Watching the WSL’s Lost Tapes is frustrating. The whole series is a tease as to gleening insight into Kelly, the man, the myth, the legend. But just when you think he’s going to share something deeply revealing, he drifts back to the script. This happens frequently throughout the series.

In this latest episode, the elephant in the room is “what if Kelly won an event at a wave he built?” He addresses the subject, but then drifts back to standard post-heat interview verbiage.

“If I did win any of those competitions if would look a bit fishy… There’s some part of me that would feel funny winning this event because I did design the wave,” said Kelly. “But considering that Medina has won two of the events here, I think he’s the guy to beat. And I think Filipe is the other guy to beat.”

Still, watching the paces Kelly puts himself through from board choice to scheduling decisions, he’s borderline OCD. That’s not pejorative, it’s obvious that his fixation on surfing has brought him great accomplishments. And in that respect, simply through observation, we do get a close look inside who Kelly Slater is. He just won’t come out and say it directly in the 11-Plus episode series, so viewers will have to play armchair psychoanalysis.

And yes, It’s easy to pontificate from behind the safety of a computer keyboard, but watching the full episode (conveniently embedded below) offers heaps of insight into the mind that created the best artificial wave on the planet came to be. You just have to look closely and read between the lines.

Watch the entire Lost Tapes series here