Kelly Slater

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Kelly Slater (b. 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. 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 an 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]

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.

[edit] Pro Surfing Titles

Career victories: 44
WCT victories: 33 (equaling Tom Curren's record)
World titles: 8 (1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2006)

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)

Kelly Slater on the cover of Surfer

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)

Kelly's autobiography book

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)

[edit] References

^ The Perfect Heat, Tracks magazine, March 2006, page 70 (Shane Beschen 30 out of 30 at the Kirra Pro 1996)
^ Kelly Slater at the Internet Movie Database
^ Jimmy Slade's Big Day Out by Sean Doherty in Tracks magazine, August 2005, ISSN 1032-3317.

[edit] External links

Preceded by: Damien Hardman	World surfing champion (Men) 1992	Succeeded by: Derek Ho
Preceded by: Derek Ho	World surfing champion (Men) 1994-1998	Succeeded by: Mark Occhilupo
Preceded by: Andy Irons	World surfing champion (Men) 2005-2006	Succeeded by: incumbent

Association of Surfing Professionals
2006 Foster's Men's World Tour (WCT)
Kelly Slater - Andy Irons - Mick Fanning - Damien Hobgood - Phillip MacDonald - Trent Munro - Taj Burrow - Nathan Hedge - Bruce Irons - C.J. Hobgood - Cory Lopez - Joel Parkinson - Jake Paterson - Frederick Patacchia - Victor Ribas - Dean Morrison - Tom Whitaker - Paulo Moura - Mark Occhilupo - Travis Logie - Daniel Wills - Bede Durbidge - Taylor Knox - Troy Brooks - Peterson Rosa - Darren O'Rafferty - Marcelo Nunes - Adriano de Souza - Bobby Martinez - Adrian Buchan - Shaun Cansdell - Pedro Henrique - Luke Stedman - Roy Powers - Pancho Sullivan - Yuri Sodre - Greg Emslie - Raoni Monteiro - David Weare - Tim Reyes - Picon Mikael - Jarrad Howse - Chris Ward - Mick Lowe - Toby Martin - Richard Lovett - Jihad Kohdr - Lee Winkler