Kelly Slater

From Free net encyclopedia

Kelly Slater (born Robert Kelly Slater on February 11, 1972) from Cocoa Beach, Florida is the most successful professional surfer in the history of the sport. He is, according to peers, a surfing genius.

Kelly is a seven-time world champion (1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2005) and took many modern surfing moves to a new level. He was involved in the X-Games in 2003 and 2004 and has been a big factor that has helped the East Coast beat the West Coast team two years in a row in the Surfing competition. To this day, he can be seen in magazines such as Surfing Magazine, Transworld Surf, and Surfer magazine.

In 1991 Kelly was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. Besides surfing he's also modeled for Versace and during the 90's he formed a band called The Surfers which released an album of surf music, Songs From the Pipe.

In 1992-3, Slater acted for one season on the American TV series Baywatch as the character Jimmy Slade.<ref>{{{2|{{{name|Kelly Slater}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database</ref> Even long afterwards the Australian surfers on the world tour liked to refer to him as Jimmy. <ref name="tracks-aug-05">Jimmy Slade's Big Day Out by Sean Doherty in Tracks magazine, August 2005, ISSN 1032-3317.</ref>

A videogame by Treyarch and Activision named Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer was released September 17, 2002.[1]. In 2003 he released an autobiography called, "Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey." Kelly has an eight year old daugther named Taylor who lives in Cocoa Beach with her mother.

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. 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. (And then put on some entertainment, getting a can of beer from the support boat and drinking it while inside the tube – which the judges scored 8.7!) <ref name="tracks-aug-05"/>

Slater is considered by the specialized media as the best surfer ever. At the Nova Schin Festival in Brazil in November 2005, he won his seventh world title. He has been given the nickname "the Michael Jordan of surfing" by the media and his fans.[2]. His main sponsor is Quiksilver and his favorite waves are Pipe in Hawaii and Kirra in Australia. [3]

He once dated actress Pamela Anderson. Previously, he also dated Rosary Walsh and currently he's dating Gisele Bündchen, who was a former model girlfriend of actor Leonardo Dicaprio.

[edit]

Pro Surfing Titles

- Career victories: 44
- WCT victories: 33 (equaling Tom Currens'record)
- World titles: 7 (1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2005)

2006

- 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)

Image:KSlater Surfermagcover.jpg

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)

Image:KSlater bookcover.jpg

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