While many of his much younger rivals consistently lift the performance bar year in year out, Slater continues to match the new school and out do the old.
To follow are the basic stats of Kelly Slater. More can be found on www.aspworldtour.com in the surfer profiles section.
Slater’s Stats:
In winning his eighth Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour crown Slater has again created history.
He won his first title in Brazil at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. He then lost the following year to Derek Ho (HAW) but reclaimed his crown in 1994 and held onto it with a firm grip until 1998.
Slater left the tour before the start of the 1999 season to go into semi-retirement until 2001.
From 2002 to 2004 three-time world champion Andy Irons (HAW) dominated the sport.
In 2005, after a dramatic chain of events, where Slater engaged in an intense ratings battle with Irons he returned to forefront of the sport reclaiming the crown yet again in Brazil.
Slater was the youngest to claim the title at 20 years of age and is now the oldest champion at 34 years of age. Eclipsing his own record set last year when he was 33.
The only record Slater is yet to smash is the most number of competition victories held by Tom Curren (USA). He is currently equal with Curren with 33 event victories.
Slater has however now overtaken Curren for the most heat wins at top-level competition.
Quotes from Kelly Slater, immediately after the title win and his second place to Martinez in the Billabong Pro Mundaka.
On Bobby Martinez on his year and winning the Billabong Pro Mundaka: “I was stoked that Bobby started out so strong this year. He got to third and he was right up there in the ratings, then he had a little rough patch there during the past few events. I was just so happy to see him win at Teahupoo, it was his dad’s birthday that day. To win here again it just all fits, I got the title by making the final and Bobby (Martinez) wins it. I’m stoked for him.”
Slater on the realisation of his 8th world title claim sinking in: “I’ve got to get away from everyone for it to sink in. I need a little space. I had a lot of stress for the last couple of years before winning last year and this year I haven’t really had any stress at all. I’ve been on a good run and I just kept getting those results. I wasn’t really too worried about it either way. It all just came together, it’s just been the smoothest year ever as far as competition goes. My life is pretty cruisey now. I don’t know how to put it, but it’s definitely not the emotional output of last year. I had years of stuff building up to that and this year is just happier. Everything came out last year.”
Slater on beating the records of successful champions such as Lance Armstrong and Michael Schumacher:
“I haven’t even thought about that. I just have to sit back and think about that, Schumacher nearly won his 8th the other day but he blew his engine out and Lance didn’t even try for his 8th so it would be interesting to see if he tried for that.”
