Jordy’s on top of the world

Durbanite leads team to WSL Cup win as sharks hijack Aussie event

THE OI Rio Pro, currently underway in Saquarema, Brazil, is expected to restore a sense of normality to the World Surf League this coming week after recent events in Australia and California focused fans’ attention on everything but the race for the men’s and women’s world titles.

After the Rip Curl Pro it was business as usual for the world’s best surfers as they made their way from Bells Beach, Victoria, to Western Australia for the Margaret River Pro, the third stop on the WSL. With the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast winner Julian Wilson and Rip Curl Pro Bells winner Italo Ferreira sharing equal first place on the Jeep Leaderboard World Rankings, the world title race was all set to resume after Mick Fanning’s sensational farewell and retirement event at Bells Beach over Easter.

Just days into the ‘Margies’ event with 24 male surfers and eight female surfers still in title contention a dramatic decision to halt the event was made, on April 17, a day after back-toback shark attacks on two recreational surfers within hours of each other just 6km away from the contest site.

While not all contestants were in favour of the decision to halt the event the WSL reserved the right to either split the VICTORIOUS: Durban’s Jordy Smith celebrates with his World Team after leading them to victory over Team Brazil and Team USA in the Founders Cup final at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in California. Pictured left to right are: Kanoa Igarashi (Japan), Michel Bourez (Tahiti), Jordy Smith, Paige Hareb (New Zealand) and Bianca Buitendag (Southern Cape). prize-money and ratings points among the remaining surfers, or possibly run the event to completion at another location.

Now, after weeks of speculation, the WSL’s CEO Sophie Goldschmidt confirmed in a statement on Thursday that the event will now be completed at the world-class wave of Uluwatu on the island of Bali, Indonesia, at the conclusion of this year’s Corona Bali Pro from May 27-June 9. The event will take place within 48 hours after the Corona Bali Pro at Keramas, and finish no later than June 13, 2018.

“The cancellation of the Margaret River Pro was due to unique circumstances and we look forward to returning to Western Australia in 2019,” confirmed Goldschmidt. “After consulting with Surfing West Australia about completing the event in 2018, we felt that the shark activity that prompted the event cancellation had not significantly improved and returning was not in the best interests of the surfers this season. We extensively explored various alternatives before deciding to invest in completing the event at Uluwatu in Bali.”

Last week’s WSL teams event, the Founder’s Cup, held at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch, also had an unexpected finish when Durbanite Jordy Smith led his World Team to victory in the historic event. Pitted against powerhouse teams from the US, Australia, Brazil and Europe the odds were stacked against the World Team made up of Smith as team captain, Michel Bourez (Tahiti), Kanoa Igarashi (Japan), Paige Hareb (New Zealand) and Bianca Buitendag (Southern Cape).

But after two days of nonstop action in perfectly predictable man made waves Smith’s leadership and powerful, innovative surfing shone through to help his team of underdogs snatch victory from the highly favoured Brazil and US teams.