Kelly Slater Surprises Erin Brooks with New SURFER Cover
San Clemente, California. (June 9, 2025) — “The sun was setting behind a curtain of June gloom on Sunday evening at Lower Trestles. All eyes were locked on the well-trodden path leading up to the fabled cobblestone wave. Most of the staff, prepping for the Lexus Trestles Pro, and the athletes warming up for the event, had gone home.
‘You think Kelly’s gonna show?’ the last remaining humans on the beach, bundled up amidst a blustery south wind, pondered. A bevy of shoulders shrugged in response.
About an hour before dark, an e-bike came motoring down the path, like a mirage in the desert. Eyes squinting. Is that him? It was indeed. Kelly Slater had arrived, in classic GOAT fashion, right at the last minute, fresh off a flight, and ready to surprise young Erin Brooks with the cover (her first ever) of the brand-new issue of SURFER Magazine. Since Kelly was on the last cover, it only made sense for him to deliver the new one to Erin. Just like the Oscars tradition – last year’s winner presents this year’s.
‘It honestly doesn’t feel real,’ said Brooks after the reveal. ‘It’s such an honor. I know that y’all don’t make too many of these anymore, so I’m just so happy to be on the cover. It was so cool that he [Kelly] came down here to surprise me. I didn’t expect it at all, so I was pretty blown away.’
The cover features Brooks at Rocky Point – as shot by Brian Bielmann – punting a massive, fully tweaked frontside air. It represents the leaps and bounds in progression that a fiery group of young females are making in the surf world, more of which is documented inside the pages of the mag.
‘There’s already been such a big push in women’s progressive surfing,’ said Brooks. ‘We want to be consistent with our airs, but also try the crazy new tricks as well. We’re gonna keep pushing ourselves.’
As for Kelly, it was a chance for him to walk down memory lane, and reminisce about his first cover:
‘The first cover I got was actually Surfing [mag] when I was 17 maybe. About the same age. The picture was right before I went to France to stay with [Tom] Curren for the first time. My first one was an air actually! At Sebastian Inlet. I’m so stoked for you. Now you have to pass off the next one to the next person…unless she gets it again. [Laughs.]’
And Kelly’s advice for the young gun for the Lowers comp? ‘Win.'”
Dashel Piersom, Surfer.com
