Many Surfing fans believe Kelly Slater is the finest surfer of all time. Slater has had a storied career and took the sport to new heights. He is the only surfer to have won the World Surf League 11 times. However, that isn’t the only WSL record Slater holds. At 20, Kelly became the youngest world champion and the oldest when he won a WSL title at 47.

Slater began surfing when he was only a child. Even before graduating high school, Kelly became one of the top-paid professional surfers in the world. However, by 21, Kelly was broke and in debt, despite earning a million dollars as a surfer. The legend explained why such a thing happened during an interview in 2019.

Kelly Slater missed an integral life lesson

In 2019, Kelly Slater sat down for an interview with Graham Bensinger. During the interview, Kelly spoke about his journey. During the interview, Bensinger asked, “I think you’re around 21 going to buy a house and I believe you find out you’re basically broke. How did you handle that?” Kelly explained what led to such a situation.

The surfing legend said his family wasn’t financially stable. “I wouldn’t necessarily classify us as poor, but we didn’t have any money. “I mean, my mom was scraping quarters together to get my lunch paid for,” said Kelly. Salter’s mother was the only earning member of the family. His parents divorced when Kelly was young.

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“When you are raised that way you don’t have a lot of intelligence around money,” said the 11-time world champion. “I made over a million dollars in my life at that point, and I was in debt. So there’s a pretty quick wake-up call,” added Slater. However, the surfing legend said the experience taught him a life lesson he had missed growing up.

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Slater said losing a million dollars and having to make it back allowed him to learn about money. “It was an opportunity for me to take care of myself, and take care of other people, too.“

The surfing legend opened up about his father

Graham said Kelly’s father suffered from alcoholism. Slater’s father’s drinking habits eventually led to their divorce. Kelly’s mother raised him and his two brothers. The surfing legend also spoke about his father during the interview.

Kelley said despite being an alcoholic, his father didn’t drink hard liquor. The champion surfer said his father only drank beer but drank it throughout the day. Although his father wasn’t abusive, their relationship suffered. However, Kelly and his father reconciled before the latter died from cancer in 2002.

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Kelly didn’t have an easy childhood. However, he was a quick learner, and today Slater is worth millions of dollars.