A perfect day. In every way. In J-Bay. On Mandela Day. Please enjoy three tantalizing morsels from another epic day of surf.
Jordy Smith’s Perfect 20 for Mandela
Ahhhhhh our beloved Jordy Smith. For those Saffa surf pigs, World Tour hounds, who pretty much watch every heat of every contest, when Jordy Smith gets knocked out of the draw before he should’ve all of you seep into a deep dark surf depression and immediately turn off the webcast! Those who play Fantasy Surfer can deal with the loss, cause you have 7 other surfers in your team, one falls out, who cares. But anyway, Jordy Smith obliterated Leonardo in heat 7 of round 3. His timing, wave choice and maneuver decision was impeccable. We thought John John was shredding in the heat before until Jordy paddled out and forced the judges to throw him two tens on Mandela Day. Is there more to come? Where does the big man go from here? Because it
Who the hell does a floater on a six foot wave at the end section of supers… Jordy Smith when he’s looking for tens. Image: Ewing
We Love Conner
If you didn’t have the pleasure of witnessing Conner blitz one of the all time J-Bay greats, Joel Parkinson, best you hit the WSL site and queue that exchange up. Joel took the first wave of the second exchange only to witness Conner exiting one of the barrels of the day before laying into a carve so soiled, Joel probably had to close his eyes and look away. Conner held his rail so long, one of the WSL writers here in the media room went and made himself a cup of Frisco instant coffee with two sugars and milk and returned to witness Conner still laying it down… or was that the replay? It’s the type of visual that occasions Joel to wake up in a cold sweat, late at night in his Gold Coast mansion, we can just imagine the transaction, “What happened Joel!?” asks his wife “I dreamt I got outcarved and out barreled by a grom at J-Bay!!” says Joel eyes bulging. “Don’t worry love, it’s only a dream”. Thank goodness we put Conner in our Fantasy Surfer Team.
Conner Coffin did a carve so soiled, Parko had to close his eyes and look away. Image: Ewing
Italo Ferrira Fears No Lip
Italo Ferreira is built like a little box. A solid little box with two arms a set of legs and a head popping out the top. He stands square over his board, no knock knee stance here boys, those days are over. But damn, that square stance is rock solid. You could put down a coupla steel rods and build an eight story holiday apartment on that stance. Italo knew that getting pitted at J-Bay today on your backhand was one risky tall order, so he took to bashing the lip. And if you’ve ever surfer 6-8 foot J-Bay on your backhand, you’ll know, bashing the lip at windy 6ft J-Bay is no walk in the park. It’s effing risky. On Italo’s 7.23 he bashed the lip three times, falling miles out of the sky each time. The Judges scored it a 7.23 while all the goofy footers screamed underscored! Michel Bourez went on to win the heat but Italo took the hearts of those who remember what Occy used to do to these waves.
Italo fears no lip. Image: WSL/Cestari
