That’s just what he’s done. Surfing legend Kelly Slater, who’s won more surfing championships than Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello combined, is at his peak in the surfing world.

The 11-time World Surf League champ, who won five consecutive titles from 1994-98, is the world's top competitive surfer, an innovative businessman, and a forward-thinking inventor. In December of 2015, Slater announced that he and his engineering team created the world’s first artificial wave, and a darn impressive wave according to the myriad of championship caliber surfers who have trekked to the arid San Joaquin Valley to test it.

The World Surf League was so impressed that it announced that Slater’s Surf Ranch is the latest stop on the organization’s Championship Tour. The new event is scheduled for September 2018.

Slater and his team were on hand recently at the Surf Ranch where they met with officials from the City of Lemoore and Kings County. Slater presented Mayor Ray Madrigal with a $12,500 check, which the city could spend on surfboards and Mai-Tais, but will presumably apply it towards the Lemoore Recreation Department. Madrigal, joined by Lemoore City Manager Nathan Olson and Community Development Director Judy Holwell, accepted the check.

Slater also presented a $12,500 check to Kings County officials.

Slater’s magical “surf” device creates the perfect wave every time on the man-made lake between Lemoore and Stratford. Slater’s chief scientist Adam Fincham, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Southern California, designed the wavemaker.

The wave machine has been in the works for several years, but it wasn’t until late 2015 that Slater’s team perfected the wave. The wave is produced by a plow-like hydrofoil that guides a rail in the water, which creates the wave.

There are plans to open it to the public. The facility was recently purchased by Santa Monica-based World Surf League Holdings.