Background and career
Robert Kelly Slater (born February 11, 1972) is an American professional surfer who has been crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. He is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship Tour victories. Slater won the Laureus World Sports Awards category of Action Sportsperson of the Year four times (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012). and Lifetime Achievement Award (2025). He is also the oldest surfer still active in the World Surf League, winning his 8th Billabong Pipeline Masters title at age 49.
Slater was born to a Syrian father and a Irish mother, and grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where he still lives. He is the son of Stephen Slater and Judy Moriarity. He has two brothers, Sean and Stephen. The son of a bait-store proprietor, Slater grew up near the water, and he began surfing at age five. By age ten, he was winning age-division events up and down the Atlantic coast, and in 1984 he won his first age-division United States championship title. Two years later he finished third in the junior division at the world amateur championships in England, and he won the Pacific Cup junior championship in Australia the following year. Slater attended Cocoa Beach High School.
Slater turned pro in 1990 and qualified for the Bud Pro Tour (The World Surf League's qualifying tour at the time). He then immediately won his first contest on the Bud Pro Tour, The Body Glove Surf Bout in Trestles, California. At the end of the year he qualified for the World Surf League Championship Tour for the 1991 season. After qualifying for 1991, Slater struggled during his first year on the Championship Tour and was 43rd out of 44 in the world rankings. In 1992 he secured podium (top 3) finishes in three of his first five events before winning his first professional tour event, the Rip Curl Pro, in France. His win in that year's prestigious Pipeline Masters in Hawaii secured his first World Title, and at age 20, he became the youngest world surfing champion ever. Slater finished sixth in the 1993 rankings but came back to win five world titles in a row from 1994 to 1998, during which time televised surfing events had become increasingly popular. He then took a break from competitive surfing at the end of 1998, before returning to the world pro tour in 2002.
Slater historically and exclusively rode Channel Islands Surfboards equipped with his own signature series of FCS fins. As the media hype grew around Slater's lack of board stickers in 2015, Slater had been seen riding unlabelled Firewire surfboards, acquiring the company in 2014. In 2016 Slater released his own line of boards. As of August 2017 there are four Slater Designs models in the Firewire range: the Gamma, Cymatic, Omni and Sci-fi. Since 1990 Slater had been sponsored primarily by surfwear industry giant Quiksilver until his departure on April 1, 2014. In an interview with Steve-O, Slater states that he has made most of his income from being sponsored by this clothing company. After leaving Quiksilver, Slater, in collaboration with Kering, established the eco-friendly and sustainable apparel company called "Outerknown".
In 2022, Slater won his eighth Pro Pipeline surfing title at the Pipe Masters in Hawaii, 30 years after his first win. In 2023, he announced his intention to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Slater plays guitar and ukulele, and has performed with Jack Johnson and Angus Stone. In the mid 1990s Slater joined Rob Machado and Peter King in a band called The Surfers.The trio released an album in 1998 titled Songs from the Pipe, a reference to the famous surf spot Pipeline on Oahu, Hawaii. Slater toured Australia with his band, performing in venues such as the Opera House and Parliament House. Slater performed a song with Ben Harper during Harper's concert in Santa Barbara on August 1, 2006. He also performed Rockin' in the Free World with grunge band Pearl Jam on July 7, 2006, in San Diego. In 1999, he appeared alongside Garbage singer Shirley Manson in the promotional video for the band's single "You Look So Fine". He played a man washed up on a seashore, then rescued by Manson.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
