10 Things You Didn't Know About Kelly Slater

1. His real name is Robert.

He was born Robert Kelly Slater at first, but he didn’t know that, and everyone called him Kelly until he was teased about it – maybe because it’s a girl’s name. He switched to Robert for a few years and then in 1976, the Bad News Bears came out starring an anti-hero named Kelly, so now Kelly was cool, and it stuck and that’s a good thing: “Bobby Slater” sounds like a disc jockey. “Kelly Slater” sounds like a surfer. He is in good company though, because Nat Young and Wingnut have the same first name.

2. He is part Syrian.

On his father’s side. Look at him, with that dark skin and the eye of the tiger gaze. Pretty easy to imagine him as a Muslim pirate, back in the day, coming over the side of the boat with a knife in his teeth. He also kind of looks like Elvis Presley, who also was from the south, and had magic hips, and drove women crazy, but Elvis wasn’t Syrian.

3. He makes commercials with hot models overseas.

He would probably never dream of doing this in America, but like a lot of celebrities, he will do commercials overseas.  Click here for the full story>

4. He was jinxed as an amateur at the World Titles.

For all his success winning professional World Titles, Slater was jinxed as an amateur. In 1986, Kelly traveled to Newquay, England for the World Amateur Titles and was the second youngest competitor in the hyper-competitive Open Division. Despite the cold water and the bigger waves, Slater made it to the Junior final and came up against pretty fearsome competition in the form of Nicky Wood, Tahitian Vetea “Poto” David and Hawaiian John Shimooka. Slater fell on two waves and finished third in the world.

In 1988, Slater went to the qualifying team trials for the US Team at South Padre Island, bombed out and ended up as the second alternate to the team that went to Puerto Rico.

5. He has a daughter.

Her name is Taylor. She is 10 years old and lives with her mother in Florida.

6. He was on Baywatch.

The year after Kelly was named as one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, he was chosen to act the part of Jimmy Slade for the 2002-2003 episodes of Baywatch. Slater appeared in four episodes, was relentlessly teased about it by just about everyone but began a relationship with Pamela Anderson which pretty much shut everyone up.

7. He also dated Giselle Bundchen, lucky bastard.

Kelly is rarely seen at a function without a pretty girl on his arm. Sometimes they are famous, sometimes they are anonymous. During the winter of 2005, Kelly was seen on the beach with Brazilian supermodel Giselle Bundchen. They made a nice couple – equally lean and brown – but by July 2006 the tabloids announced the relationship was over.

 

8. He cares about the environment.

Every summer, Slater hosts the Kelly Slater Invitational (Kellyslaterinvitational.com/home) on the Fijian Island of Tavarua, to benefit an environmental organization called Reef Watch. Slater invites his pro surfer friends to mix with celebrity friends like Perry Farrell and Ben Harper and Ashley Simpson – who won the Celebrity Heat in 2006.

9. In May 2005 he scored two perfect 10s in Tahiti, for the highest ASP score ever.

During the final of the Billabong Tahiti Pro in May of 2005, Slater was surfing against Damien Hobgood. Slater had a 9.5 and a 10 against Hobgood, who was knocked out of the heat by a wipeout that dislocated his shoulder. Slater kept going and scored a second 10, giving him a perfect score of 20. He then grabbed a can of beer from the support boat and drank it while inside the tube – which the judges scored 8.7.

10. Slater wants to be a pro golfer when he retires from surfing. He keeps a full set of clubs in all of his homes around the world.

Like Michael Jordan and Gabby Reece and a lot of hyper-competitive athletes, Slater loves the focus of golf and has talked about taking on the PGA when he has the time. It would be interesting to pair up Tiger Woods and Kelly for a surf/golf tour at places like Pebble Beach in California and Turtle Bay in Hawaii, that have good surf within sight of the links.