Poor conditions halt J-Bay contest
THE Corona Open J-Bay, stop No 6 on the 2017 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT), ran through the opening two heats of elimination round two before the competition was called off due to inconsistent conditions at Jeffreys Bay yesterday.
Two-time event winner Jordy Smith (South Africa) survived a tough round-two clash against fellow South African and trials winner Dale Staples to avoid early elimination and advance to round three.
Despite posting the highest single-wave score of the heat, Staples was not able to find the back-up score required and leaves the event in equal 25th place.
“It was definitely stressful out there and to be honest he [Staples] is probably the deadliest guy in the draw,” Smith said.
“I was just really lucky because he didn’t quite get the score. I just wanted to get two waves out there. “We didn’t have many sets but I’m just happy to get the job done.
“Even though we’re great friends, everyone wants to win. It sucks to come up against Dale in a heat but I’m sure he’ll get more opportunities.”
Staples said: “It’s always hard coming up against Jordy, one of my favourite surfers. It would have been nice to have some better waves and put on a show for everyone. I just came a bit short at the end, which is a bit of a bummer.
“It’s great to surf good waves against the best surfers in the world – that’s the difference between the CT and QS. It just makes me more hungry to win.”
Current Jeep Leaderboard No 1 Matt Wilkinson (Australia) faced South African wildcard Michael February in heat 2.
February came out firing and held the advantage after the opening exchange with 7.00 to Wilkinson’s 6.17. However, the Australian locked in a 6.93 for the heat win and his place in round three, eliminating February from the contest.
“Mikey [February] has been surfing really good the past few days so I’m stoked to get the win,” Wilkinson said.
“When the tide’s this high you’re so close to the reef so I’m happy to finish the heat intact and ready for round three.”
WSL commissioner Kieren Perrow said: “Unfortunately, that swell just hasn’t materialised and it’s still really inconsistent out there so we won’t run any more heats today. We’ll come back tomorrow morning and things still look really promising.
“We’re excited to see what the next few days will bring for J-Bay.”