(Editor’s note: This article first ran in March of 2019. In light of recent news of Kobe’s tragic passing, we thought we would resurface the article as a way to remember the Black Mamba and the wide-reaching influence he had. Our condolences go out to the Bryant family and all others impacted by this tragedy.)

Surfing in the Olympics is less than a year and a half away. And last week, at the Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks California, the USA Surfing Olympic program was elevated to a brand-new, very professional place. Put it this way: the eight WCT surfers who showed up spent two days going through a battery of crazy tests at the high tech sports facility, including a baseline measurement in functional range, conditioning, dynamic neuromuscular stabilization, explosive force, strength, stamina, nutrition, training, rehab practices and more. Things are getting serious. (We’ll dive into exactly how serious in a follow-up story.)

Most of the USA’s current crop of WCTers were there, including Kolohe Andino, Griffin Colapinto, Zeke Lau, Seth Moniz, Sebastian Zeitz, Caroline Marks, Courtney Conlogue and Lakey Peterson. (The top two men and women WCTers from the top ten will be eligible for the 2020 Olympics.) Also present: head coach Chris Stone (formerly Gallagher), assistant coach Brett Simpson, as well as the rest of the USA Surfing High Performance Support Team, which includes some of the best medical and sports performance research experts in the country. (Missing were: Kelly, John John, Conner, Coco, Malia and Carissa.)

Read more: Pathway to Olympic Surfing Finalized

Oh, and Kobe Bryant showed.

The two-time Olympian, 18-time All Star and five-time NBA champ was, in fact, early, and spoke candidly with the athletes and crew for an hour — including a private 20-minute session with just the surfers. He was composed, articulate, confident and honest. He swore a little. He laughed a bunch. And then, after spending a half hour doing selfies and signing a few shirts (Andino had brought a few just for the occasion), he was gone as quickly as he showed. But in that hour, he offered frank, direct advice to the Olympic hopefuls, which we’ve compiled below.

*Note: there’s a bunch of stuff here that doesn’t have anything directly to do with surfing — but each surfer took in Bryant’s advice and applied it to their own competitive path.

On his relationship to surfing

“In 1998, we were getting ready to play the Chicago Bulls. It was a big match-up. I show up in the morning, and that Chicago center, Luc Longley, the Australian kid, is out. He’s missing like three months, all the way up until the playoffs. After the game, I asked Michael [Jordan]: ‘What the hell’s going on with Luc Longley?’ They said, ‘Man, that stupid motherf***er decided to go surfing yesterday. Fell off his board, got a third-degree separation on his shoulder, and now he may cost us a damn championship.’ I was like, ‘You know what? Let me keep my ass off the board until I’m retired.”

“So, it was a goal of mine to start surfing after I finished playing basketball. Then, we’re pregnant with Bianka, and so I had more house duties to do. And now we’re pregnant with a fourth girl. So it just keeps getting pushed back. I’m trying to get there. I tried one time — it was horrendous. Afterwards, the person looks at me and goes, ‘I think it’s the board’s fault, because I think you need a much, much bigger board.’ I was like, ‘Okay, yeah. Let’s just go with that.'”

“But the thing I’m most excited about is looking at the evolution of the sport and the training. Take the NBA for example, where we started, the technology we had, the training we had — it was still at its infancy. To look at the progression that it’s made to the athleticism you see today has been nothing short of a revolution. And I think studying your sport — just as we studied basketball — this way, you guys as athletes can take the sport some place no one’s ever seen before. It’s really, really exciting.”

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On prepping for the Olympics versus regular season

“The same exact way. The preparation didn’t change. If anything, I had to prepare more. It involved watching film with those guys so they can see how tough these guys actually are. And so the process was the same. Just watching film. Reading up on them. Studying them. Getting to know them. When you play, it’s such a badge of honor because it’s different from wearing the Laker brand or whatever the case may be. You’re out there for your country. That’s an honor. You hear people talk about that a lot. You hear your national anthem being played, you see flags being waved. It’s a different feeling. It’s such a huge, huge honor.”

Read More: How Will The USA Win Gold in the 2020 Olympics?

