The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
235. Kelly Slater: 11x World Surfing Champion Shares His Diet Protocol, Training Routine, and Recovery Tips
13 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What motivated Kelly Slater to become a world champion surfer?
When I was first starting out, all I wanted to do was I wanted to be the number one surfer in the world. I won my first world title at 20. I went from 43rd in the world to first.
Near the ocean, it's such a big part of your life.
You know, surfing really provides feeling. I think most humans nowadays with the way life is, we've lost that feeling. In surfing, it's kind of more personal because you're in the ocean and there's not other people playing this game that you're in. Whether it's just the speed of the wave, it's a real connection to nature.
Whether you knew it or not, you were spending so much time moving your body and grounded. Touching the surface of the earth is one of the healthiest things you can do.
Chapter 2: How does surfing help connect with nature?
I was in a health food shop and there was a tape by Dr. Joel Wallach. He said, no one dies from old age. There's no such thing. You die of a deficiency of something over a long period of time. I was like, this is fuel for my fire right here. I'm going to actually like start being healthy. And then I got into water fasting.
I think water fasting is game changers. And there's always these life-changing testimonials that we get out of it.
when you first make a change you're in control of with your body it's so exciting and inspiring what keeps you passionate and still having that drive to stay at the top of your game because i'm sure the entire surf world wanted to knock you off you're gonna hate this gary you're gonna like hold this against me here
Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist, Gary Brekka, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. Today is definitely one of those in-between podcasts. 11-time world champion surfer, Kelly Slater, is here on the Ultimate Human Podcast today. I'm so excited to run this podcast.
Most of my questions aren't even about surfing, which is really odd for the greatest surfer of all time. And we had an unbelievable... hour-long conversation about shark attacks before the podcast. So maybe we can get into that while the cameras are rolling. But welcome to the Ultimate Human Podcast.
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Chapter 3: What are the key elements of Kelly Slater's mindset for competition?
Hey, good to see you. Great to have you, man. Appreciate it, yeah. Thanks for making the trip. You know, I'm always fascinated by not just athletic professionalism or sports domination, but someone that can actually stay at the top of their game in a sport for a prolonged period of time, like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. It's not like they were great once.
but they were great over such a long period of time. And I find it absolutely fascinating that you are the youngest surfer to win a world championship when you were 20, and you were the oldest surfer to win a world championship at 39.
And I remember- I very nearly got one or two in my 40s, but just didn't- Oh, did you? You were close. Came really close.
Yeah, you didn't break your own record. Right?
Yeah.
Because you were the oldest at 39, so you would have been the oldest in your 40s, too.
Came close, came close.
I mean, that's like some Tom Brady game stuff. I mean, and I remember, you know, I've been a UFC fan for a long time, and I remember Vitor Belfort became a UFC champion. Yeah, good friend of mine. Yeah, he's a friend of mine, too. And he became a champion at 18, and he almost became a champion again at 36. And that would have been the same book-ending career. That was the Jones fight, right? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so somebody stood in the way of that one. So I wonder if you would, I mean, I have so many questions for you, but I wonder if you would just sort of let us into the mindset of what keeps you passionate and committed and still having that drive to stay at the top of your game? Because I'm sure the entire surf world wanted to knock you off.
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Chapter 4: How has Kelly Slater's diet evolved throughout his career?
There's a lot of young surfers that wanted that championship too.
Yeah, I mean, that's the deal. When you're young, you're after the top older veterans, and then when you're the old veteran, all the young guys are after you. I mean, I surfed against a lot of guys on tour whose dads I surfed against. Really? When I was first on, their dads were kind of like the veterans or the older guys than me. Yeah.
I don't... Look, I've worked hard, but it's not hard for me to want to do what I've done because I love surfing so much. You really love it that much? Really? Yeah, I just love surfing more than anything. Really? When I was a kid, I grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, and... I just absolutely fell in love with it. It was different than the other sports and things to me.
It was, I felt like I had a very different intimate relationship with it. And I was, I felt like I was learning things about the ocean and waves and surfing and how to, how to go about it that no one had ever known or something. That's how it felt to me, you know, that's not to say I felt like as a young kid, I was better than my heroes or something, but I felt like,
I had this keen sense that my relationship with surfing and waves was my own. I played football. I sort of told the story to a lot of friends that my dad was our football coach, and I would skip practice to go surfing. That makes your dad really happy. That's how you know if your dads are cool with what you do.
