Kelly Slater : photo ASP Kirstin/Covered Images

Team News

Stats on Slats: Mike Newman on the king at Trestles

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 23 July, 2009 : - - Hi all, A friend of mine, most of you know him, T.C. asked me the other day about Kelly. And the tour going to Southern California for the second half of the season. He asked about Kelly’s record at the event, and special heats he has had there etc. His record is impeccable all over the world, but Trestles is special.

When a guy has a win ratio of over 90% at one location over the course of the modern era- That has got to have plenty of highlights hidden in it. For starters- Three wins, two seconds and a fifth in the two wave scoring era, it is like- Federer and his Wimbledon Crowns, or Nadal’s record winning streak in the French.

His 6 year domination of the two wave scoring era at this location is like no other. Kelly is currently on a 12 heat winning streak at Trestles, He hasn’t lost a heat there since the final against Bede in 2006. In fact he has only lost 3 heats there in 6 years. Kelly scored a 10.34 in that final in 2006 against Bede, his lowest score ever at Trestles, Up until the Final he had averaged just under 16.00 for the first 5 heats of the event.

The other final he lost was in 2004, the year I was at the event. I went to the event site every day and saw Parko win it. Kelly went “oh so close” with a last minute wave that just fell short of the winning score in the final.

On that day in 2004, being an Aussie, I was torn between my loyalty to country, and my love of Slaterzizim. Slaterzizim is my word for what he does, he performs hypnosis on everybody, you just can’t look away when he is in the water.

He hypnotizes the crowd on the beach, the competitor’s area, the viewers online, most times even the other guy in the heat.
Everybody is in stare mode with not much talking, but lots of woos ahhhs and wow noises going on, like someone that’s hypnotized.

I did go for Joel in that final in 2004, and I went for Taj last season in the final against Kelly, and Bede as well in 2006. In fact I was also going for an Aussie when he beat Maca in 2005. But I did go for him in the final against Pancho and every other heat that he has surfed at Trestles over the years…
 
Finally, Kelly has done all this, I mean dominated the last 6 years at this next event at the ages of.. 31 to 36. It’s not really a young mans profession when the average age of the top 45 is 27+ and the average age of the top 27 is 30+.

Anyway, I have forwarded on to you what I sent T.C. as a reply to his questions… Basically his Trestles Record.

Kelly’s Trestles Track Record is unbelievable when you see it down on paper. Enjoy.

All-Time Records for Trestles: Highest Individual Heat Score @ Trestles 2008 Round 4 19.60 .. Kelly Slater USA Only two scores over 19.00 have been posted @ Trestles… The other.. Fanning 19.13 in 2003.

Other Highest Records for Kelly…

Gold Coast 19.83 in 2007 ..
Tahiti 20.00 in 2005 ..
Japan 19.53 in 2005..

Highest Combined Heat Score @ Trestles  2008 Final

37.60 .. Kelly Slater USA 18.97 def Taj Burrow Australia 18.63

There have only been 3 combined heat scores over 35.00 in California…

2007 ¼ final - 35.27 .. Kelly Slater USA 18.60 def Taylor Knox 16.67.
2003 Rnd 2 - 35.10 .. Guilherme Herdy Brazil 18.93 def Flavio Padaratz Brazil 16.17

Other Combined Record for Kelly…
Japan; 37.51 ..  Kelly Slater USA 19.43 def  Andy Irons Hawaii 18.08

Kelly’s 6 winning heat scores at Trestles in 2008 gave him an event average score of 17.83 per-heat. This is the highest ever recorded by anybody at the Trestles event.

Rnd 1- final

18.60
17.00
19.60
17.16
15.67
18.97

Kelly also holds the records for highest event average heat score at other venues-

Tahiti 18.83 in 2005 ..
Fiji 18.95 in 2005 .. 
J-Bay 18.22 in 2005

His record in the two wave era @ Trestles is

2003-5th
2004-2nd
2005-1st
2006-2nd
2007-1st
2008-1st
Average of 2.00

Kelly averages 1066 Dream Tour points every time he has surfed Trestles. 2003-2009 The two wave scoring era. He has surfed 34 competitive heats at Trestles for 31 wins. 91.17% win ratio at Lowers Only 3 losing heats in 6 years Kelly has never lost a round 1 heat, 6 starts for 6 wins.

Kelly’s 34 heats have been surfed at an average of 16.39 per heat….

Scores over 19.00 - 1
Scores over 18.00 - 3
Scores over 17.00 - 12
Scores over 16.00 - 5
Scores over 15.00 - 7
Scores over 14.00 - 3
Scores over 13.00 – 2 (a winning final and a losing final)
Scores over 12.00 - 0
Scores over 11.00 - 0
Scores over 10.00 – 1 (a losing final)
Scores under 10.00 - 0

Kelly has a great record everywhere, but Trestles is special for Slater.

* Mike Newman is not affiliated with the ASP. His observations are his own and not endorsed by the ASP

What's your take on this?
Post your thoughts: SV Forum

New Survey: Map Surfing’s future 

More Australasian Surfing News available here
Check the latest Australasian Surf Reports and Forecasts

New! B2B News ASBE-Surf   |  Receive News-Alerts

Mike Newman

Stats - Surfersvillage