We’ve been somewhat critical of Kelly Slater’s board transition, the one where he went from his lifelong relationship with Al Merrick and Channel Islands Surfboards into launching his own brand and board line. Now I recently got to hold one (haven’t ridden one yet) but it felt weird under the arm, and watching Kelly try to climb Bells foam was borderline painful. They just haven’t looked right.

We’ve long known Kelly is a magician on anything and so it’s been a growing concern as to what was happening underfoot in heats and freesurfs, but this is the first vid that shows the board doing old Kelly things. Those magic backhand arcs and threading impossible high-line tubes at Cloudbreak. But, we’d be remiss to wonder: what would he be doing on a 6’0″ K-Board? Just thinking out loud.

Either way, there are some crazy Kelly lines in this…

Watch our Afternoon Interview with Kelly Slater here: