“I couldn’t quite pull a miracle off this week, I’ve pulled a few off over the years and I still had that hope out there. I was like, ‘one might pop up with a minute to go’.
“I’ve had such incredible luck and good fortune over the years and it’s tied in with my surfing. I’ll have a little quiet time after some time with the crowd and absorb the entire thing.”
Kelly Slater celebrates his 2022 Pipeline Pro victory, a week short of his 50th birthday.Credit: WSL
Slater first qualified for the world tour in 1991. He became the youngest world champion in history a year later when he claimed his first Pipeline Masters and the crown at age 20.
Five straight titles followed from 1994 to 1998 before a professional sabbatical, after which he returned to wage a running battle with the late Andy Irons that defined a pro-surfing generation.
Slater’s last title in 2011, at the age of 39, makes him the oldest world champion as well, with a career that has pitted him against opponents from ’80s greats Tom Curran and Mark Occhilupo to Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson, the Hawaiians Irons and Sunny Garcia, Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and Filipe Toledo and now surfing’s latest generation.
Slater detailed last month at Bells Beach how big a toll last year’s hip surgery, which involved attaching the labrum of a cadaver to his hip bone, had taken. He needed hours of physio before and after each event just to compete.
Kelly Slater by the numbers
- 11 world titles – the most of any surfer, man or woman
- 56 Championship Tour wins
- Five world titles in a row (1994-1998)
- The youngest world champion (aged 20 in 1992) – and oldest (39 in 2011)
- The oldest event winner (49 years, 51 weeks) in 2022
- Eight Pipeline Masters/Pro, Hawaii event wins
- Six Lower Trestles, California event wins
- Six Snapper Rocks, Gold Coast event wins
- Five Tahiti Pro, Teahupo’o event wins
- Four Jeffreys Bay, South Africa event wins
- Four Bells Beach Pro, Victoria event wins
- Four Fiji Pro, Cloudbreak event wins
A berth at July’s Paris Olympics – held at Teahupo’o in Tahiti – had long been Slater’s preferred farewell, but injuries and form always made that a long shot.
His 2022 Pipeline Pro triumph, his first event win in six years one week short of his 50th birthday, ranks as one of surfing’s most remarkable victories. It was in Hawaii earlier this year that he truly came to terms with calling time on his career.
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“I’m avoiding that emotion because it’s all right there bubbling up,” Slater said.
“But it hit me at [the] Sunset [Beach Pro] this year. I knew without a good result at Pipeline, I didn’t do well at Sunset and I’ve been struggling since my surgery.
“I’m just fighting through the pain on adrenaline. But after Sunset, I was talking to Kalani and I just broke down [saying], ‘this feels like the end’. But it’s the start of something else.”
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Source Agencies
