Ok, I am a little late here, but I was deep in the desert with no internet. But even there the news that Jordy Smith had beaten Adriano in the Final reached my ears and there was much celebrating and drinking of beers around the fire! The result puts Jordy in 2nd place on the World Rankings, behind Adriano da Souza who holds on to first place barely. These two now sit ahead of Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater and Taj Burrows, who they both probably looked up to just a few short years ago.
The commentators, tweeters and even some of the judges were claiming Jordy from day 1 here and he simply followed the game plan, never looked ruffled and calmly took the winners cheque. There in lies, I think, the turning point for the big guy. CALM
The man was putting on a show for the spectators, enjoying himself immensely and it came through in his surfing. Now he just needs to take that calm through to Fiji and the thundering lefts of Cloudbreak. I have no doubt he can win this competition to, but we are going to have to wait and see…
It has been a sterling year for South African surfing thus far, I am am hoping and hedging my bets we may have a World Champion come December!