Kelly Slater Talks New Baby, Brief Music Career

Coincidentally, Slater appeared on a podcast with Rick Beato to discuss, mostly, music. But during the chat, the topic of Slater’s new kid also came up.

“I have a five-month-old son,” said Slater. “He was crawling around here on the floor. It’s so fun to watch every little movement and motor skill, as it starts to translate to their brain. He’s learning to crawl, and he pushes up, does a plank, draws his knees underneath him, then pushes forward, but doesn’t know how to put his hands out, so he goes flat on his face. I was helping him with arm movements, just now, and it becomes subconscious. All of a sudden, his hands start going out. He was just crawling hands and feet in coordination.”

Mainly, however, during the podcast, Slater and Beato talked about the GOAT’s short-lived music career – like when he, Rob Machado, and Peter King formed a band called The Surfers. In 1998, the trio put out an album, Songs from the Pipe.

“I learned to play [guitar] just hanging out with friends,” Slater reminisced. “My friend Peter King was in a band, and had played for quite a few years. I started to learn. Rob Machado, surf buddy of mine, we started learning together. We spent a lot of time with Jack Johnson; he wasn’t a big musician yet. Then, Donavan Frankenreiter. We’d all sit in a room and play guitars. It was too much to have five guitar players, especially when nobody could play leads. So, I got more into singing and writing lyrics…that was how we got started.”

Reunion tour?