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Surf star Kelly Slater has paid tribute to Alan Green, the man who launched his career, after the co-founder of the Quiksilver brand died aged 77.

Green died of cancer at his home in Torquay, Australia, on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Boardriders group, which owns Quiksilver, told AFP.

“Love you, Greeny. You were one of a kind and a great friend and mentor for so many. I’ll miss you forever,” said US surfer Slater, 52, on Instagram.

Eleven-time world champion Kelly Slater (left) at Teahupo'o, Tahiti, last year. Photo / Matt Dunbar, World Surf League via Getty Images

The Quiksilver story started long before Slater came on the scene as Green and fellow surfer John Law set up the company in 1969 in Torquay, a small coastal town, southwest of Melbourne.

The brand was apparently named by his wife, Barbara, after a novel but there is also a theory that the name was chosen after the psychedelic band Quicksilver Messenger Service.

They left out the “c” of Quicksilver, however, as they could not afford to check the trademark.

They invented the “boardshort”, a pair of swimming shorts designed for surfers with press studs and Velcro fastenings.

The brand went international, establishing itself in the United States and Europe, where in the 1980s it set up its headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in southwest France.

The company organised numerous competitions and in 1990 it signed Slater, then 18, who would go on to rule the waves for decades to come, making himself and Quiksilver a household name.

Over the course of their 23-year partnership, Slater won 11 world titles.

Quiksilver became the first surf brand listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1998 and by 2004 it had grown into a billion-dollar surfwear empire.

© Agence France-Presse