Thursday 15 July 2010
The J-Bay Billabong Pro couldn't have started better with perfect 4-6' waves barrelling down the point under sunny skies. Chris Mason was there to report on the days action, and Paul Van Jaarsveld was on the beach getting the shots. You can expect daily updates from the Wavescape team until the end of the event. Stay tuned!
It’s cooking.
That is the simple truth from Jeffrey’s Bay as the Billabong Pro gets underway on the first day of the 10 day waiting period. Surfers and organisers alike were wearing slightly surprised grins as the day started with a brisk South Westerly wind, and a clean, lined up 4-5ft swell.
With 48 surfers in the competition, there is a lot of surfing to be done, and a lot on the line for some of the surfers, besides of course the R3 million in prize money. There's a lot at stake for some of the surfers as the tour gets a brutal snip from 44 to 32 competitors. On the cusp of the cut off is Travis Logie, the second of South Africa’s two WCT hopeful’s, the other being Jordy.
But you would be forgiven for not thinking of the technical nitty-gritty if you were sitting on Supertubes beach enjoying the show today. The surfing has been phenomenal, which is to be expected when you put the world’s best surfers in on one of the world’s best waves on a perfect day.Good waves for the first day of competition takes a lot of pressure off the organisers as they are able to get the early heats out the way and still have the waiting period to fall back on.
Billabong’s Pete Nicholson said “Wow, couldn’t ask for much more swell wise and condition wise, and the forecast looks so good. Would have liked a day or two to fine tune the event site, but that’s the way it goes. But the waves are here and that’s all that really matters. It’s so good to see the guys getting this platform straight off the bat”.
There were certainly some stand-out performances today, including heat wins by a very relaxed and confident Jordy Smith, an on form and speeding Mick Fanning and the king himself, Kelly, going beyond vertical on every snap and doing carving, floating 360’s where most would outrun the lip.
Because there was an unabated stream of surf the whole day, the organisers squeezed in two heats from round two at the end of the day. There is talk of potentially running the contest with duel heats for a day to finish by the end of the weekend, as swell predictions are looking slim for the next week. But as of yet there are no formal calls being made, besides that conditions will be reviewed at 7am for a 7:30 start.
Some highlights of the day´s action:
Round 1 Results:
Heat 1: Adam Melling (AUS) 12.17, Taylor Knox (USA) 10.80, Luke Munro (AUS) 10.17
Heat 2: Andy Irons (HAW) 14.77, Jay Thompson (AUS) 10.56, Jadson Andre (BRA) 9.24
Heat 3: Nate Yeomans (USA) 15.83, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 13.74, Luke Stedman (AUS) 11.43
Heat 4: Dane Reynolds (USA) 15.30, Marco Polo (BRA) 12.97, Daniel Ross (AUS) 12.10
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) 16.43, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.37, Blake Thornton (AUS) 7.60
Heat 6: Tiago Pires (PRT) 15.23, Tim Reyes (USA) 13.27, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 9.07
Heat 7: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 16.37, Joan Duru (FRA) 11.90, Tom Whitaker (USA) 10.57
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.93, Damien Hobgood (USA) 14.40, Shaun Joubert (ZAF) 12.37
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.20, Dale Staples (ZAF) 13.34, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 9.83
Heat 10: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.70, Sean Holmes (ZAF) 10.27, Roy Powers (HAW) 8.33
Heat 11: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 13.60, Neco Padaratz (BRA) 9.60, C.J. Hobgood (USA) 9.17
Heat 12: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 12.60, Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 12.34, Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 11.27
Heat 13: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.53, Dean Morrison (AUS) 11.76, Michel Bourez (PYF) 7.43
Heat 14: Chris Davidson (AUS) 15.17, Mick Campbell (AUS) 12.86, Brett Simpson (USA) 11.63
Heat 15: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.87, Ben Dunn (AUS) 11.50, Dusty Payne (HAW) 10.77
Heat 16: Owen Wright (AUS) 15.56, Travis Logie (ZAF) 13.93, Drew Courtney (AUS) 7.73
Round 2 Results:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.70, Shaun Joubert (ZAF) 9.44
Heat 2: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.17, Dale Staples (ZAF) 14.67
VonZipper Superheat:1.Dale Staples (ZAF) 13.172.Heath Joske (AUS) 11.173.Ryan Payne (ZAF) 8.834.Keanu Asing (HAW) 6.50
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