Kelly Slater Still Has the Best Cutback in Surfing*

Originally posted on SURFER | By August Howell | Last updated Oct 7, 2024 7:11 PM ET

After three months and more than 500 entries later, we have six winners of the first-ever Only One MP: The Classic Cutback Comp organized by Australians to honor the late Michael Peterson.

The video-based competition allowed frontside cutback submissions from any era and age group in surfing. Rabbit to Ewing, Andy Irons to Taylor Knox. Entries were divided into six categories: best cutback, most innovative, best female, under 16 boys, under 16 girls and micro groms. The six judges had irrefutable cutback expertise: Mick Fanning, Stephanie Gilmore, Tom Curren, Joel Parkinson, Mark Occilupo and Dean Morrison reviewed all the submissions and gave out the prizes.

Is this totally objective? Definitely not, but hey, that’s surfing.

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In the end, the best overall winner wasn’t a total surprise. If you tuned into any surf website this spring, you saw Kelly Slater’s barrel-to-wrap-to-rebound at pumping Kirra (click here to watch the session). Filmed by Dan Scott, the original clip has nearly 91,000 likes on Instagram alone. It would be a very impressive cutty for any 22-year-old. But Kelly is 52 and still capable of jaw-dropping moments we’ve seen for decades. Now that he’s off the CT full-time, one wonders if the GOAT could leverage the title of greatest freesurfer in the world. A big ask, but when the waves are cooking, Kelly delivers more often than not.

Other winners included Taj Burrow’s powerful rail gouge to fin-drift, a drawn-out turn from Lee-Ann Curren, Darcy Dwyer’s clean whip off the top, Lehihani Zoric’s tiny but mighty turn, and 10-year-old Kobi Lana’s D-Bah bomb.

Kudos to Simon Saffigna and Daniel Carmichael for organizing and engaging, creative and open-ended event. It honored the legacy of one of surfing’s more eccentric figures while at the same time entertaining audiences worldwide. They even put on a live awards night with Balter beer in Queensland to cap it all off.

Time to start practicing for next year.

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

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