Bill Posey: “I rise also to honor the surfing achievements of Kelly Slater. He is the dominant world champion of surfing. Last month…”

“I rise also to honor the surfing achievements of Kelly Slater. He is the dominant world champion of surfing. Last month, he became the Rip Curl Pro Bell Champion for the fourth time, adding to the 42 international championships he has won. He is unmatched, unparalleled in the world of surfing. Robert Kelly Slater grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, born there on February 11, 1972. He learned to surf on Cocoa Beach with his brothers Sean and Stephen. He routinely won amateur championships in the eighties, and six Eastern Surfing Association championships and four national titles. In 1992, at the age of 20, Kelly Slater was the youngest surfer ever to win the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship. He is a six-time winner of the Billabong Pipeline Masters. That's 1992 to 2008. The Billabong Pipeline Masters is a competition held annually at the Bonzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii. Forty-five of the top-ranked surfers ranked by the Association of Surfing Professionals compete. Again, Kelly Slater's achievements there are unprecedented.”