WATCH: Surfing Great Kelly Slater Gets a Mental Barrel in Hawaii

Eleven-time surfing world champ Kelly Slater is almost 52 years old and recently had hip surgery.

Last week, he had his first "session" of 2024 at Pipeline and it wasn't what we'd expect. Instead, it was lighthearted, playful, and reminiscent of what North Shore kids do not far down the beach at Mother's.

But in the video below, Slater's back in action. Going full-force at firing Backdoor, the GOAT scores an absolutely mental barrel.

Off Da Lip captioned the footage above:

"Kelly Slater Surfing Pipeline AFTER Hip Surgery And He's Ripping! Footage from Today

"Kelly Slater is back on Oahu and everyone is stoked to have him here. After his hip surgery, surf aficionados were all curious as to how the GOAT would handle the recovery.

"Well, after watching this video, you would probably never guess that he recently underwent a heavy medical procedure. Today he displayed some knife like carves, typical slater-esque aggression, and superb wave selection. I don't think it's a stretch to say... Kelly Slater is back!"

In the video, at about 36 seconds in, Slater scores an insane barrel at Backdoor.

The rest of the video is almost nine minutes of raw footage featuring a bunch of pros getting sick waves. Just a typical day on the North Shore.

Slater was so stoked on the wave he reposted it on his Instagram story and wrote:

"Made it home to this and break two boards. @sethmoniz throwing a shaka from the inside."

Press play above and enjoy.

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