Surfing: Kelly Slater returns from foot injury at Billabong Pipe Masters

Kelly Slater returned from injury at the Billabong Pipe Masters this week. Photo / Kelly Cestari

It seems a gruesome foot injury hasn't slowed American surfing legend Kelly Slater down as he won his first heat back.

Slater made his return at the Billabong Pipe Masters, the final event of the World Surf League Championship Tour, in Oahu, Hawaii on Tuesday morning (NZ time).

Matched up against France's Joan Duru and American Kolohe Andino, Slater got right into the swing of things as he posted a 7.17 on just his second wave back.

The 45-year-old wnt on to claim the heat win with a total score of 12.47 which means he avoids the first elimination round and moves straight into round three.

It was his first event in about five months after he broke a number of bones in his foot free surfing at Jeffrey's Bay in South Africa in July.

Slater was forced out of the competition at Jeffrey's Bay ahead of his third-round heat against Brazilian Filipe Toledo when a powerful whitewash forced his board back against his foot.

He revealed the extent of his injuries on Instagram, sharing an x-ray.

View this post on Instagram

You ever folded your entire foot backwards? If you try it sometime, this is what it might look like. I pulled into a barrel this morning and the whitewash bounced the board back into my foot as I hit the closeout, taking all the pressure into the metatarsals. Kinda like smashing my foot with a big hammer as hard as I can. Sorta feels like I'm giving birth out of my foot right now! I'm guessing surgery and 6 week holiday is in order. Not looking forward to 30 hour flight home before surgery though. Ouch! It sucks but so many people deal with such horrible things around this world everyday that a broken foot is pretty minor in the scheme of things. Sometimes a bad thing is a good thing. I'll make the best of my time off. #ThatsGonnaLeaveAMark #INeedElephantTranquilizers

A post shared by Kelly Slater (@kellyslater) on Jul 17, 2017 at 5:53am PDT

Despite missing four events due to the injury, Slater could still gain guaranteed requalification to next year's World Tour with a top-three finish at the Pipe Masters, depending on other results.

With the top 22 finishers returning for the tour next year, Slater would need to improve by at least seven places. Heading into the contest, he was 6000 points behind 22nd placed Bede Durbidge from Australia.

At the top of the leaderboard, Hawaiian John John Florence will try to hold off a number of challengers including former world champion Gabriel Medina of Brazil.