Surfing-Wildcard Kelly Slater stars as Tahiti Pro kicks off in unruly surf

Aug 8 : Surfing's 11-times world champion Kelly Slater showed he still has what it takes to foot it with the best at the Tahiti Pro on Saturday, scoring the highest heat total of the first day in huge and wild waves.The 54-year-old, who retired from full-time competition in 2024, clocked up an excellent two-wave total of 16.23 out of 20 to advance to the second round and into a mouth-watering match-up with Brazil's three-times world champion, Gabriel Medina."It's sort of like riding a bike, but you forget how gnarly Teahupo'o is," said Slater, who has won the event five times in 20 appearances. "We didn't get time for any big waves this week and all of a sudden, you just jump right back into it."Teahupo'o, which translates roughly as "wall of skulls", hosted the 2024 Paris Olympics surfing