Slater Rides High With Seventh Title

It wasn’t the way Kelly Slater had planned on winning an unprecedented seventh world surfing title -- losing in the fourth round of the season’s second-to-last contest but clinching because his closest pursuer could not get past the quarterfinals.

But even pro surfing’s most electrifying athlete can’t thrill the crowd every time.

“I’m just relieved it’s over. It was an amazing year,” Slater said Tuesday.

It certainly was a momentous afternoon on the bustling shore of Imbituba, Brazil, site of the Nova Schin Festival. Slater, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., also became both the youngest and oldest surfer to have won World Championship Tour titles. He claimed his first at 20 in 1992. Now, three months shy of 34, he replaces Mark Occhilupo as the sport’s eldest champion.

His accomplishment is similar, some say, to that of Lance Armstrong, winner of seven Tour de France titles. In fact, the cyclist sent Slater a note welcoming him to “the No. 7 club.”

Slater has hinted that this will be his last full season on the WCT, a possibility not lost on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals, which governs the tour.

“Apart from the championship pedigree, he has been the best role model the sport’s ever had,” said Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew, ASP president. “He has taken his persona beyond the sport and that’s the mark of a true champion.”

Tuesday, in sloppy three- to five-foot waves, Slater was merely trying to outlast Andy Irons, 27, the only surfer who still had a chance to catch him. Slater was upset in the fourth round, however, by Travis Logie, creating an opportunity for Irons, the three-time and defending world champion from Princeville, Kauai.

But Irons was subsequently upset by Nathan Hedge in the quarterfinals, failing to earn enough points to carry the race to the season-ending Pipeline Masters in Hawaii. (Damien Hobgood defeated Victor Ribas to win the Nova Schin Festival in one of the most anticlimactic finals in ASP history.)

Dethroning Irons was an obsession this season for Slater, who won five consecutive titles from 1994 to ‘98, then went on hiatus, claiming he had nothing more to prove. He returned to the tour in 2002 and finished ninth, while Irons won the first of his titles.

In 2003 Slater and Irons entered the Pipeline event ranked first and second, respectively. Both advanced into the four-man final, but Irons won, Slater finishing fourth. Irons was still champion and being labeled the next Kelly Slater.

Last year, Slater finished third behind Irons and Joel Parkinson. But it was the 2003 loss, Slater said, that has inspired him for most of this season.

After a slow start he won consecutive events at Tahiti and Fiji, then won again two contests later in South Africa.

Irons, meanwhile, was doing just enough to stay in the race. He defeated Slater at Japan. Slater then won at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, but Irons took the next contest in France, sending the race to Brazil.

As time was running out for Irons against Hedge, Slater tucked his face inside his jacket and zipped it up. “I was hiding,” he said, “trying to contain the excitement, the nervousness ... the anxiety.”

Hiding was something Irons soon wanted to do as well.

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Thomas reported from Los Angeles.