For a town like San Francisco, hosting the coronation of Kelly Slater as the eleven-time ASP World Champion was something special. In fact, it was the first ASP World Title ever doled out on mainland American soil, a fact not lost on anybody who watched the goings-on at Ocean Beach over the last week.
First, it must be noted that Slater did not win the actual contest. The Rip Curl Pro Search, a roaming world tour event that finds itself in new, exotic locales every year (albeit some colder than others), was in fact won by a quiet 17-year-old Brazilian kid named Gabriel Medina.
“I don’t even know what just happened,” stammered Medina, as he was being showered with champagne -- an adult beverage he was too young to drink. But don’t let the soft-spoken, bashful teenager fool you -- he knows perfectly well what he’s doing. This was his second win in only four events on tour. You could very easily make the leap and say he’s the next Slater.
“I’m just stoked right now,” summarized Medina. “I always try my best and try to push my surfing, and it just worked out.”
“He’s one of the best surfers I’ve ever seen,” said journeyman Joel Parkinson, who Medina edged out in the Final. “He has a very bright future ahead of him.”
But back to Slater, who did concede that he’s old enough to be Medina’s dad. In a historic career that’s spanned over 20 years, Slater has tallied 48 tour victories, over three million dollars in prize money, and now, after clinching in San Francisco, he owns eleven ASP world titles.
“It feels like the circle has been completed,” said Slater shortly after wrapping up the title. “I knew somewhere in the back of my mind [that] eleven was there, but I honestly don’t think about twelve. I was born on 2/11 and now to win on 11/2, it’s a weird coincidence and it does feel like the completion of something. It was a goal I set at the beginning of the year and luckily I got to it.”
Premature Coronation
All the numerology would be quickly thrown out the window, however, when Slater himself realized that he hadn’t actually clinched the title -- he would need to win one more heat to do so.
On the night of his title celebration, Slater went back and looked at the numbers and then contacted his agent Terry Hardy to tell him that things weren’t adding up. From there, Slater’s camp contacted the ASP to inform them of the mistake. On the morning of November 4 Slater tweeted, “The calculator at @aspworldtour must be broken. I’m not the world champ yet!”
A follow-up tweet from Slater several minutes later read, “I’m not joking. I have not won the world title yet. I still have to win another heat! Give those shirts and hats back!”
“I’m going to really have to consider if I’m going to do the Tour after this.” -Kelly Slater
Slater began his 2011 campaign with a win at the Quiksilver Pro Australia. He would finish fifth and 13th at the next two events, respectively. Then in July, instead of traveling to South Africa for the Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay, he opted to chase a massive south swell to Fiji and the island of Tavarua. Figuring his season to be a wash, at that point he did not consider himself a contender for the title.
Then in early August he won the U.S. Open of Surfing, a victory that because of its ASP rating would not count in his bid for a title, but did kickstart a two-month command performance. At month’s end, the Billabong Pro Tahiti roared into the frontal lobe of the surfing world’s conscious. Thanks to a monumental south swell, Teahupoo provided what is unanimously considered some of the best surfing the world tour has seen, and there to bask in all its glory was none other than the man himself.
Now back in the title chase -- but still a relatively distant threat -- he would go on to finish second at the Quiksilver Pro New York and win the Hurley Pro in California (he met Australia’s Owen Wright in all three finals, setting yet another ASP benchmark). Then a second place finish at the Rip Curl Pro Portugal in early October all but sealed the deal.
Sailing into San Francisco, Slater just needed “four good waves.”
“Now I can go to Hawaii and really relax and not worry about my result at Pipeline,” said Slater. “I’m going to really have to consider if I’m going to do the Tour after this.”
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