LW Mag LW Magazine
It’s all over, as the most incredible surf contest of the year draws to a close in Tahiti. While Jordy didn’t get to the final and an event victory he was so hungry for, he bowed out as a courageous competitor who soldiered on despite injuries in the death-defying conditions that Teahupo’o was delivering.
In solid 8 to 10-foot surf, Jordy came up against his good mate and fellow South African Travis Logie and was eliminated during a resurf. Travis went on to make the semi-finals, his best result in a World Tour event, and made his goal of requalifying for the World Tour a very real possibility.
The final day saw perfect barrels pouring though in the 8-foot plus region, with all the surfers reveling in the rare and perfect World Tour conditions on hand. Travis came up against Bret Simpson, and pulled into a massive and deep barrel, driving through section after section for a score of 9.9. No one knows why there wasn’t a perfect 10 awarded for that ride, but it was the ride that sealed the heat for Travis.
The water patrol was on high alert during the entire swell at Teahupo’o and did an excellent job of getting Jordy Smith out of danger after his injury.
In the semi, Travis came up against young Owen Wright and despite scoring a 7.5 and a 6.9, he was completely comboed in his heat. In the aftermath of the contest result and wrap up, Jordy was gracious in his support of Travis, posting up on his twitter feed that, “I’m a little bummed about result yesterday, but never the less couldn’t have gone to a better person in Travis Logie. Go for it Trav, bring it home!”
The event was eventually won by a rampant Kelly Slater, which sees the ten times world champ claim the top spot on the World Tour from Joel Parkinson who held it up to this event. Jordy Smith is in a close second place behind Slater, and Parkinson finds himself in the number three spot.
The next event on the world tour is the Quiksilver Pro Long Island New York with US$ 1Million on the table, the biggest prize pool for a surf event in the history of the sport. The waiting period is September 4 to 15th. Jordy is hell-bent on a world title and this will be the event where he makes his move.
For more on this and other Red Bull and Jordy Smith stories go and have a look at the Red Bull South Africa website.
Words: Craig Jarvis
Photo: © ASP/Kirstin
