Unlike an X Games medal, a world title in surfing is not a singular win -- it is the result of winning multiple contests in a tour that lasts several months and stops in locations across the world. No other action sport has an equivalent of this tour, or Slater's achievement. It is a really big deal.

Slater's win this year makes him both the oldest (38) and youngest (20) person to win the world title. The man has been a force in the water for two decades, leaving his mark on two generations of surfers. With 45 Elite Tour wins, two X Games golds, induction into the Surfing Hall of Fame, 14 Surfer Poll awards and the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year award, it's not like Slater hasn't been recognized for his achievements before. He even received a high-five from the U.S. House of Representatives when they passed a (unanimous) bipartisan resolution in May 2010, recognizing his unprecedented achievements in surfing and for being a role model.

There's no surfing in the Olympics, though, so perhaps Slater's stellar accomplishment only resonates near the ocean.

There is no denying White's impact on snowboarding and skateboarding, and on action sports as a whole. He's been sponsored since he was seven and has handily won almost every competition and award that matters at least once. Last year's ESPYs for Best Male U.S. Olympic Athlete and Best Male Action Sports Athlete were well-earned. It's impossible, really, to emphasize enough just how bad the halfpipe was at the 2010 Olympics, and how White's ability to perform at such a high level crushed any doubt that anyone might have ever had about him being the best pipe rider in the world. His run was devastatingly good.

But, again, that was last year's ESPYs achievement. Just sayin'…

The women's side of the Best Action Sports Athlete category was a little tighter of a race.

The other Kelly -- snowboarder Kelly Clark -- had an incredible season, winning almost every major competition she entered, putting her in serious Shaun White territory, results-wise. She became the first woman to stomp a 1080 in competition (at Winter X) and, as she likes to say, she wants her ceiling to be the next generation's floor.

But the award winner, Stephanie Gilmore, has dominated the Women's World Tour in surfing for the last five years, owning the world title in four of them. Gilmore definitively ended the Layne Beachley era with her first title and last year held off young stars Carissa Moore and Sally Fitzgibbons en route to her fourth consecutive trophy. It's unlikely that voters weren't affected by the coda to her last title, a path that involved a horrible assault that Gilmore suffered just after last year's tour ended, which kept her out of the water several months this year and has derailed a title defense. Still, it was a fair matchup, and Clark's ESPY was deserved.