Joe Surf: Slater, Igarashi, young vs. old featured in WCT opener

When Kelly Slater was on top of the world, Kanoa Igarashi was just entering it.

That was 1997, as Slater was in the midst of a record five consecutive surfing world championships, and Igarashi was born to parents Tom and Misa.

And now, Slater, the 44-year-old 11-time world champion, and Igarashi, the 18-year-old phenom from Huntington Beach, will find themselves on the same heat sheets starting Thursday.

The World Surf League’s World Championship Tour begins this week with the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast at Snapper Rocks in Australia. Slater and Igarashi reflect the wide-ranging popularity in surfing today, with Slater nearing the end of an unparalleled professional career and Igarashi just beginning his.

Slater was 20 years old in 1992 when he won the first of his 11 world titles, but he hasn’t won one since 2011 when he was 39. Slater for sure is still a threat, as was evidenced when he won the Volcom Pipe Pro at Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii just last month.

But winning another world title will be difficult, especially with the continuing influx of young surfers like Igarashi, who has been groomed to become the best surfer in the world.

Igarashi began surfing at age 3 and hasn’t stopped since, winning contests at every level on his way up. Along the way, the goal has always been the same.

“To be a world champion, that’s been my goal since I was very young,” Igarashi told surfline.com. “There’s a huge difference between being a Pro Junior to being a WQS (World Qualifying Series) surfer to being a WCT (World Championship Tour) surfer and then to being a world champion.”

In order to qualify for the WCT, Igarashi had to finish in the top 10 on the WQS last year, and he finished seventh. Now he is among seven rookies on the 34-man tour. He says he is ready to begin his world championship quest, despite a minor setback recently that briefly landed him in the hospital because of food poisoning.

“I feel like I’ve done the best I can to prepare for the WCT,” he said. “I’m going to make sure my surfing is ready for that level and I’m going to have to adjust myself to being a WCT surfer. There are some places on Tour, like Fiji and Teahupo’o, where I want to showcase what I can do. That’s an area I’ve been working on for the past few years. I want to show people that I can surf those kinds of waves.”

In his first WCT heat at Snapper Rocks, Igarashi is up against Taj Burrow and Josh Kerr, both Australians, in Heat 11. Meanwhile, Slater is in Heat 8 against Australia’s Matt Wilkinson and Santa Barbara’s Conner Coffin, who like Igarashi is one of the tour rookies.

It’ll be interesting to see when Slater and Igarashi meet in a heat and go head-to-head, the surfing cycle of life coming full circle. Igarashi remembers going to the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington and keeping a close eye on the surfing legend.

“[The Open] is the one contest where I was able to watch all the pros, and they all came to my house,” Igarashi told surfertoday.com. “I’d watch Kalani Robb and Kelly Slater free surfing then always come out to freesurf with those guys and try to talk to them and see what they were riding. It’s funny now because I’ll be out after the contest and see the groms doing the same thing.”

To watch the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast live, go to worldsurfleague.com starting Thursday.

JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.