Kelly Slater: born in Cocoa Beach in 1972, eleven world titles

Kelly Slater was born in Cocoa Beach on February 11, 1972, according to the World Surf League. He became the most successful competitive surfer on record. Guinness World Records lists his eleven men’s world titles, the most ever: 1992, 1994 through 1998, 2005 and 2006, 2008, and 2010 and 2011.

The titles

Title	Years
First	1992, at 20
Five straight	1994 to 1998
Return	2005, 2006
Ninth	2008
Last two	2010, 2011, the last at 39

The WSL counts 55 Championship Tour event wins, the 55th in Tahiti in 2016, and notes that he was both the youngest and the oldest men’s world champion. It credits him with a new, higher-performance style when he arrived on tour in 1990, including intentional fin releases and aerial moves. After his fifth straight title he tried retirement in 1999, the WSL says, before coming back to win five more. In 2019, at 47, he finished the season ranked eighth in the world and won his third Vans Triple Crown.

Then came Pipeline. In February 2022, a week short of his 50th birthday, he won the Billabong Pro Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore, beating Seth Moniz in the final. The WSL’s report counts it as his eighth win at Pipe, 30 years after his first Championship Tour win at the same break in 1992. Slater called it “the best win of my life.” It was his first tour win since Tahiti in 2016.

Cocoa Beach’s monument

His hometown put him on a pedestal. Triangle Park, at 400 North Atlantic Avenue, is the small park the city uses to greet visitors coming into downtown, and the city lists two things in it: a fountain and a Kelly Slater sculpture. There’s no parking and no restroom there, the city notes, so it’s a stop to look rather than a place to linger.

The Cocoa Beach Pier has its own page.

Further Reading

• For the Love by Kelly Slater