Rober Kelly Slater is the full name of a really popular surfer, writer and actor from the United States of America.
Besides being a famous person in the world of sport, he became an activist and he was in over 10 world contests related to surfing.
He is one of the biggest surf promoters from the United States but also a great philanthropist and charity events supporter.
Early years
Kelly was born on February 11th in the year of 1972. His birthplace was his residence during all of his childhood as well, and we’re talking about Cocoa Beach in Florida.
Kelly is of Irish and Syrian ancestey through his grandparents.
Cocoa Beach is a beautiful place to spend your time at, known for all the sport activities and other sea connected pleasures.
It is no wonder that he became a surfer and a sea lover surrounded by the beautiful ocean from his early days.
His father’s name is Stephen Slater and his mother is called Judy Moriarty. He has two sibling and they are both male: they’re called Sean and Stephen.
The boys were always pretty close, but the best thing about their relationship is that they always spent time outdoors together and this is one of the main reasons why Slater fell in love with surfing.
His father used to be a bait-store worker and Slater grew up near the ocean. He was always a lover of sports and therefore he spent a lot of time surfing.
He started to surf when he was about six years old and, when he reached 10, he already had some imoprtant wins.
He was much more stubborn about surfing and he practiced harder than most of his friends so it is not wonder that he soon became very known.
Career development
In 1984, he won his first championsip title and two years later, he was third at the world amateur championship which was hosted in Great Britain.
His parents couldn’t believe that he was growing up so quick and that his skill got so much better. They supported him all the way and invested in him, both emotionally and financially.
He next won the Pacific Cup junior championship in the wonderful Australia which is known as one of the surfing centers in the world. He had an outstanding performance there and later often spoke about this great experience.
In 1990, he decided to go fully professional and he wanted to be one of the best surfers in the world.
He was a bit discouraged when his first few years in the professional game didn’t turn out good. He was 90th and 43rd in the world and this didn’t seem like a win in his eyes. He wasn’t aware of the fact that luck can change at any moment and it did for him.
In 1992, he was in the top three on the Rip Curl Pro in France and at the age 20 he became the youngest world winner of a surfing contest that had people from all around the world.
Visiting France was also a big manifestation for him and he was happy that he got the chance to travel arround the world doing the thing he liked most: surfing.
He had a great time at the world tour in 1994, but at the end of 1998, he decided that it would be a great idea to have a little break and take time for himself to think through in which direction he would point his career.
His accomplishments are numerous and one could name about a 1000 things he completed. He grew up in Florida and wasn’t that into big waves until he met a giant one in 1997. It was a 40’ wave and he successfully overcame the challenge.
This event was so great for him that it almost made him an adrenaline junkie.
His career surely cannot be limited to sport only. He plays the guitar and ukulele as well, and he has played with a lot of cool people like Jack Johnson and Angus Stone. Slater claims that it was a really cool experience to have and that music is something what helps him relax in the times of stress.
He later teamed up with Rob Machado and Peter King and they made a band called The Surfers. It wasn’t really all that famous, but they had a bunch of fun playing together and they attended numerous parties and events which brought them great and valuable experiences.
He once performed with a blues, folk and soul creator called Ben Harper. It was a concert that Harper had in Santa Barbara during the summer of 2006, and he decided to give his friend Slater a call. They had a lot of fun and a lot of his fans came to Ben’s concert just to see Slater.
In 1999, he had some fun with Shirley Manson and he appeared in the music video as well. He was supposed to be a man who ended up on the seashore, washed up by the sea, and it was pretty funny since he had to get rescued, but he was the person who spent most time in the sea and didn’t need rescuing for sure.
When surfing wasn’t his first priority, Kelly turned to TV. He played Jimmy Slade in the very famous TV series called Baywatch. He wasn’t just come “random character”, he played in 27 different episodes and became quite famous for it.
He was also in a show called The Girls Next Door. It wasn’t a typical show you would expect Slater to be in, it is directed by the owner of Playboy, and it was aired on E! Channel.
Many movie makers that needed a character who could surf, reached out to Slater and therefrore he got many similar roles. That never seemed to bother him, though because everybody wishes to get paid in order to do what they like, and Kelly loved surfing.
