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When ASP
International started building hype for the 2010 Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay,
they took the easiest route possible — “Slater Eyes World Title No. 10 At
Upcoming Billabong Pro.” Who wouldn’t want to tune in and see the greatest
competitive surfer of all time shred yet another record to pieces? And who can
downplay the uncanny coincidence of Slater gunning for his 10th title in 2010
of all years? Forget Sl8ter and K9 — 10 in ’10 is an irresistible tag
line that sends surf fans into giddy spasms and marketing suits into fits of
joy.
There was
only one problem with the ASP’s angle for its annual journey to South Africa:
it forgot to take into account home country surfers like Jordy Smith and Sean
Holmes, along with the wild sporting fever that has gripped the country since
the World Cup blew through Johannesburg earlier this summer. In that sense, the
storyline couldn’t be better: mega-hyped young superstar wins maiden World Tour
victory only days after winning the hometown Mr. Price Pro Ballito near Durban, taking
the World Title and combined World Rankings lead in front of thousands of vuvuzela-blaring fans,
while local boy wildcard wipes 12 world titles off the table by beating Kelly
Slater and Andy Irons in back-to-back heats. Did we mention that Jordy is the
first South African to win a World Tour event since Martin Potter, the first bru to ever
make a final at J-Bay, and the first Saffa to lead the ratings since the
creation of the present World Tour system? And that all of this went down on
South African hero Nelson Mandela’s birthday?
Of course,
from an East Coast perspective, J-Bay was a tough go all around. Slater’s
extensive experience at the premier righthand pointbreak — he’s won the
Billabong Pro four times in the past — actually hurt him, as he waited
until the last minute to leave his new riverfront home in Cocoa Beach, FL, and
travel to South Africa. Slater’s journey ended up taking 40 hours one way, and
although he arrived with only minutes to spare for his Round One heat, The
Champ still schooled fellow Eastsider Damien Hobgood and second wildcard Shaun
Joubert with a 15.93 barrel-riding clinic in the firing four- to six-foot surf
of Day One.
“Everything
that could have gone wrong on my trip over here did,” Slater told the ASP. “My
flight got delayed on the East Coast because of storms, and then there were
mechanical failures and more delays. I had to overnight in Johannesburg and
then my bags didn’t show up. I think it took me 40 hours door-to-door… That
said, sometimes all that happens for a reason and I ended up having a fun surf
and getting through Round One.” Unfortunately for Kelly, Sean Holmes schooled
him in Round Three with local knowledge, giving Slater the first wave off his
priority as time ran out before getting just the score he needed from the bigger
wave out the back. “I never felt in sync here this year,” Slater said. “I’ve
been tired ever since I arrived. I’ve been going to bed at 8:00 p.m. and waking
up at 1:00 a.m. I’ve been up today for eight hours already. [But] Sean is
always in sync out here at Jeffreys. He knows the spot really well and is
always on the best waves.”
Our third
Right Coast representative, CJ Hobgood uncharacteristically lost both his Round
One and Round Two heats to bag his second 33rd of the year, dropping him to #22
in the ratings, precariously close to the mid-season cutoff that will happen
after the next event in Tahiti. Luckily, twin brother Damien carried the
Hobgood name and trademark backside approach all the way to an equal-5th
finish, downing Marco Polo, Dean Morrison, and reigning World Champ Mick
Fanning before losing to eventual event runner-up Adam Melling in the quarterfinals.
“I thought there were going to be a lot of waves in [my heat with Mick] but it
ended up being fairly slow,” Hobgood said. “The waves we had were actually
pretty tough to surf on your backhand. I made a mistake early on, but was able
to put together two okay scores and Mick didn’t really find a rhythm until
later on. That last wave he got didn’t look good, but he turned it into
something and came close to getting the score.”
After Damo
bowed out in the quarters, it was all Jordy Smith all the time, as the hulking
South African overcame a seemingly impossible combo situation in his semifinal
with Bede Durbidge. With four minutes remaining in the heat, Durbidge had a
14.40 while Smith possessed a 4.30. But Jordy caught two waves right before the
buzzer, punting a superman air on the first one and unleashing a devastating
barrage of forehand wraps on the second to earn 14.83 points in less than one
minute. After that, the final with Melling was an afterthought, as Jordy downed
him 17.93 – 10.00 before paddling in to mobs of multicultural South
Africans waiting on the beach to tie flags around their new national hero and
chair him up the beach. Smith’s mother Luellen even got in on the celebration,
hugging and sharing a few tears with her son, who’s gone from freakish prodigy
to World Champion material in less than five years.
So Kelly now
sits at #3 in the ratings, eying his potential 10th world title through the
prism of a big new push from young surfers like Jordy Smith and Dane Reynolds (#1
and #4, respectively). Damien Hobgood is comfortably ensconced at #13, while CJ
has dropped to #22. After the next event, the Billabong Pro Tahiti, the World
Tour will be trimmed from 45 surfers to 32, but since all three of our East
Coast surfers are more than comfortable in kegging Teahupoo barrels, it should
be an event for the ages on a number of different fronts.
For full results, photos, and videos from
the 2010 Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay, visit www.BillabongPro.com.
For updated ASP World Tour info, visit www.ASPWorldTour.com.
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