JBay has had a good run of late. It’s had a pretty good year so far, in fact, with nearly a month of surf while the best surfers in the country were all competing in a 3-week series of surf events in Durban. Those who knew the local calendar and the forecast gorged themselves on perfect and uncrowded Supers until they could no longer do so. And it’s still here.
This swell was there for the Rising Tides program. The swell will continue into the opening day (today) or two of the waiting period. Saturday looks gangbusters. Then, there are enough bumps, winds and swell blobs over the waiting period for all involved to be at peace. BUT, and it’s a big but, the tail end of the waiting period looks way less exciting than the front end. This contest could run off in the first three days, if the winds remain light on Sunday.
In the meantime, the practice sessions have been classy. Windy, a bit lumpy, with warm water and cold air, and crowded as can be expected. However, some trends have been emerging.
Colapinto
Griff is on a mission. Energised, grunty, getting work done at his current office, which is the Supers lineup. High, low, neap tides, west swell 230, south swell 190, gale force offshore, small and on the bricks, blustery devil winds and everything in between. We all know Griff’s format, so no need to expound on his rail game. He’s looking solid, and the vibe on the beach and the boardwalk is that he’s the “main ou.” *
Fiaravanti
Leo may be annoying to some, as his in-water coldness and legendary drop-in skills over the years have been widely recognised. Still, having said that, he has been very fair in the water so far this year at JBay, even a little friendly, and he is on fire at the moment. He must be the fittest surfer on tour, and it shows, especially on a demanding wave like screaming offshore Supers. She’s a brutal fucker to surf comprehensively, to own the wave so to speak, and Leo looks like he is owning it right now.
Smith
Talking of exuding, Jordy is in his most comfortable place ever, exuding zen, smiles and dad-bod charm, but ‘comfort zone’ has been his passive-aggressive and successful form of attack this year. The only thing that can sometimes be irksome about Jordy, as well as Ethan, is that they sometimes make the most critical rail turns, especially on a larger JBay wall, look too easy. Those big, grunty, on-edge drawn out power carves that are best appreciated from an in-water perspective, or on the beach in close-up. Sometimes they are trivialised by a pulled-back front view.
Chianca
The Sneaky Little Sneak award goes to Joao for snaking the most locals, with a unanimous carpark vote. Nothing too foul, just a very serious and dedicated magician-like snaking technique against unsuspecting, at times star-struck South African surfers, who usually turn around and say to themselves, ‘what the fuck just happened?”
Coaches
The Dedicated Coaching Award is a really close one; Luke Egan and Doug Silva have put in the extra hours and become part of the system that is the swarming mass of the best surfers in the world on the best right-hander in South Africa. Both have been pretty cool in the water as well, but Egan (who won DH’s JBay Dream Sequence and a piece of local land in ’91) gets the nod for actually showing genuine interest in the local groms, getting to know them and chatting to them, and not forgetting their names the next day. Silva has been surfing some of the more obscure beachbreak spots 30 minutes south of JBay with Seth, sneaking into a few barrels yesterday in front of us, so he is doing the yards.
Dora
We must also mention Yago for a few waves in amongst the wind and rain that possibly broke every single record for the most turns ever performed on a surfing wave. Not window-wiper repetitious types of turns, but we’re talkin searing on-rail carves, gouges and power cracks in the screaming wind. We’re not sure if there is footage, but those who were watching were officially dazed, and those who were watching and couldn’t do basic math (many people these days) lost track of the number of turns and also became bewildered while trying to do the sums.
Cleland
The Most Likely To Fit Into The JBay Vibe Award is going to Alan Cleland Jnr. He’s the sort of surfer who comes out the water after a high pressure heat, opens up a beer with alcohol in it, lights up a durrie and says something like ‘I’m Mexican’ before going off to play one-up with the brus and with a cheap plastic soccerball while holding that beer and smoking that thing out of the corner of his mouth.
Also, JBay loves a power surfer.
If the waves are big at JBay, his first heat against Barron and small wave aficionado Filipe Toledo will be interesting.
Warm-up sessions:(good idea to subscribe to this channel, it’s a local)
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