Will Kelly add another notch to his belt in Huntington Beach’s epic arena? Photo: Bahn/USOpenofSurfing.com
There aren’t many things that I am certain about in this world, but one thing I am sure of is that Mr. Kelly Slater is the best surfer this world has been blessed with. There could be some debate and speculation about this, but let’s look at the facts presented here and then decide.
Kelly “The G.O.A.T” Slater has won an astonishing 11 ASP World Championship Tour Titles during his 23 year career thus far. Slater exploded onto the scene back in 1990 winning his first ASP title in 1992, and he hasn’t lost a step since. Even after taking a brief leave of absence from the tour between 1999-2001, Slater still has the most world titles ever by far. At 41 years of age, this oldie still knows how to school the young guns, and hopefully this continues to happen.
The 2013 Vans U.S. Open of Surfing, which is the largest surfing competition in the world, is currently taking place in Huntington Beach, California, I’m interested to see how Kelly might fare by looking at his past finishes at this competition.
He has won the U.S. Open of Surfing a total of two times–once in 1996 and the other in 2011. Since 2009, Slater has finished no worse than fifth place. In both 2010 and 2012, he had third place finishes losing to Australian Julian Wilson in 2012, who eventually went on to win the whole thing. So far in the 2013 competition, Kelly has advanced to the sixth round which includes the final 24 surfers. He has eliminated fantastic surfers including Nathaniel Curran who was the 2008 winner and the troublesome Mitch Coleborn who has handed him losses in the past. In the Round of 24, he will match up against two of the world’s top 34 surfers: Brazilian Miguel Pupo, who has a great chance at winning this event after making the final in 2012, and Australian Adrian “Ace” Buchan.
Slater is a contender in every competition he enters. Never have we ever seen a surfer make the sport look as easy as he does. With a win at this event, he would definitely add to his legend. Hopefully this hallowed surfer from Cocoa Beach, Florida, can bring the title back to U.S. soil.
