Surfing Icon Kelly Slater Wins Billabong Pro Pipeline Event Days Before 50th Birthday

Brady Lawrence/World Surf League via AP

Kelly Slater isn’t slowing down as he approaches age 50.

The surfing legend. who hits that milestone Friday, took home the Billabong Pro Pipeline event over the weekend, becoming the oldest winner of the event’s history. Slater has won surfing’s most prestigious event a record eight times, with the first coming all the way back in 1992. 

No other person has won the Billabong Pro Pipeline more than four times. 

Seth Moniz, a rising 24-year-old who wasn’t even born the first time Slater won this event, finished in second. 

Now that he’s proved he can beat the best of the next generation, Slater says he’ll consider retirement from full-time surfing. He said he spoke to Tom Brady, who announced his retirement from football last week, in the aftermath of the 44-year-old quarterback’s decision to walk away. 

“It would be interesting if that happened in the same week,“ Slater said, per Pat Graham and Eddie Pells of the Associated Press. “We’ll see how that goes. I’m contemplating whether I stop now or really go full bore this whole year, which would be, in my eyes, really for the fans and saying goodbye to everybody after all the years of support they’ve given me.”