Kelly Slater: Greatest American Surfer

When one hears the word surfing they immediately think of Kelly Slater. Slater, 38, is arguably the best professional surfer of all time. Born Robert Kelly Slater on February 11^th in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Slater is known throughout the surfing world. Besides being known for his amazing surfing skills Slater is also known as a "regular guy." Down to earth, generous, funny, and intelligent are some of the words used to describe Slater by friends and family.

Kelly Slater has some amazing accomplishments to his career worth mentioning. According to his website, www.kellyslater.com, he has 9 ASP World Titles, 6 Pipe Master wins, and 1 Quicksilver Big Wave Invitational win. In addition to those he has 41 WCT victories along with 14 Surfer Poll Award Wins. 5 of Slater's 9 ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) titles were from consecutive wins during the years of 1994-98. Kelly Slater holds the honor of being both the youngest and oldest surfer to win the ASP World Title. He first won the title at the young age of 20 and the last time he won he was 36.

Besides winning many surfing competitions, Slater also competed in the X-Games in both 2003 and 2004. In May of 2005 during the final heat at the Billabong Tahiti Pro, Slater, became the first surfer to ever score two perfect, 20 out of 20 points. He was the first after the ASP implemented the two-wave scoring system. There is no question to the fact as why Kelly Slater is a member of the Surfing Hall of Fame. The names Quicksilver and Kelly Slater go hand in hand together. Since the early 90s Quicksilver has been the primary sponsor for Slater. Slater can be seen mostly riding Channel Island surfboards. He uses his own signature serious of FCS fins to complement his surfboard.

Some fun facts about Kelly Slater regarding his riding style and personal life. Slater has voiced numerous times that his favorite waves to ride are Kirra and Pipe. His stance when he rides is regular or natural foot. He has made an estimated $1,853,305.000 from the start of his career to 2009. Slater has released two books; "Pipe Dreams" and "For the Love." The first was released in 2003 and the second one was released in early 2008. His natural surfing ability and beach-like good looks easily landed him a guest role on Baywatch. He appeared for 10 episodes. Slater is not only passionate about surfing but passionate about preserving the oceans as well. He has a close relationship with Reef Check, which is an organization that trains volunteers how to protect and maintain reefs worldwide.

Kelly Slater is an asset to surfing. Between his demeanor, talents for surfing, and appreciation for our oceans he makes an easy favorite among many. Slater is one surfer we will be watching for years to come.

Sources:

www.kellyslater.com

Wikipedia/wiki/Kelly_Slater