It’s not often that a Saffa on the grind jumps from 80th to 35th on the WQS rankings. Cape Town local, Michael February recently posted the best result of his professional career in the Azores Airlines Pro QS 6000 this past weekend. MFeb wound up his lanky frame for a series of backhand hacks, taking down some big names before narrowly losing in the semi-finals.
His third place finish cements his place in the remaining top rated QS10,000. Mikey is now less than 5 000 points off the Top 10 on the QS rankings, and 1 000 points behind Beyrick de Vries (uMhlanga). The pair now have the opportunity to challenge for a top 10 year-end finish and qualification for the 2017 WSL CT.
MFeb will be hanging out in the Azores to support our SA Junior team in the upcoming Vissla ISA Word Junior Games before heading to Portugal. We caught up with him to find out what went differently this event and what advice he can give the SA Junior team…
A fine tuned MFeb backhand hack at his local break in Cape Town. Image by: Luke Paterson
ZIGZAG: What went differently this event?
Mikey February: It was a really good event. It’s weird, I have been injured for the last two months and only got back in the water a month ago. So it wasn’t because I did anything different. I think the contest went well because of all the little things coming together, all those small things make a huge difference. I had a really strange routine that I stuck to throughout the event that helped a lot.
You looked super comfortable on your backhand. What was your secret?
I guess it also went well due to the fact that the waves during the event were lefts and I feel that my backhand is a little bit stronger than my forehand because I grew up surfing Kommetjie lefts all the time. And I just really enjoy surfing my backhand and I had slightly more confidence going into heats. It was the little decisions that went my way this time and I’m just really happy.
All about them good vibes. Image by: WSL
It can be intimidating to be out there with the best. What advice would you give to the SA Junior team for the upcoming event?
I’m not sure if the waves will be the same for the Junior event but I think that the lefts are pretty similar to the inside section at Long Beach just a bit more faster and hollow. I would say that Worlds is one of those events where you get there and there are so many kid’s ripping in the water and you can easily get caught up in who’s doing what and thinking about how you can surf like them or better.
How can the Juniors keep up the ‘good vibes’ you’re always advocating for?
I think that mentally it’s best to focus on yourself and your own surfing. Channel all the good vibes about yourself so that you can do your best. It is a big event with loads of rounds and long days. So the more simple you make it for yourself the more energy you will have heading into the later days of the event.
*Lead Image From WSL.
