HBO Sports Presents 24/7: KELLY SLATER, a Revealing Look Inside the Renowned Surfer’s World as he Prepares for the 2019 World Surf League’s Billabong Pipe Masters in Oahu, Hawaii; Debuts December 3, Exclusively on HBO
HBO Sports’ groundbreaking 24/7 documentary-reality franchise, which has captured 18 Sports Emmy® Awards, will turn its spotlight on professional surfing when 24/7: KELLY SLATER debuts TUESDAY, DEC. 3 (9:00 -10:00 p.m. ET/PT), it was announced today by Peter Nelson, executive vice president, HBO Sports. The all-access, behind-the-scenes special will chronicle the most famous and prolific surfer of all time, 11-time world champion Kelly Slater, in the weeks leading up to the Billabong Pipe Masters in December in Oahu, Hawaii, the last leg in the World Surf League’s (WSL) Championship Tour.
The special will also be available on HBO On Demand, HBO NOW, HBO GO and partners’ streaming platforms.
The one-hour special will offer an intimate look at Slater’s life on the North Shore of Oahu, where he keeps a residence and surrounds himself with close friends and family. HBO cameras will capture Slater competing in the prelude to the prestigious Pipe Masters, the November Hawaiian Pro at Hale’iwa, while he reflects on his storied career in the WSL and his path ahead.
“At 47 years old, Kelly Slater is not only one of the greatest surfers of all time, but also one of the greatest athletes of all time,” says Peter Nelson, executive vice president, HBO Sports. “In a career spanning three decades, Kelly grants HBO unprecedented access to his process in and out of the water for 24/7 on his continued record-breaking, age-defying quest.”
“I’m excited to have HBO 24/7 in Hawaii with me to cover what happens in my life and on tour as the year winds down,” says Kelly Slater. “Hawaii has been my favorite place since I was a little kid and being the birthplace of surfing, it’s the best place on earth to get the behind the scenes on what goes into surfers’ lives for competition and big waves. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Slater, 47, grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where he became a junior amateur surfing star. He turned professional in 1990, and just two years later, became the youngest surfing world champion ever. In the years since, as he’s emerged as a surfing icon and crossover superstar, he’s also become a technology innovator, developing the revolutionary artificial wave technology that powers the WSL’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, Cal., as featured on an HBO Real Sports segment in 2017.
24/7: KELLY SLATER will be the surfer’s second appearance on HBO Sports in the past year. Last December, the network aired the acclaimed documentary “Momentum Generation” from directors Jeff and Michael Zimbalist of All Rise Films, Priority Pictures, and Sundance Productions. The film, which captured the 2019 Sports Emmy® Award for Outstanding Long Documentary, tells the compelling story of the group of surfers known as The Momentum Generation, led by Slater, who collectively transformed the sport of surfing in Hawaii in the 1990s.
Newsday.com observed, “HBO’s ‘24/7’ series is the best sports program on television. Bar none.” HBO’s 24/7 franchise has previously chronicled boxing, hockey, NASCAR, golf and as of this October, college football.
The executive producers of 24/7: KELLY SLATER are Peter Nelson, Rick Bernstein and Bentley Weiner; writer, Aaron Cohen. Liev Schreiber narrates.
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