LW Mag LW Magazine
Perfect surf persisted throughout for the second day of competition at the Billabong Pro J-Bay. Four to six-foot waves poured down the point, allowing the contest organisers to put another full day of surfing in the bag. There were a number of stand-out performances in the excellent waves, with Sean Holmes and Jordy Smith impressing the local crowds.
Sebastien Ziets (HAW) (pictured) advanced into Round 3 of the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay at Supertubes, Jeffreys Bay, South Africa today.
©ASP/Cestari
“It is such a pleasure surfing an event with such good waves,” said Smith after his heat victory today. Jordy scored a heat total of 17.76 out of a possible 20 points, and seems to be the crowd favourite at this stage. “It has been so good watching the South Africans having a chance to compete at J-Bay,” continued Jordy. “I’m also pumped to see Frankie Oberholzer surf – he has been an idol of mine all my life.” Frankie was unfortunately eliminated a few heats later.
Australian goofy-footer Nathan Hedge continued with his winning form, banking another solid heat win of 18.77 points, giving him two of the highest heat scores of the event so far. A former World Championship Tour campaigner, Hedge is on the comeback trail right now and is a danger-man for this event.
Towards the end of the day the South African contingent came back with a late charge, with Casey Grant and Dale Staples winning their heats, and Shaun Joubert, Steven Sawyer and Ryan Payne all advancing through to round three. Payne scored a near-perfect 9.8 points for an excellent tube ride in the last heat of the day, and came in second behind Hawaiian John John Florence.
“The forecast for tomorrow is still looking good,” said Billabong South Africa marketing manager Chad D’Arcy. “We’re going to kick in with another early start in the morning, and we’re planning on surfing for as long as there are waves coming down the point. It should be another full day of surfing.”
For more event details go to the event site on www.billabongpro.com
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Billabong Pro J-Bay event co-sponsors include: Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Sony Xperia, Carling Black Label, Monster Energy, Nissan, Vida e Caffe, VonZipper and Nixon.
