Kelly Slater

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia   Robert Kelly Slater born February 11 1972 Cocoa Beach FL USA is an American professional surfer known for his competitive prowess and style He has been crowned ASP World Champion a record 10 times including 5 consecutive titles from 199498 He is the youngest at age 20 and the oldest at age 38 to win the title Upon winning his 5th world title in 1997 Slater passed Australian surfing legend Mark Richards to become the most successful champion in the history of the sport In 2007 he also became the alltime leader in career event wins by winning the Boost Mobile Pro event at Lower Trestles near San Clemente California The previous record was held by Slaters childhood hero 3time world champion Tom Curren In addition to the ASP tour Slater has also competed in the XGames in 2003 and 2004 On October 3 2008 Slater won his ninth ASP world title at the Billabong Pro Mundaka by defeating local surfer Eneko Acero in the 3rd round In May 2005 in the final heat of the Billabong Tahiti Pro contest at Teahupoo Slater became the first surfer ever to be awarded two perfect scores for a total 20 out of 20 points under the ASP twowave scoring system The corresponding honor under the previous threewave system belongs to fellow American Shane Beschen who achieved the feat in 1996 Since 1990 Slater has been sponsored primarily by surfwear industry giant Quiksilver He exclusively rides Channel Islands surfboards equipped with his own signature series of FCS fins Description above from the Wikipedia article Kelly Slater licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia