Never had the Billabong Pro at Jeffrey Bay been ran and completed in the first 4 days of the waiting period. On the first day of competition, we saw 4 ft plus waves and everyone pretty much getting barreled. With 3 man heats going on in Round 1, we saw a majority of our top surfers win bypassing the Rd 2. Billabong’s Wild Card local surfer Sean Holmes did not win his heat against Mick Fanning and Roy Powers and was forced to surf Rd 2, but that is only the beginning of this “Giant Killer’s” run at the event.
Looking at the stats and history of Wild Cards in any surf competition, it would be pretty easy to agree that Sean is the most successful Wild Card of surfing. Sure Bruno Santos won the Billabong Pro in Tahiti 2008 as a Wild Card, but we’re talking on a consistent basis over time.
This event was clearly Jordy’s moment; his moment to shine and get his first ASP WCT win. To make it even more sweet, he won it on his home break among a plethora of South Africans blowing their vuvuzelas to support him. Ever since Jordy Smith came on the World Tour, fans of surfing have been closely watching him and Dane Reynolds excepting them to win and dominate the tour with their progressive surfing. Well Jordy Smith dominated this year’s Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay; easily advancing through each round until the semi-finals when Australia Bede Durbidge had Jordy Smith combo-ed in the last 4 minutes of the heat. Everyone was holding their breath, would this be it? Is this how Jordy Smith will bow out of the event, being combo-ed and oh so close to reaching the finals at his home break and possibly winning the event???
In the last 4 minutes of semifinal #1, Jordy caught one wave pulled out a Superman and finishing the wave with a few more solid turns, netting a 6.90 from the judges. As the seconds tick away, Bede caught a wave which allowed Jordy to have priority. Jordy took off on a small inside wave and just pulled out some solid turns before doing another air and milking the wave for all it got. It was probably one of the most dramatic wins, but a heart breaking loss for Bede. Jordy would go on to win the event against the underdog and Cinderella story of Australian Adam Melling. Adam came into the event ranked #41, knowing he had to get a good result or risk the chance of getting cut from the World Tour after Tahiti. Needless to say after making the finals, Adam is pretty much safe ranked at #19.
The World Title race in on, but it’s still pretty early with no one clearly leading. Taj Burrow’s solid performance brings him to # 2 ahead of Kelly Slater. There is only 5,000 points that separates #1 – #3 so it’s pretty much still anyone’s game. The WCT will take another break before heading to the crystal clear blue waters of Tahiti. Up next for a lot of our surfers is the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach starting at the end of July.
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