Kelly Slater Granted Wildcard for Tahiti, Fiji WSL Events

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated 4/24/24

In an announcement from the WSL, today, Kelly Slater will be resurrected from his Championship Tour grave, receiving a wildcard entry into the 2024 SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro and Corona Fiji Pro – both events the 11x world champ has dominated in the past.

Slater lost his spot on Tour, you may recall, after falling behind the Mid-Season Cut during the Western Australia Margaret River Pro. Retirement, finally? Not quite.

Additionally, in Wednesday's announcement, the WSL confirmed the return of Carissa Moore as a wildcard into the Tahiti Pro. This comes following the five-time world champ’s full-time competition retirement earlier this year, and ahead of her attempt to defend her Tokyo 2020 gold medal at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics, also at Teahupo’o.

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“We’re proud to have these accomplished and inspiring World Champions back in the draw,” said Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL Commissioner, “with Kelly Slater and Carissa Moore in Tahiti, and Kelly as one of our wildcards for Fiji. We’ll continue to announce our CT event wildcards closer to each competition, but we’re excited to share these new updates before we kick off the back half of the CT in a few weeks.”

Local Tahitian and upcoming Olympian, Vahine Fierro, will be joining Moore as a wildcard in Tahiti.

Finally, the WSL also announced the full-season wildcards for 2025: Stephanie Gilmore, Filipe Toledo, Joao Chianca, and Lakey Peterson. Steph and Filipe took the year off; Joao was injured at Pipeline before the 2024 season started; and Lakey, well, she’s just always been a stalwart competitor on Tour.

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“As established last season, the WSL Rule Book allows for only World Champions and previous WSL Final 5 competitors to be eligible to earn points in the second half of the season as the Season Wildcards,” said Miley-Dyer. “With this in mind, João would be eligible but we are ensuring he has sufficient time in his recovery, and we are excited to welcome him back to full-time competition next year.”

But the real question is...Slater’s chances for a good result in Tahiti and Fiji? He’s won Teahupo’o five times (2000, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2016), and Cloudbreak/Restaurants four (2000, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2016). Think he can pull it off one last time?

If anyone can do it...

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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