On the eye test

“There’s also the aspect of intimidation. I show up on the basketball court and I’m playing against a guy and I’m looking at him. With the eye test, I can tell where they’re not disciplined or whether or not they’re training consistently. I can tell whether or not they follow their nutrition plan. You can tell with striations. You can tell with density of the muscle. So when you’re looking at them and you’re going, ‘Oh, he’s been skipping his steps’ you can see it. It’s the difference between watching Michael Phelps get in the pool and watching his competitor get in the pool. There’s a difference. You also gotta remember that at any moment, whenever you’re around your competitors, you’re also competing. You’re also sending them the message. So that they know: ‘Oh, she’s not here to f**k around today.'”

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On the importance of history

“A lot of it is understanding the history of your sport. For me, it’s studying some of the teams from the past — and understanding that every single team has an identity. I’m sure it’ll be the same in surfing — to study all the other surfers that came before you and look at their style of surfing. Which style was more appropriate for this particular condition or this particular wave? History has a way of repeating itself. It’s not anything new. But it’s important to study all of that stuff. Then it helps you prepare going forward.”

Read more: Tokyo 2020 Olympic Surfing Schedule Released

On loneliness versus being alone

“There’s a big difference between being alone and being lonely. If you really want to reach a certain level of excellence, there is a large amount of time where you will be alone. That’s when you refine things. You go to the detail of things. Everybody else is at home and you’re alone doing the work. But the reason I never felt lonely is because I love the game. There is a lot of time where you’re gonna have to be alone and you’re gonna have to study, and you’re gonna have to get to that next level. And if you’re willing to do that, that will definitely give you a leg up on competitors.”

On life/work balance

“You’re walking over this tightrope. Right over here you got a personal life. And over here you got a professional life. You’re just walking on this tightrope, trying not to fall on your ass. And there are times you’ll swim this way. And then you’ll realize, ‘Oh, wait. I’m neglecting my personal life.’ Now you swim back this way. And then you swim back that way. And you’re doing all that while trying to walk with no safety net underneath you. And the people that can accomplish both are the ones that can swim back and forth successfully without falling off. The mentality of being great doesn’t stop. It means you have to be great at being a husband, father and that stuff. For example, kids. My kids do not care that I was just training eight hours, just finished playing the triple overtime game and come home. They don’t give a shit.”

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On managing expectations

“If people have these expectations of me, it’s for a reason. You gotta flip the perspective. If you look at it and go, ‘Oh, this is a negative thing people are saying,’ then it weighs on you. But look at it for what it is: they’re expecting that from you because you can do that. Now all you gotta do is go out and do it, by preparing. Doing the same things that got you there. The same work. The same attention to detail. And then you trust that those results will speak for themselves. And if they don’t, okay, there’s another one. You do what you can to try and win that thing. You don’t win? Now become even more obsessive to win the next one. It’s just a never-ending journey. You can’t get obsessed with one thing ’cause you know it’s a long haul.”

On mental toughness

“Some guys say it’s the stuff you push through, even though it hurts — but that’s not actually how I view mental toughness. To me, being mentally tough means you can take your mind someplace else and concentrate on that other thing, to the point where the thing that was bothering you is no longer the focus. So, if you pull a hamstring, you’re out. Now, imagine that all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a raging fire erupts in your house. You’re going to get your ass up, sprint and get your kids, and get the f**k out of the house. Then after that, when everything settles down, you’re gonna be like, ‘Goddamn, my hamstring hurts.’ But at the time the safety of your family was more important, therefore you didn’t think about the injury. And that’s what being mentally tough is.”

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On mental training

“In the 2012 season, I ruptured my achilles tendon and we went into the all-star break out of the playoffs. I made the decision to really obsess over the game in a way I’d never obsessed before. Obviously the physical components to it, all that stuff and studying game film. But also, it meant that — and it seems like a little thing — whatever I was doing at the time, that was the only thing that I did. So if I was getting therapy on the table, I wasn’t flipping through Instagram while I was getting therapy. I was focusing on the muscles he was working on. The breath, breathing through things. If I was sitting home with my children, I didn’t have my phone anywhere around, I was just focusing on them. Then, when I played during the game, that behavior manifested itself when I played — because now my focus was simply on what I am doing here and now. I’m not training myself to be distracted, to be someplace else while I’m here. Not letting your mind wander over the play that just happened or what may happen, what could’ve happened, what should’ve happened — but focusing on doing what it is I’m doing at this moment in time.”