My First Booklet Kelly Slater Style

Here is a follow up over three years in the making. In 2012 Upper Deck released the 2012 Upper Deck All-Time Greats Sports Edition release that had a limited checklist of only certifiable greats like Michael Jordan, Barry Sanders, Landon Donovan, Richard Petty, Hulk Hogan, Tiger Woods and Kelly Slater.

At that time I had even posted two of the cards that drew my interest, both Kelly Slater cards, and since I wasn’t keeping a “Wants” list at the time I filed both cards away in my mental filing cabinet and needless to say forgot. When I finally set up my Top 10 Wants list I added one of the cards to the list but in all honesty I forgot about the booklet card, which was actually the card I originally wanted.

In January by chance I came across some Kelly Slater cards and ended up doing some searches and was reminded of the booklet card. I found one for a reasonable price and snatched it up. This is my first booklet card ever and it is a thing of beauty, Upper Deck did an amazing job.

To add to my Kelly Slater collection I also picked up a 2015 Sportkings Vault Single Memorabilia Kelly Slater relic. Thank you to Sportkings/Leaf for doing what should be standard with relic cards and give specifics of where the relic came from originally, the back of the card states that this piece came from a pair of shorts that he wore in 2006 while surfing the North Shore.

Champion Surfer-1 Great White Shark- 0

Earlier today during the final heat of the J-Bay Open surfing tournament the three-time World Surfing Champion Mick Fanning was attacked by a Great White sharks while wating for a wave. There were actually two Great White sharks near him but one attacked and ended up getting tangled in Fanning’s life-line and pulled the surfer in to the water.

Fanning was able to fight the shark off with punches and kicks until the rescue craft were able to get to him as well as Julian Wilson, the other surfer in the finals who was also in the water at the time of the attack and was attempting to rescue Fanning.

As a surfer through my formidable years I was blessed to experience the zen of being out on the water and was fortunate enough to have never had an encounter of this sorts, I actually never knew anyone who has had a run in with a shark, but it does happen more often than people would expect. As of July 1^st there have been 23 shark attacks in the U.S. (1 fatal) this year and this is including 7 attacks since June in North Carolina alone.

The coast of South Africa is well known for their sharks and the WSL does have a “Shark Rule” but this is the first time that a contestant has ever been attacked during a tournament and it was being televised live.

Fortunately Fanning escaped physically unharmed, though quite shaken. The J-Bay Open was cancelled after officials made the decision that they didn’t want to put the surfers in any further danger, even an unseen shark can attack, so based on the rule both finalists split the cash prize and both were awarded 2^nd Place points because it was considered a tie. Currently Fanning is #2 and Wilson is #3 on the Men’s Rankings board.

Neither competitor has appeared on cardboard but Topps and Upper Deck both have given some love to the surfing community with Kelly Slater getting most of the attention, that will happen when you win 11 World Sufing Championships. Each year they do get a couple of new surfers in to sets like Upper Deck Goodwin Champions and Topps Allen & Ginters plus there are releases from the 1980s and 1990s where you can find some of the old schoolers like the Futurea, Beach Force and Generation Extreme sets.

 

Here are some of the shots taken during and immediately after the attack, these images were released by the WSL:

 

Surfing Champion In Upper Deck's All-Time Greats

There are some sports that have a strong fan base but will rarely see the light of the television screen; surfing is one of those sports. Surfing is Zen and you either surf or you do not surf, rarely do you find a surfing fan who has never paddled out. 

 

With limited media coverage comes limited collectability. Most collectors would be hard pressed to even name a surfer, past or present and so surfers have only made rare appearances in releases. Upper Deck seems to be the most supportive by including surfers in a number of releases in the past 3 years, usually in the Goodwin Champions and World of Sports sets. They are taking it up a notch by including Kelly Slater (11 World Championships) in both the 2012 Goodwin Champions and the 2012 Upper Deck All-Time Greats releases.

 

The Kelly Slater Shining Moments booklet card from the All-Time Greats release is an amazing card. Upper Deck designers did a beautiful job with this card; personally this is easily one of my favorite card designs. The Shining Moments booklets are limited but I am unable to find any specific release numbers. My best guess, based on the photos Upper Deck has posted of him signing, is that Slater has 35-40 booklet cards.