Kelly Slater Toasts Taylor Swift on Engagement with Photobomb

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Aug 27, 2025 5:16 PM ET

Real recognize real; GOAT recognize GOAT.

Yesterday, the biggest news across the entire world was not the ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, the lingering effects of Hurricane Erin as the storm heads to Europe, or *gasp*, the official start of pumpkin spice season at Starbucks.

It was Taylor Swift. And her engagement to her beau and NFL superstar, Travis Kelce. Traditional news organizations went on high alert, pausing all other coverage, to report on the big announcement. The world stood at a standstill, celebrating this epic love story. Even surfing got in on the action, as Kelly Slater sent ol’ T Swift a congrats.

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A post shared by Kelly Slater (@kellyslater)

Reposting an image from many years ago, in which Kelly was in attendance for a Taylor Swift show in Australia, and the songstress happened to photobomb a pic of other ladies, surfing’s GOAT celebrated pop music’s GOAT on the big news:

“Happy engagement, Taylor Swift,” Slater penned with a diamond ring emoji. “Photo from Brisbane concert circa 2011.”

It’s unclear if the two have crossed paths many other times, aside from this Australian encounter in the early 2010s. Swift has not made a trip to Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, CA – at least not that we've seen – like so many other celebrities have done in the past, getting the royal treatment from surfing’s greatest teacher, Raimana van Bastolaer (aka “the human viagara”…as in, he can get anybody up.)

However, after winning a Teen Choice Award in 2010, Taylor did take her trophy (a surfboard) out onto a lake. She sat on it, somewhat effectively, but then attempted to stand on the board in the flat water. That didn’t go so well.

Perhaps a trip to Surf Ranch for the future newlyweds is in order for some proper surfing.

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

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