Kelly Slater

Nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, who struggled at the start of the season and recently acknowledged there was only "a distant possibility" he will contend for a 10th title, might upgrade his outlook at week's end. That's because the Floridian superstar, who was ranked eighth coming into the Hurley Pro at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, is still in contention while many top surfers were eliminated during or before the third round....

Mick Fanning is known on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals' World Tour as "White Lightning," and his performance Saturday at Lower Trestles was at times electrifying. Surf at the fabled San Clemente venue was small and inconsistent, but the Australian used a blend of power and fluidity to charge through all four of his heats and win the prestigious Hurley Pro. The former world champion defeated Ventura's Dane Reynolds in the final to claim his first victory in California and collect a check for $105,000, the largest winner's prize ever offered for an ASP event.

Kelly Slater hinted strongly last season, as he had during previous seasons, that he might retire from pro surfing. He has grown weary of competition and tour travel; he'd like to pursue other interests; he has nothing more to prove. And yet there Slater remains, nemesis to all, even at 36, the greatest competition surfer ever to have strapped on a leash. It took only one contest for Slater, who finished last season ranked third, to reestablish himself at No. 1 on the Foster's ASP World Tour.

Kelly Slater has authored a soon-to-be-released book, in which he describes himself as "about the luckiest guy you'd ever meet." That's putting it humbly. Remarkable talent and execution are what have enabled the pro surfer to flourish under the sun and set him apart from all other surfers. Slater, 36, who won his first ASP World Tour championship in 1992, when he was 20 and not long before he began to lose his hair, on Friday clinched a ninth championship.

Kelly Slater last season won his eighth world title. Layne Beachley won her seventh and hopes to match her male counterpart before retiring from competitive surfing. "We're like brother and sister," Beachley said. "We constantly push each other and motivate each other and I rely on him for advice, and it's nice to know that he's always willing to provide it." That advice may have been just to relax and have fun.

Eight-time world champion Kelly Slater is the greatest competitive surfer of all time. What many don't know is that he's also a pro-level golfer, a musician and the voice of a surfing penguin in the animated film "Surf's Up" (opens June 8). Born in Florida, Slater, 35, has spent most of his life chasing waves around the world, which has led him to the sport's mecca: Hawaii. Here are secrets he's gleaned in more than two decades of calling the islands almost home.

Kelly Slater is in the twilight of an extraordinary career as a competitive surfer, but he will not fade quietly into the sunset. On the contrary. When he retires, after this season or next, he will endeavor to chase poachers on the high seas. Slater, 35, revealed during an interview this week that, among other ventures, he'd like to work with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its confrontational captain, Paul Watson.

The Boost Mobile Pro will resume today, after a day off Friday, with a surfing marathon beginning at 8 a.m. The Foster's ASP World Tour event at Lower Trestles near San Clemente will open with Round 4 and conclude with the final at about 3 p.m. The sixth of 10 World Tour contests -- the only one on the U.S. mainland -- has been rife with upsets as nine of the top 10 surfers on the tour's 45-man roster have been eliminated. Kelly Slater, ranked No.

If there were doubts about Kelly Slater's desire, as he guns for a ninth world title, they evaporated as quickly as the fog that rolled in briefly Saturday afternoon along the San Clemente coast. The grayness gave way to sunshine during the quarterfinals, as Slater was elevating to another plane and disposing of Taylor Knox in what was far and away the most thrilling heat of the Boost Mobile Pro at Lower Trestles.

One of Saturday's finalists came into the $280,000 Boost Mobile Pro as the top-ranked surfer with seven world titles. The other didn't even qualify for this year's World Championship Tour, but was allowed into the field when another competitor withdrew because of injury. The advantage, it seemed, obviously favored Kelly Slater. But Saturday was Bede Durbidge's day, one that neither he nor the pro surfing community will soon forget.