Shadow under J’Bay break ROBBO

WHAT a dramatic event it turned out to be at Jeffrey’s Bay in South Africa.

Some of the best highperformance waves we’ve seen combined with the scary vision of the local sea life that will forever threaten the surfing experience at what is the best point break wave in the world.

What an incredible conundrum for any surfer!

You see the waves that every surfer dreams of catching — the long, perfectly shaped point break that offers decent size, on face sections that allow the biggest turns, sections that allow you to travel at maximum speed over long distances and tube sections that deliver perfect barrels over sand bottom reef that is no where near as dangerous as the coral reefs in the tropics. It is a perfect wave! Then we all get to see the great white shark that cruises majestically up the point and through the line up.

I don’t know whether the broadcast that reached the entire surfing world encourages or discourages surfers from going there to experience the perfection.

I guess I’m lucky, I surfed J’Bay multiple times about a decade ago before the recent revelations around the sharks that go through there.

The waves were fantastic and will live in my memory forever and the location is naturally superb.

I simply do not know if I’d go there now, having seen the vision of the reality of the shark issue.

Regardless, the surfing was amazing.

Brazilian Filipe Toledo is breaking new ground with his speed surfing, power turns and aerial abilities.

Toledo is now a serious world title contender. He has to be favourite to win events such as Trestles in California, Hossegor in France and even Portugal. His biggest weakness will be Tahiti and Hawaii, where he is not considered a serious charger.

There’s now been seven men’s events this season and seven individual winners. It sets the scene for a wonderful world title chase.

Four Day Surf Forecast: The long run of great winter surf has continued but just might back off a little in the coming days. Clean winds will most likely favour the beach breaks between Thirteenth Beach and Fairhaven between today and Saturday and then on Sunday there is a good chance a larger swell will move in with good reef conditions.