Kelly Slater was crowned ASP World Tour Champion in San Francisco on Tuesday. On Friday, he was dethroned, for now. The ASP made a miscalculation when it gave the title to Kelly this week.
How did they make this miscalculation? Easy, they’re poor in mathematics. Who caught the mistake? An internet user named Mark who posted a comment on ASP website that noted Owen Wright, in second place, still had a mathematical chance to win. Kelly read the comment online and then did the math himself.
“Kelly immediately began spreading the word,” Slater’s agent, Terry Hardy, said. “He wasn’t going to be able to live with himself if he won the title unfairly. He’s going, ‘We gotta call the ASP and let ’em know.’
Why is this a big deal? Because Kelly has already been declared Champ, carried off the beach on peoples shoulders, heralded as the only man with 11 championships (the next closest is Mark Richards), and he was plastered all over the press as the champ.