Kelly Slater Announces Retirement [Surfing News]
November 9, 2022
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Sad news for the surfing community: at the beginning of November 2016, surf legend Kelly Slater announced his retirement from the world of competitive surfing.
The last time BookSurfCamps wrote about world-renowned surfer Kelly Slater, we were bringing you the exciting news of his now famous wave pool, located 50 kilometers south of Fresno, California. The Kelly Slater Wave Company, Slater’s own company, worked for 10 years to bring the wave pool to life and the reactions to it have been overwhelmingly positive, with some even calling it the best man-made wave pool ever made.
Slater plans to hang up his board, professionally, after taking one last stab at winning the World Surf League title in 2017.
Kelly Slater, who was born in one of the best surf cities in the U.S. - Cocoa Beach, Florida, is the only surfer in the world to have won the world title 11 times, including five consecutive titles, from 1993 to 1998. For him to win it again in 2017, after having last won it in 2011, would not only cement his status as one of the greatest competitive surfers of our time but that of a great sportsman.
The 44-year-old athlete, entered the professional surfing circuit in 1990 when he was just 18. Just two years later, he won his first world champion title, becoming the world’s youngest surfer to do so.
The plethora of titles didn’t just bring him fame and recognition; according to The Inertia, Kelly Slater is the highest-paid surfer in the world, with a net worth of $3,678,560.
Kelly Slater announced his retirement through his Instagram account, writing to his 1.8 million followers:
“My last wave in Portugal the other day. […] So next year I'm gonna get my shit (and my body) together for real and see if I can make a last run at a title. Then I'll go find the best waves on earth til my last day before being freeze-dried and used as plant food to make a #Koa and #Monkeypod tree on my property or take the carbon from my ashes and make a diamond from it for my family. […]”
We wish Kelly Slater all the best and we thank him for his spectacular results and passion for this stunning sport that is surfing!
*photo credit: Kelly Slater's Facebook account.
Feeling inspired to try your hand at surfing? Try some of our surf camps in Portugal! Who knows, maybe you’re the new Kelly Slater!