One year after New Mellennial wildcards Dane Reynolds and Jordy Smith took out half of the Top 10 in the early rounds of the Boost Mobile Pro, the entire Top 45 returned to Trestles today donning the latest in flight gear. In the past 365 days each of these surfers has had to rearm their fiberglass wings with enough new munitions and maneuverability to see them through a good aerial dog fight, which we’ll be seeing plenty of this week as a very promising South Swell will pump into Trestles through Thursday.

But today, in Round One of competition, it was the new improved Kelly Slater who set the tone, averaging a cool 9.0 on his two rides, netting him the highest total score of the day. Looking ridiculously on his game riding the same, smaller 5’10” type of board he stormed through Australia to kick off the season, Slater’s surfing was pure poetry—powerful, flowing, awe-inspiring, especially when he takes to the air. The man is at the top of his game, which is all the more impressive considering it was 18-years ago that he made his professional debut right out here at Lower Trestles.

Which begs some discussion. Now that the Michael Phelps hype is subsiding, perhaps Slater’s soon-to-be 9 world titles just might garner some overdue mainstream sport’s media attention. God knows it would be for good reason. Consider this: Olympic commentators were debating which U.S. Basketball Team was better, the Dream Team of 1992 starring Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, or the Redeem Team of 2008 with Kobe Byrant, Lebron James and Kevin Garnett. They decided it wasn’t fair to compare eras, and maybe they’re right.

Yet if we follow that logic then we aren’t even allowed to compare the 1992 version of Kelly—the skinny little kid with flowing brown hair, and the youngest World Title winner ever, to the 36-year old, 2008 badass and bald version of the same name, who, of course, would be two years older than the 2006 version of Kelly who is already the oldest world surfing champion ever. I guess that’s unfair too?

Trestles, more than any other stop on tour, highlights the differences between the future of surfing performance and that of the past. Last year those differences were even more of the story than Slater’s eventual win. This year, Kelly will be on both sides of the equation. 20-years from now if you watch Kelly’s surfing from today you’ll still be inspired, that’s why it’s called timeless.

By the way, it’s not even close. 36-year old Kelly shits on the 20-year old one.

.

.