Surf Legend Kelly Slater Shares His 'Raddest' Story About Musician Jimmy Buffett

Jade Eckardt
·2 min read
10

When Margaritaville singer Jimmy Buffett died on September 1, 2023, the surf world was in mourning.

Nic von Rupp and Koa Rothman and Nathan Florence all spoke out to honor him.

It was particularly hard on 11-time world champ Kelly Slater, who was close to Buffett. He recently sat down with Benji Weatherley and shared his "raddest" Buffett story.

The post above is a clip from the latest episode of Weatherley's podcast, Let's Poddy, where Slater also shared his best career moment.

At around the 18 minute mark, Weatherley says: "Shoutout to Jimmy Buffett, I know that was your homie."

He asks, "How'd you guys meet?"

"We met in France at the contest. He flew out to the contest. A lot of people probably didn't know that Jimmy spoke fluent French and loved France," Slater says.

"When he passed away, couldn't sleep for a while. It was really hard. Jimmy was like a dad to me in a lot of ways," he adds.

Then Slater tells his "raddest" story about the late music legend.

Rewind over 10 years ago, and Slater’s brother Sean's about to get married.

Buffett and Slater are both in Florida as Sean's bachelor party is going off in Key West. Slater's planning to drive there, but Buffett's got another idea.

"Why would you do that? I got a plane. Just drive down to my house and we'll fly," he told Slater.

So Buffett flies Slater to the party.

Buffett shows up and parties with Sean and his "Parrot Head" friends who all grew up listening to his music.

Sean was so stunned, he started crying.

"You're the coolest brother," Weatherley says.

Fun fact: Buffett was the first guy to stand up paddle at the Surf Ranch.

Click here to listen to the full episode.

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