THE GOOD.
Jefferys Bay was in career-best
form. There was plenty of sand
in the bay, and the swell tap
never turned off. Not even once.
Perfect right after perfect right
spiralled down the famous point
and provided the best surfers on
Earth the perfect playing field
to up their ante. And they so did
up it. J-Bay was the scene for the
highest level of performance
surfing the sport has ever seen.
From one-to-34; every surfer had
a highlight.
No wave pool in the world
is ever going to replicate waves
like that, period. Competitive
surfing’s future, for better or for
worse, is in the ocean!
THE BAD.
The GOAT hurt his hoof! The
pumping surf taking place outside
the contest zone was too alluring
even for Kelly Slater, and he paid
the ultimate price in his pre-heat
surf by pulverising his foot. Kelly
took to social media shortly after
the incident with a photo of his
X-ray and described the injury
as, “Kinda [sic] like smashing my
foot with a big hammer as hard
as I can.” The injury is expected
to keep him out of the water
for six months, not just dashing
any hopes of a 12th world title,
but quite realistically ending the
greatest competitive career surfing
will ever see.
No one will ever match the
King’s 11 world titles. Shit, no
one will even get close.THE UGLY.
There is no other way to describe
it – the judging at this year’s
event was uglier than a pitbull
chewing a wasp. It was the only
fly in our South African ointment.
Don’t get us wrong, questionable
scores are part and parcel with
professional surfing; it’s been
happening in this sport since
day one. But there were simply
too many irregularities this time
around. We ask it time and time
again, but will this event finally
trigger a revamp of the judging
system?
In a year of bad judging and
questionable decisions, J-Bay was
the pinnacle. Change has to come
if competitive surfing is ever to
progress to the level which the
surfers are.AND THE REST.
But wait, you say. What about
the surfers!? Surely they deserve
some credit? Yes they do, and a
lot of them get praised within
the following pages of this oily
magazine you hold between
your mitts. But a special mention
should go to: Filipe Toledo –
for surfing the most perfect
contest wave ever in the history
of pro surfing. And the rookie
Frederico Morais who, despite his
questionable 10 in the quarters
(not his fault), was surfing like
a seasoned veteran and came
within a Portuguese whisker of
taking out the whole damn event.Until next time, baie dankie,
South Africa!