Eleven…

Kelly Slater, 40, won his 11th ASP world title today at the Rip Curl Pro Search 2011 at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. The regular foot from Coco Beach , Florida took down Australia’s Daniel Ross in the sixth heat of the third round. Ross made things interesting and locking in two solid scores (14.40). Thus, leaving Slater searching for a 6.88 out of a possible 10 points. In typical Kelly fashion, he nailed the next ride with a 7.6-scoring wave.

“It was a scrappy heat I didn’t win in the most effortless style […] I was just a little bit out of sync and I knew I had to move down [the beach] and get some of those rights I saw from the back,” said Slater. “You can’t hear very well out there and we’re going to have to sort that out.

“It hasn’t really sunk in,” said Slater when asked what this 11th world championship means to him. “To be honest with you I’m just glad it’s over. It’s very fulfilling and just personal satisfaction. I don’t know what it means to anyone else, but I dedicated my whole life, since I was a little kid, to surfing and then to competing. I’m sort of dazed right now because I didn’t know where I was in the heat.”

This was Slater’s first world championship won on American soil and it was also significant because today is the anniversary of Andy Iron’s death. The weight and emotion of the anniversary of A.I.’s death wasn’t loss on Slater and he penned a story about his friend and rival on theinertia.com.

The surfing world is Kelly Slater’s oyster for the 11th time. Whether he’ll go for world title #12 is still up in the air but 2011 looks like the end of Slater’s full-time competitive career. He will surf in the fourth round tomorrow or when competition resumes at the Rip Curl Pro Search.