Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Steve Pike
THE two South Africans on the pro surfing tour hit a speed wobble this week. Both had looked in top form, with Jordy Smith fresh from a second place at Bells, and Bianca Buitendag surfing better than her ninth-placed finish suggested.
However, as we move into the business end of the third and last stop of the Australian leg of the WSL Championship Tour, both names are missing from their respective events.
Jordy was surfing red-hot until his Round Five exit at the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro in Western Australia yesterday. The semi- finals and finals look set to run today.
He posted on Instagram: “Tried hard today, but couldn’t seem to find rhythm with the ocean. Never the less I had a great time competing here in Australia. Huge thanks to everyone for all the support.”
Jordy managed a 6.00 and a 4.83, which was not enough to vanquish Caio Ibelli from Brazil. Bianca made it to the quarters for a fifth place in the women’s after losing quite badly to Hawaiian Carissa Moore 14.57 points to 6.40. Aussie Tyler Wright went on to the final, where she surfed with precision in pumping 6-8’ surf to defeat Courtney Conlogue and win the event.
Bianca now stands eighth in the rankings, and is surely poised to pull together a winning year.
It was too early to see where Jordy will end up on the rankings, but he is likely to lose ground from his current third.
However, the interesting thing is that current Jeep Rankings leader Matt Wilkinson, who has won the first two events of the year and has a huge lead, was eliminated quite early from the competition by American Nat Young. Wilko was just too patient, enabling Young to get into a solid lead.
The nearest person to Wilko, who banked a full 20 000 points for his two wins, in the standings is Italo Ferreira from Brazil at No 5 with 8 250 points. Italo is in the semis and will no doubt leapfrog several surfers, but no one else is really in the picture to catch up with Wilko in a major way.
Next stop on the tour is the commonly overrated, rarely underrated, Oi Rio Pro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the Brazilian storm will no doubt hold some sway.
Ballito Pro
BALLITO on the KwaDukuza coast of KwaZulu-Natal will host the Ballito Pro presented by Billabong, a WSL Qualifying Series (QS) 10 000-rated event with a prize pool of R4 million.
The women will again demonstrate their skills in the QS1000, R50 000, Ballito Women’s Pro presented by Billabong while the Billabong Junior Series includes events for men and women aged 18 and under at Ballito for the first time.