Kelly Slater’s career as a professional surfer is one of the most amazing stories of long-running success in sporting history. From being the youngest person to ever win a world title to the oldest, Slater’s journey to the top of surfing is punctuated with more moments of glory than anyone else to set foot on a surfboard. His fame far exceeds surfing’s popularity – in a sport that is still largely on the fringes of the mainstream, Kelly Slater is the face of surfing, and not only to surfers. To the non-surfing public, he is the antithesis of Spicoli – a champion of the professional side of surfing.
CNN recently took a look into Kelly Slater’s life, and it reveals a side to the champ that isn’t what much of the world sees as a “surfer.” A passionate, serious, intelligent man, driven to continue being better – and not just on a surfboard. “I want to surf better tomorrow,” he says. “I want to surf better ten years from now. I want to keep learning and keep adding layers to what I do – keep getting better. And that’s success, I think.”
