I find it impossible not to be moved by Kelly Slater's victory today at Pipe, winning on his own terms and finally announcing his possible retirement. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

We have spilled gallons of ink writing about the best in history, writing about his exploits, and today it was time to shed a few tears.

The greatest athlete in history has finally found his place to say that he is surely leaving, and that he is leaving quietly. It was hard for him, his last victory was in Tahiti in 2016, his last achievement was the Triple Crown in 2019, but without a major victory in the three jewels.

I think Slater cried because he was overwhelmed trying to find justice for such a story, such a person, such an athlete.

Slater could not leave whistling softly, Slater could not leave without a spectacular finish like today's. It would not have been fair for him to leave being beaten by youngsters who cannot come close to him.

Slater at Pipe pumping, big and dangerous, finding big tubes, competing well, with people on the beach, with the Irons family, with his friends from the Momentum generation, Slater today did justice to himself and to all of us.

He deserved to end up like this. And we deserved to see him end up like this too.

I've said it in a column before: Kelly has been with me all my life. I lived with him when I started surfing, or my parents' divorce, or boring classes where I read about him when I was in school. I then lived with him through my own divorce. I raised my children with him and started losing my hair.

This, among many other things.

I didn't want to see my favorite surfer go away in a bad way. I wanted to see him go away like he did today.

And if he doesn't leave, great.

Thank you Kelly. There will be time to continue writing about you, or to tell, hopefully, the grandchildren to come about what it was like to live with you.

This is a first impression of what just happened.