Kelly Slater
Kelly Slater (b. Robert Kelly Slater February 11 1972, Cocoa Beach, Florida) is the most successful professional surfer in the history of the sport.
Slater is an eight time world champion, and competed in the X-Games in 2003 and 2004. In May 2005 in the final of the Billabong Tahiti Pro contest at Teahupoo, Slater became the first to score two perfect 10 rides for a total 20 out of 20 under the ASP two-wave scoring system. (The corresponding honour under the previous three-wave system belongs to Shane Beschen from 1996.[1]) It was a high-scoring heat and he was leading with a 9.5 and a 10 against opponent Damien Hobgood when Hobgood was crunched by a tube that closed down, dislocating his shoulder and leaving Slater the contest winner. Slater surfed on and scored a second 10.
In 1999 he appeared alongside Garbage singer Shirley Manson in the promotional video for the Garbage single "You Look So Fine". He played a man washed up on a sea shore, rescued by siren Manson.
In 1992-3, Slater acted for one season on the American TV series Baywatch as the character Jimmy Slade.[2] Even long afterwards the Australian surfers on the world tour liked to refer to him as Jimmy. [3]
A videogame by Treyarch and Activision named Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer was released September 17, 2002 [1] (he also appeared in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 prior to this). In 2003 he released an autobiography called, "Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey."
In 2004 Slater was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, and has modeled for Versace.
Kelly has a ten year old daughter named Taylor who lives in Cocoa Beach with her mother. Slater has been romantically linked in the past to Pamela Anderson, and most recently (in 2005) Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
His favorite waves are Pipe in Hawaii and Kirra in Australia. [2]
Slater is passionate about preserving coral reefs globally and protecting temperate reefs in California through his relationship with Reef Check[3]. He is also involved with poverty reduction organization such as The Borgen Project.
In his spare time he plays guitar, and during the 90's he formed a band called The Surfers which released an album of surf music, Songs From the Pipe. He performed a song with musician friend Ben Harper during Harper's concert in Santa Barbara, California on August 15 2006. He also performed "Rockin' in The free World" with grunge band Pearl Jam on the July 7 2006 in San Diego.
Slater has had a long time rivalry with top surfer Andy Irons. He lost the world title to andy in 2003 and has never forgotten the pain of that loss.
- Career victories:36
- WCT victories: 27
- World titles: 8
2006
- The Sixth ElementMovie
- Quiksilver Pro (Gold Coast, Australia)
- Rip Curl Pro (Bells Beach, Australia)
2005
- Billabong Pro (Teahupoo, Tahiti)
- The Globe WCT (Fiji)
- Billabong Pro (South Africa)
- The Boost Mobile Pro (Trestles, California)
2004
- Snickers Australian Open (QS)
- Energy Australia Open (QS)
2003
- Billabong Pro (Teahupoo, Tahiti)
- Billabong Pro (South Africa)
- Billabong Pro (Mundaka, Spain)
- Nova Schin Festival (Brazil)
2002
- The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau (Specialty-Hawaii)
2000
- Gotcha Tahiti Pro presented by Globe (Tahiti)
1999
- Mountain Dew Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
1998
- Billabong Pro (Australia)
- G-Shock Triple Crown of Surfing (Specialty-Hawaii)
1997
- Coke Surf Classic (Australia)
- Billabong Pro (Australia)
- Tokushima Pro (Japan)
- Marui Pro (Japan)
- Kaiser Summer Surf WCT (Brazil)
- Grand Slam (Specialty-Australia)
- Typhoon Lagoon Surf Challenge (Specialty-USA)
1996
- Coke Surf Classic (Australia)
- Rip Curl Pro Saint Leu (Reunion Island)
- CSI pres. Billabong Pro (South Africa)
- U.S. Open (California)
- Rip Curl Pro Hossegor (France)
- Quiksilver Surfmasters (France)
- Chiemsee Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
- Sud Ouest Trophee (Specialty-France)
- Da Hui Backdoor Shootout (Specialty-Hawaii)
1995
- Quiksilver Pro (Indonesia)
- Chiemsee Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
- Triple Crown of Surfing (Specialty-Hawaii)
1994
- Rip Curl Pro (Australia)
- Gotcha Lacanau Pro (France)
- Chiemsee Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
- The Bud Surf Tour (WQS-USA)
- The Bud Surf Tour (WQS-USA)
- Sud Ouest Trophee (Specialty-France)
1993
- Marui Pro (Japan)
1992
- Rip Curl Pro Landes (France)
- Marui Masters (Hawaii)
References
- ^ The Perfect Heat, Tracks magazine, March 2006, page 70 (Shane Beschen 30 out of 30 at the Kirra Pro 1996)
- ^ Kelly Slater at IMDb
- ^ Jimmy Slade's Big Day Out by Sean Doherty in Tracks magazine, August 2005, ISSN 1032-3317.