After a year of traveling on the WQS, Tanner returned home to surf a winter full of historic Jaws swells and consist surf in between.
In returning home Tanner had a few nagging injuries and was set on taking some time off to heal up. The waves had a different plan, and as each swell came charging into Maui it was impossible to ignore. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD3WnsCI30Y

link to original content from Vimeo. Again.

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https://i.imgur.com/rMXKWWK.gifv

 

This is getting kinda funny.

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We're all here, cause we're not all there!!

Mind blown...insane clip!!  That guy is mental!!  That 1st backside aire reverse landing straight into a layback cover-up was crazy!

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Surfing is my passion...obsesssion... addiction! Can't imagine life without it!

I would say that boy is Charging!  Wow thanks for posting that clip.

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JMA

Amandabot is one of the better regular posters; all entertainment, no controversy.

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I was right.

Imagine if Ke11y was a failure in contests like Dane was and countless others and all he did was make magical, edited surf videos. Never putting the moment on the line like he did for 20 years and win over 75% of his heats, over 50 tournaments and 11 world titles?

Instead he put it all on the line year after year in real time.

And way past his prime he wins the Volcom Pipe Pro at 44 in insane Pipe.

Enough said.

Yes, Tanner is great, so what is Ke11y then?

Perspective.

LOL.

This is Kelly Slater.



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I was right.

rc,

I think most on this forum, including me, are HUGE fans of Ke11y.  That said, this was only a clip posted of Tanner doing some pretty impressive, to say the least, surfing, and there was no expressed or implied comparison of his surfing in this clip to what Kelly has accomplished, or to his abilities. 

To answer your question, however, and as I've said many times on this forum before, Kelly is quite simply the best surfer that has ever lived.  While many others would instead say (as you have alluded to in your post), that he is the best "competitive" surfer ever, which nobody could argue against, his body of "work", in and out of competition, is beyond comparison.  Nobody has come close.  Notwithstanding his competitive accomplishments, he is, in my view, the most complete and well-rounded surfer.  And, he has performed (again, in and out of compettion) at such a high level for such an incredibly long duration, all with impeccable style to boot.   While I really like JJF, and while time will tell, I honestly doubt that there will ever be another like Ke11y.

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Surfing is my passion...obsesssion... addiction! Can't imagine life without it!

SurfAddict,

I agree with your points and yes it is great to see how ridiculousy talented guys like Tanner are. Maybe the bigger topic is how talented these guys are with few tour accomplishments showing just how hard it is to make the living like Ke11y, Mick, Taj, Joel, etc. have for themselves.

Thanks to Ananda16 for posting.