The first and only surf contest I covered while staying at my grandmother's house (she had the best view of Ocean Beach), in 2011, Kelly Slater roared into San Francisco with an eleventh title on the line. Rip Curl had opted to bring their Search event to "Somewhere in San Francisco," which seemed a bit of a bold call given what a fickle mistress The Beach can be, but if anyone was going to turn the otherwise blue collar break into something magic it was Kelly.
Cold, currents, shifting peaks, it was Kelly's first time surfing the place. All he had to do was get passed Dan Ross in Round 3 and his 11th title would be secured. At 39 years old, it would be the first title he'd win on mainland America soil. And unbeknownst to anyone at the time, it was also the last title he'd win.
But there was famously a false start. The ASP (now the WSL) had gotten their math wrong. In one of the greatest world title blunders of all time, they crowned Kelly king prematurely. A diligent reader of Surfline caught the error and mentioned it in a comment online.
I was back at my grandmother's house when I got the call: Kelly hadn't won the title. He still had to keep surfing. It was still on.
The next day, under unusually friendly San Francisco skies, Kelly sealed the deal. He ended up going down in the quarterfinals while a young Gabriel Medina went on to win only his second event.
Kelly's victory party eventually migrated south to a bowling alley in nearby Pacifica. "I wanted to do two things tonight. Drink beer and go bowling," Kelly old a reporter at the time.
Kelly also told the press that he was considering retiring after this title, but here we are. Thirteen years later, he's now 52, has a kid on the way and just beat John John Florence in a heat at Bells. The man defies time.
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