Kelly Slater has been on a constant path of reinvention. Last year he parted ways with long-time sponsor Quiksilver, announced he was launching his own brand (Outerknown), co-founded an organic drink company (Purps), and most recently is rumoured to have purchased a large stake in Firewire surfboards.
It’s also no secret that Kelly Slater isn’t one for the status quo. An advocate of alternative media, health and philosophy, you just need to plug into his Instagram feed to see how. “I think the reason I’m doing that a lot of the time is to keep myself on a path as opposed to preach to someone,” says Kelly.
Tracks sat down with Kelly and picked his brain for five things he believes everyone could do to make a better world.
Read. The Prophet by Kahill Gibran was one of the first books I read that opened my mind up to philosophy and deeper meanings on stuff. I think my Mum gave it to me as a kid and she wasn’t into those sorts of things but I thought it was just the most beautiful book I’ve ever read.
Search out alternative media. I don’t know if it’s super important for surfing because there’s not like there’s life-changing events going on – that’s just entertainment. But as so far as world events go and stuff I’m often surprised when I find an awareness about something that is thought to be sort of dogmatically correct in mainstream media and the press and in the world.
Challenge your views. Sometimes things that are totally challenging or you find totally ridiculous or couldn’t be true, at the honest ground zero level they are. So I love to read alternative sites about health and politics and that sort of thing and at least question everything in your life.
We all have an effect on what’s going on around us. We all have an effect on all situations in our life on some level whether passively you didn’t do something or planted a seed somewhere back in the day that either had a positive or negative effect it’s really hard to tell.
Look at your relationships. Question all your relationships, all your desires and your reasons for doing things. That’s the only way to really grow. There are a lot of terrible things happening out there in the world that we are all exposed to now through media or social media – whether it’s murders or school shootings or war, innocent people being bombed and it’s really overwhelming to think you can make a difference on any of that in the world. But it all comes down to personal relationships with people and who you know and how you affect that relationship and help them make good or bad decisions. You might know the guy that could literally change the world.
