For the first time in Sports Illustrated‘s 60-year publication history, it is letting fans choose its cover. Sports Illustrated editors have picked the best 15 moments from the 2011 sports year to be voted on. One of the classic moments that fans can choose is Kelly Slater winning his historic 11th ASP World Championship. You can vote as often as you like from now until December 16th.
Kelly Slater (USA), 38, newly-crowned 10-time ASP World Champion, has claimed his 45th elite tour event, taking down the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico over Bede Durbidge (AUS), 27, in pumping three-to-four foot (1.5 metre) waves in Porta Del Sol.
Event No. 9 of 10 on the 2010 ASP World Tour, the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico has been an event of extremes.
Last Tuesday, the international sporting world was dealt a devastating blow with the tragic and unexpected loss of former three-time ASP World Champion and current ASP World Tour competitor Andy Irons (HAW), 32.
After a somber two-day postponement of the event out of respect for Irons’s passing, the world’s best surfers roared back to life for two of the most high-performance days in surfing history.
Today, Slater clinched his historic and unprecedented 10th ASP World Title before going on to take out the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico, as comprehensive and dominant a performance as the sporting world has ever bore witness to.
“This is the only event close to my home and I spent a lot of time in Puerto Rico when I was a kid,” Slater said. “I used to surf a lot of contests at Jobos and Wilderness, so this was kind of like a homecoming for me. A lot of my friends here I’ve known for 25 years and to surf with Dylan (Graves), I used to surf with his father in Florida when I was a kid. It was a special time. To be close to Florida and to win the 10th and get that wave (the Perfect 10) in the Final, there is nothing else I could add to it.”
Slater, who would go on to post an incredible 18.77 out of a possible 20 in the Final, secured the event’s second Perfect 10, exhibiting a masterful display of diversity and control in the rippable afternoon conditions.
“The wave that did it for me was that first one in the Quarterfinals against Adriano (de Souza),” Slater said. “That was the heat I needed to win to get the Title, and after that first wave, I felt this wave of relief. I still had to win the heat, but I was so relaxed and everything just started going my way. I was in the best possible headspace I could have been in for the rest of the day. This is a dream.”
The U.S. House of Representatives today unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution (H. Res. 792) offered by Representatives Bill Posey (R-FL) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) recognizing World Champion Surfer Kelly Slater for winning the 2010 Rip Curl Pro Bell Championship and for his numerous other victories and contributions to the sport of surfing. Sixty House Members in all cosponsored the Kelly Slater Resolution.
“Slater has worked hard to master a sport that so many have tried but so few have actually been able to conquer,” said Congressman Posey who represents Slater’s home town of Cocoa Beach, FL. “His world championship record is impressive and is certainly worthy of recognition.”
“Kelly Slater’s skill and achievements have earned him many fans in Hawaii, the birthplace of surfing,” said Congresswoman Mazie Hirono. “Two decades after winning his first professional surf contest, we in the islands are proud of our part-time resident as he continues to add to his string of successes out on the waves.”
Florida’s first surfing champion, Robert Kelly Slater, was born in Cocoa Beach where he learned to surf with his brothers. In 1992, Slater was the youngest surfer to win the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship and, in 2008, he became the oldest to win that title. Slater is also the first surfer ever to be awarded two perfect scores under the ASP two wave scoring system and is a six time winner of the Billabong Pipeline Masters for the top forty-five ranked surfers by the ASP. In 2007, Slater started the Kelly Slater Foundation to raise awareness and support for environmental and social issues.
Slater’s other accomplishments include:
- He is a six-time winner of Billabong Pipeline Masters.
- Slater won five consecutive Association of Surfing Professionals titles.
- He is a two time winner of the Triple Crown of Surfing.
- Slater currently has 42 World Championship Tour victories.
- He also holds a record 9 Association of Surfing Professionals World Championships.
- Slater is surfing’s all-time leader in career event wins.
- In 2002 Slater was inducted into Surfers Hall of Fame.
Nearly 40% of all east cost surfing occurs in Florida and despite tough economic times, the surf industry remains resilient showing $7.22 Billion in sales in 2008 and considerable growth over the past few years according to research performed by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association(SIMA). Cocoa Beach, FL is home to many surf shops including Ron Jon’s flag ship store, which was recently named one of the 25 Best Independent Retailers by Business Week and employs 500 people with $50 million in revenue.