Was he supportive?
Yeah, he was fine. Whatever.
You won a world championship.
He was like, all right, you can skip practice. But I played basketball and baseball and football, and I loved them all. I was a big baseball and football fan as a kid and knew everything about the sports. I was actually quite good at football, and I was quite good in the field at baseball. I wasn't a great hitter, but I really understood.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Kelly Slater share about his diet and nutrition?
health in the body and strangely enough my mom was an EMT and firefighter. So she went to medical school for some degree of time to learn what she needed. And so I kind of already had this like maybe this genetic thing in my DNA where I wanted to learn about the anatomy and digestion and all that stuff. I was traveling in my early days when I first got on Quicksilver.
I was traveling with a guy named Tom Carroll who was two-time world champion. But Tom was one of the few guys that cross-trained and really talked about diet.
So he trained off the waves.
Oh, yeah. He was doing all sorts of cross-training. And Tom was like crazy fit, super strong.
Chapter 6: How does Kelly Slater's training routine adapt as he ages?
Everyone talked about how big his calves were and his thighs were. And it was actually funny because... back at that time, he also wore super tiny shorts. So his like leg muscles would just like- Jacked. Like, yeah, like explode his like tiny trunk, you know, like almost looked like it would rip him in the side because his legs were so powerful.
And he surfed that way, you know, he surfed with all this power and energy. He was known for that. And Tom became like a big brother to me. And we were, I think I was like 18 years old. I was in Australia with him.
Chapter 7: What are Kelly Slater's thoughts on overcoming injuries?
I kept telling him how I didn't have much energy. And, and, um, the night before we had eaten pasta. I had a spaghetti bolognese. And he goes, well, maybe it's because of the proteins and the carbs together or something. He's like, have you ever thought about that? And that was the first time I ever heard about food combined. I'm like, no, what does that mean? How do you know this stuff?
What do you mean?
Chapter 8: What future plans does Kelly Slater have for surfing and entrepreneurship?
You just eat food and it gives you energy. I just never really put the equation together. And unfortunately, we're not taught that in school. They don't really give you any kind of formal education about that, especially in public schools. And so I was just kind of... shooting from the hip, trying to learn this stuff, traveling around the world.
And I became really sort of infatuated with it through my 20s. And then I got into like water fasting and master cleansing. Oh, that's great, man.
I think water fasting is... If you can master fasting two, three times a year, I mean, those are game changers. I do big water fasts on my platform, take thousands of people through water fasts. And there's always these life-changing... Literally life-changing testimonials that we get out of it.
I went about 15 years ago, I was doing a master cleanse for about, I think I did 10 days with the tea, with the cayenne pepper and stuff. And anyways, I was about four or five days in and I went golfing with one of my best friends and his dad. And his dad had a couple groups of friends there that were all doctors. It was like this doctor out and they go golf every Thursday or Friday or whatever.
So I was with him and Afterwards, they're having lunch and they say, you want something? And I'm like, I'm doing a fast or a cleanse. What are you talking about? And I started telling them about it and they're like, why are you doing that? I said, well, just I'm going to let my digestion heal. I'm not going to be digesting food for almost two weeks.
So that can all just relax and heal and settle down. And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, if you don't eat food for a long period of time, you're doing salt flushes every morning. They probably thought you were out of your mind. I'm doing the smooth and move T's and blah, blah, blah. And they're like, you don't need to do that.
You just take the stuff that we take to get a colonoscopy. And that just flushed everything out. In 24 hours, nothing else is in your system. And I was like, well, what about mucoid plaque? And they're like, what are you talking about? These are doctors, you know? Wow. And so literally that day, I was driving home and I had to stop to go to the restroom.
It was the first time I ever got mucoid plaque to come out of my body. Yeah, no, I've done that. And that is gnarly. I was like, what is this? Did I just, like, did my intestine just come out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, sorry to get graphic for people out there, but I think a lot of people that watch your show probably know this stuff. Oh, they do. And if you haven't,
you need to go and Google mucoid plaque and how to get it out of your body. But after days and days and days of hydrating and no food, stuff starts to loosen up and you're like, no wonder I'm nutrient deficient. No wonder I don't digest food properly. No wonder am I... you know, this and that is unhealthy or people getting cancer left and right.
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