Currently considered the world's best surfers, Kelly Slater and Andy Irons were born to ride the biggest waves your eyes have ever seen. Feeling more comfortable inside the water than outside they have made a fortune showing their skills in one of the world's most spectacular but also dangerous extreme water sports.
Kelly Slater was born 38 years ago at Cocoa Beach Florida. It would be fair to say that he has become somewhat of a surf legend since he is the only athlete that has won the ASP Championship at the beginning as well as near the end of his career, making him the youngest and the oldest surfer to win that title. In 1997 Slater won his fifth world title, becoming the most successful champion in the history of surfing, and ten years later he became the all time leader in career event wins by shredding the Boost Mobile Pro event in California. He is also the first surfer to be awarded two perfect scores for a total 20 out of 20 points under the ASP two-wave scoring system. Slater's main sponsors are Quicksilver since the beginning of the 90's and Channel Island surfboards in which he has a signature series of fins. The list of trophies and titles he has won is literally endless including 43 WTC victories and 9 World titles, and even now at 38 years of age he is number one at the current world ranking. In the past year he finished first in three events he competed, at the Rip Curl Pro in Australia, the Hurley Pro in California and the Rip Curl Pro in Portugal. Slater's skills helped him to make a move on the big screen through a long catalogue of movies he appeared in, including Riding Giants in 2004, probably the most well known surf movie of all time, A Fly in the Champagne in which he appeared next to Andy Irons in 2009, as well as guest appearances in the TV series Baywatch and The Girls Next Door.
Andy Irons is a Hawaii native born and raised in North Shore and was attracted to surfing from a young age practicing in the reefs of Kauai. He is the only surfer in history ever to be given a nameday on the calendar since the governor of Hawaii named February 13th "Andy Irons day" as a reward for Irons's contribution to the state's community. This began when Irons came up with the idea of the Annual Irons Brothers Pinetrees Classic, a contest for young kids who are into surfing, a concept he and his brother Bruce who was also into surfing came up with. He won three consecutive titles from 2002 to 2004, three Quiksilver Pro France titles from 2003 to 2005, two Rip Curl Pro Search titles in 2006 and 2007 and holds an impressive 19 elite tour victories. His latest achievement was on September 3rd 2010 when he won the Billabong Pro in Tahiti. Irons's sponsors include some of the biggest names in extreme sports like Billabong, Von Zipper and Nixon Watches. Like Kelly Slater he has also appeared on various movies, the most well known being Blue Horizon, a documentary portraying his life during the WTC tour and the rivalry that he and Slater have since they started competing against each other, as well as Trilogy starring himself along with Joel Parkinson and Taj Burrow.
Here's a just little sample of both of them ripping it up
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