Surfing: Slater tells ASP: 'I haven't won yet'

Kelly Slater holds up the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals Men's World Title trophy. Photo / AP

Ten-time surfing world champion Kelly Slater informed the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) himself it had made a mistake in prematurely crowning him for an 11th time after learning about it via Twitter.

The ASP has admitted making an error in its calculations and has apologised for awarding American the title for a record 11th time.

Slater, 39, has to still win one more heat either at the current event at San Francisco or at the season-ending Pipeline event in Hawaii. And Australian Owen Wright still has a remote chance of taking the title.

Slater, who lives in Florida and Hawaii, told the ASP himself that a mistake had been made after he was made aware of it on Twitter.

He posted a screenshot of a tweet from Mark on his own Twitter account which read: "...I'm not sure how [Slater] could be crowned just yet. In the unlikely event Kelly finishes 9th at SF, then 13th or 25th at Pipe and Owen wins both, they would both have 3 firsts, 2 seconds, 2 fifths, a 9th and a 25th to count.Wouldn't that be dead even? Not like it will happen but what gives."

Slater wrote: "Can you read this comment from Mark? The calculator at the ASP World Tour must be broken. I'm not world champ yet!

"I'm not joking. I have not won the world title yet. I still have to win another heat! Give those shirts and hats back!" Slater tweeted.

"In all seriousness, there may be an honest mistake or computer glitch and we're getting to the bottom of it now."

He later tweeted that he had confirmed with it with the ASP - "only honest thing to do".

The ASP admitted there was a calculation error within its rankings system, which means the title is yet to be decided.

"Our rankings system is designed to split tie-breaks based off of seed points," ASP world tour manager Renato Hickel said in a statement.

"Kelly and Owen tied at best nine of 11 results, so we went to best eight of 11 results and the system gave it to Kelly based off his higher seed position.

"We were operating under that assumption and created the ASP World Title scenarios based off of that. This was a mistake.

"In the end, we're responsible for this and should be held accountable. We apologise to our fans, the surfers and to Owen and Kelly."

Wright must win the San Francisco and Hawaiian events to take the title.

Slater is the most successful surfer ever, becoming the youngest and oldest world title holder, his first at age 20 in 1992 and his last in 2010.