Masters, Slater posted that “I heard that’s a rumor. #NotTrue on the title race but foot is hurt.”
While Slater is adamant that this prognosis won’t prohibit him from competing in the Pipe Masters, in all likelihood, it would be a long shot to expect to see Slater competing in the other Triple Crown events this season. In regards to the title race, a pair of broken toes can’t bode well for Slater at Pipe—but then again, Slater wouldn’t be Slater if he weren’t known for coming back this sort of thing and winning the comp, the title, outright.
