Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Jordy excels in Hawaii, but World title seems elusive
Homeboy John John on fire at Pipeline Masters event, negating Smith’s best efforts
chance to make the tour in 2018 by one heat at the Vans World Cup at Sunset Beach.
Mikey had a bonus chance to earn kudos (but not points) if he made the finals of the Pipeline Invitational. The winner and runner-up get a wildcard. However, he didn’t. Surprise package Benji Brand – a South African who now calls Hawaii his home – got the wildcard. The other went to the winner, Hawaiian Dusty Payne.
Wildcards Payne and Brand tackle Medina and Wilson respectively in the dreaded Round 2 eliminator. The two have nothing to lose. For the other two, it’s the opposite.
Jordy Smith needs a miracle if he is to walk away with the world title this year. He’s looking so good though. His combined score – an 8.67 and 7.90 – made the highest heat total of the event so far. Both came from Backdoor Pipeline barrels. The first was spectacular – a delayed foamball exit that had the crowd screaming when he emerged – long after you thought he’d been munched.
His fortune is down to fate now. But at least Jordy looks relaxed. He’s not feeling stress over the tiniest of mathematical chances (along the lines that he has to make the finals or win while John John must fail uncharacteristically early in the event while surfing his own backyard, literally).
“I don’t really get too deep into the pressure,” said Smith, “and quite frankly it really boils down to those two guys (Florence and Medina) losing out early, but you never know. If they wobble then I’ll put my head down and give it a go.”
We’ve seen the big guy put on some pretty amazing moments of sheer will and Big Match Temperament to overcome almost impossible odds, so we can but hope.
However, a poor run in the European leg really dented his hopes. Before that, he was on fire, and good results would have cemented his top spot. Instead he bombed with two 13ths and Gabriel Medina came from nowhere with two wins to leapfrog into second place.
See the live stream on www. worldsurfleague.com
The future of African surfing looks bright after the recent formation of the African Surfing Confederation (ASC) hosted by the Moroccan Federation and attended by delegates from South Africa, Senegal, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast and Madagascar. Surfing SA was represented by its President, Johnny Bakker, who was elected first vice president of the ASC with Mohammed Kadmiri from Morocco as president and Omar Seye from Senegal as the other vice president. How cool is that?
Capetonians form four of seven surfers invited to surf in the WSL World Junior Championship from January 4 to 12 in Kiama in New South Wales, Australia. The top four ranked men and top two ranked women from seven WSL regions are invited. Newly crowned Africa junior champions Jake Elkington (Kommetjie) and Sophie Bell (Salt Rock) are joined by Adin Masencamp ( Strand), Joshe Faulkner ( Jeffreys Bay), Jake’s brother Max and Kayla Nogueira (uMhlanga). Ford van Jaarsveldt (Kommetjie) has been granted a wildcard.
Today it looks 3-4’ in fresh to strong SSE winds, really blasting by this afternoon. Tomorrow, the neargale has boosted the windswell in False Bay but the SE is still pumping. Muizenberg looks shredded and messy.