TOE-TAL CARNAGE AS CHAMP COPS INJURY
SURFING legend Kelly Slater has suffered a horror broken foot at the J-Bay Open and he’s taken to social media to show off the shocking results.
Slater was forced out of the Jeffreys Bay event yesterday after suffering the injury while free-surfing prior to his second-round heat.
“You ever folded your entire foot backwards? If you try it sometime, this is what it might look like,” the 11-time World Surf League champion posted on Instagram, accompanied by a gruesome X-ray of his injuries (right).
“I pulled into a barrel this morning and the whitewash bounced the board back into my foot as I hit the close-out, taking all the pressure into the metatarsals.
“Kinda like smashing my foot with a big hammer as hard as I can.
“Sorta feels like I’m giving birth out of my foot right now!”
Slater, in red-hot form, even at age 45, faces an extended stint on the sidelines.
“I’m guessing surgery and six-week holiday is in order,” he wrote.
“Not looking forward to 30 hour flight home before surgery though.
“Ouch! It sucks but so many people deal with such horrible things around this world everyday that a broken foot is pretty minor in the scheme of things.
“Sometimes a bad thing is a good thing. I’ll make the best of my time off.”
In a near perfect display in South Africa, Brazil’s Filipe Toledo threw down the gauntlet to the field in the second round of the event.
First the Brazilian nailed a 9.63 that featured a series of Mick Fanning-esque cutbacks and a late tube ride, before putting away Kanoa Igarashi with a perfect 10 that included a long tube ride into a couple of big turns and a pose on the wave exit.
The brilliant surfing came on a tour return for Toledo, who missed the Fiji Pro at Cloudbreak last month.
He’s also got saloon passage through to the next round as he was meant to face Slater in the third round.
Also winning through in the second round was Australia’s Julian Wilson, beating compatriot Josh Kerr and entering the third round with Gold Coast’s Owen Wright.
Wright beat Australian rookie Ethan Ewing and was relieved to get through.
“It feels nice to get going and get that round two out of the way,” Wright said.
“It was a scrappy heat but it played out to my advantage. I felt like it was going to be a slow one so I knew I needed to get going.
“When you don’t get the best wave of the heat it’s tough to come back.”
The duo join a plethora of Australians in the third round of the South African event.