In 1990s, he and his friend Rob Machado (also a surfer) were joined by Peter King and together they made a band called The Surfers. Slater always jokes about how uncreative he was with the name.
They created an album called Songs from the Pipe and it was a 1998 piece of work. It was about the previously mentioned surf spot called Pipeline.
The band performed in many different venues: the Opera House as well! Little did Slater know that people will enjoy their music.
There was also a video game with his name, the Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer. It was made by Treyarch, an American game developer company, and the game was published by Activision. It was in 2002.
He was also in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, but he was only a guest character. It was cool either way, he claims: becoming a piece of anyone’s projects is a cool thing.
He wrote two books. Both of them are autobiographies and they talk about various subjects related to his life and growth. The first one is called Pipe Dreams: A Surfer’s Journey. The second one is called Kelly Slater: For the Love.
Slater is very well known as an activist in many fields. He always talks about how people should live clean lifestyles. He is also a spokesperson for some organizations that are against suicide. He raised a lot of money for them and this was a very noble thing of him to do.
He says that he lost a couple of his friends because of suicide, and he said that it can surely be prevented if we all react early enough.
Since he is a surfer, he obviously cares about the ocean a lot. He is all about protecting the ocean’s health: from trying not to pollute the oceans, all the way to regulating temperatures for the coral reefs.
In 2010, the United States House of Representatives decided to give him credit for a lot of charity and activist work he had been doing. They said that he is a very noble person and that he created great achievments both in the field of sports and in the field of charity work.
The resolution to name him as a role model passed without objection, which was a wonderful thing for him to hear. He was very proud, but didn’t seem too boring when he was in the media.
He is now on the Board of Advisor of the ocean conservation organization called the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He does a lot of work there and plays a very important role as well.
Slater created a line of boards of his own in 2016 and he was very proud of the work he had done. However, besides his own work, he used to be sponsored by Quiksilver, a really big company that has to do with surfing, obviously. He enjoyed working with them a lot!
Personal life
He says that surfing is a very relaxing sport and that he can surf anywhere and everywhere, but he is very fond of Mondos in Ventura, Pipeline in Hawaii and South African beaches. Morocco, the Veiny’s in New Zealand and, of course, Florida beached are also his favorites.
Besides that, he also knows how to play golf pretty well and he trains jui-jitsu. Kelly says that a lot of people in the world of surfing are great competition to him, but he loves all of them!
He says that Andy Irons, Shane Dorian, Andrew Bloom, Alex Siddiqui, Ian Michaelson, Dane Reynolds and Taylor Lobdell are probably his biggest inspirations. He had the honor of meeting most of them.
His best friend, and the person he likes to spend a big portion of his time with, is Derek Johnson.
He is a big fan of Kona coffee which is a mixture of coffee with chocolate and macadami.
Kelly is in a long and strong relationship with his girlfriend Kalani Miller. She is also a professional surfer and the two of them are together for over 5 years.
The two of them are engaged but they are not married and don’t seem to plan it. It just seems like they are focusing on various things, but none of them include their life together. People wanted to know more about this, but they really did not talk about the relationship too much.
He is a proud father of a teenage girl called Taylor. The public knows only that the girl’s mother is named Tamara and that the two of them dated at the beginning of his career. She gave birth to Taylor in 1996.
As for his past relationships, he was dating a lot of celebrities.
In 2007, he was dating Cameron Diaz briefly. She is pretty famous and therefore there was a lot of fuss about this relationship.
Before that, he was dating Gisele Bündchen and they were going out in a period from 2005 to 2006.
His first more serious relationship was with Pamela Anderson whom he met when he was starring in Baywatch and she had the leading role. They started dating in 1998 and the relationship ended in 2000.
A lot of his friends were jealous about his relationship with Pamela. They always teased him, but he stayed polite and there were never incidents in the media. He is one of Pamela’s best boyfriends.
Quick summary
Full name: Robert Kelly Slater
Date of birth: February 11th, 1972
Birthplace: Cocoa Beach, Florida, the United States of America
Age: 47
Profession: surfer, actor, writer, activist
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 73 kg
Net Worth: $22 million