Kelly Slater has officially claimed his 11th ASP World Title! Congratulations one more time Kelly Salter!

November 6, 2011 / Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA, USA - After a mistake on the ASP maths and an early crowning, Kelly Slater has finally put his hand offically on his 11th ASP World Title after defeating Gabriel Medina and Miguel Pupo during the round four of the Rip Curl Pro Seach San Francisco 2011.

“Our rankings’ system is designed to split tie-breaks based off of seed points,” Renato Hickel, ASP World Tour Manager, said. “Kelly (Slater) and Owen (Wright) tied at best nine of 11 results, so we went to best eight of 11 results and the system gave it to Kelly based off his higher seed position. We were operating under that assumption and created the ASP World Title scenarios based off of that. This was a mistake. In the end, we’re responsible for this and should be held accountable. We apologize to our fans, the surfers and to Owen and Kelly.”

“It was a confirmed the other day, but we’re sure now,” Slater said. “I’m stoked. I was upset about it, but I also thought it was really funny. There are no hard feelings towards ASP and mistakes happen. It’s easy to point things out. It was a little tough to readjust and I was going against kids who could be my kids and they throw radical airs. I was hoping for big offshore barrels, not closeout onshore ramps. I just didn’t know what to expect out there. I didn’t know if we’d have air sections and it was kind of flat with a lot of power. The waves were closeouts and fast with a weird landing.”

“It’s a little anticlimactic,” Slater said. “I texted my mom, because it’s funny because I didn’t really have the emotion the other day. This is my profession and it’s a little on me to know the situation and it’s not just everyone else’s fault. There have been a few of these mistakes over the course of history, but this one was a bit weird, but I called Renato (Hickel) in the morning after I won because I was supposed to do this Dan Patrick show and I hadn’t won yet. I knew we wouldn’t surf for a day or two so people could get it out of their system and I could have a few days to refocus.”

2011 ASP World Title Series Results:

Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast: WINNER

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach: Equal 5th

Billabong Rio Pro: Equal 13th

Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay: No Show

Billabong Pro Tahiti: WINNER

Quiksilver Pro New York: Runner-Up

Hurley Pro at Trestles: WINNER

Quiksilver Pro France: Equal 5th

Rip Curl Pro Portugal: Runner-UP

Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco: WINNER

Billabong Pipeline Masters: TBD

Kelly Slater’s ASP World Title Clinch Locations:

2011: Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco – USA

2010: Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico – USA Territory

2008: Billabong Pro Mundaka – Basque Country/Spain

2006: Billabong Pro Mundaka – Basque/Spain

2005: Nova Schin Festival – Brazil

1998: Mountain Dew Pipeline Masters – Hawaii

1997: Expo 98 Figueira 97 – Portugal

1996: Coca Cola Figueira 96 – Portugal

1995: Chiemsee Pipe Masters – Hawaii

1994: Chiemsee Gerry Lopez Pipe Masters – Hawaii

1992: Alternativa Surf Rio – Brazil

Written by Marcio Ferreira