By Erika Scafuro

You say Kelly Slater and everybody knows this formidable surfer who is making surfing history. 
Proper natural talent, Slater makes talk about himself since he was ten years old and he starts to compete and to win surfing events.
He still radiates his glow today, at the age of 48, showing people just how much a strong passion can push further.

Native of Cocoa Beach, Florida, Slater became a professional surfer and grew in popularity in the ‘90s, his golden age. He has been World Surf League Champion in 1992 for the first time; he won Billabong Pipeline Masters five times and he won the Triple Crown of Surfing in 1995 and 1998 in addition to starring in several episodes of the popular tv series Baywatch between 1992 and 1996.
Slater was crowned surfing world champion for 11 times winning World Surf League Men’s Championship Tour and setting the record as the youngest surfer in 1992, at age 20, and as the oldest in 2011, at age 39.

During surf competitions Slater has always shown how much he can fight for the title, it’s famous his rivalry with Andy Irons. While last year, at the Quicksilver Pro France event, our Leonardo Fioravanti went down in history for eliminating Slater who seemed certain to take home another title.
To whom asking him when he intends to stop competing, Slater always replies yet another round, implying that he has no desire to give up until he is forced to do so.

Despite his popularity Slater remains an humble man who grew up fast and did not forget the difficulties of his childhood, when his mother had not much money to raise three sons, divorced from his father who had problems with alcoholism.
Now Slater’s image is invaluable and he is involved in a lot of business projects as OuterKnown, his sustainable clothing line or the Kelly Slater Wave Company, also known as Surf’s Ranch, a surf-pool in Lemoore, California, where ride perfect waves created by men. Surf’s Ranch was created thanks to technology and design and the work of Slater’s team in partnership with WSL; since its construction in 2015, many are the professional surfers who have been able to access this fair of waves.

When Slater is not surfing, he nourishes his creative and artistic side: he writes songs, he plays music with friends as Jack Johnson, he plays golf and he stars in documentaries. The last one is 24/7: Kelly Slater which shows the life of this surfer legend.

With 55 career victories and a 2019 year that he ended as number 8, Slater still moves as if it was the first time.