Evaluating People of Excellence: Kelly SlaterExcellence in athletics is often easier to measure than excellence in other fields; that said, excellence in sports is no less impressive than excellence in other fields. The sport of surfing has existed for hundreds of years but only in the last century was it truly considered a sport. For the past 22 years one man, Robert Kelly Slater (known simply as "Kelly Slater") has dominated the sport. Kelly Slater is by far the best surfer in history; he broke nearly every record in the sport and was the youngest and oldest person to ever be named Surfing Champion. There is absolutely no debate in the surfing world that Kelly Slater is the best. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Slater was born in Cocoa Beach, Florida on February 11, 1972. Kelly Slater was born into a somewhat dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father. During Kelly's childhood, her parents often argued to the point that Kelly and her brother had to leave home. When Kelly was five years old he started surfing and from then on he always surfed for joy and escape. Kelly quickly discovered that he had a natural ability for surfing, it helped that he had a very lean and flexible body to give him greater maneuverability on the waves. By the time Slater was 18 he had won 6 Eastern Surfing Association championships and 4 national titles for a total of 10 amateur championship titles, at which point he had qualified for the professional tour. Before Kelly joined the pro tour he was offered sponsorships by every possible surf company, but he chose Quicksilver. Kelly lived up to expectations by winning the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour in his first full year on tour. This launched Kelly Slater into surfing stardom. Since 1990 Kelly has won eleven ASP championships and has become the most successful surfer of all time. Kelly Slater has broken nearly every surfing record in existence, has won more world championships than any other surfer, is the youngest and oldest person to ever be crowned world champion and is one of four people to have achieved a perfect score of 20 on the ASP's two-wave scoring system (which he did twice). The measure of excellence for surfing is literally a measurement. The ASP has designed a points system that includes points from twelve different surfing events throughout the year, and the surfer with the most points at the end of the year is the champion. Eleven different times Kelly has scored more points on the world tour than any other surfer. Kelly knows he's a champion surfer and loves to be on top, but he doesn't let it go to his head. The fight to retain the title is one of the biggest driving forces for the now 41-year-old surfer. The main components that have constituted Kelly's excellence are natural ability, practice, drive and motivation in the form of competition. In sport these four components are often the most important, however, other factors can contribute to an athlete's excellence. Over the past 30 years Kelly Slater has strongly expressed all four of these components and they have contributed greatly to his rise to the top of surfing. Growing up in Cocoa Beach, Kelly rarely experienced "good" waves. This lack of good surfing conditions would discourage most surfers from surfing as much, but that wasn't the case for Kelly. Slater loved surfing and being in the water regardless of the conditions, so he almost surfed.