Gunning for a Corona JBay Open Hat-Trick

ROCKET FUEL: Toledo has redefined how to surf big walls like Bells and JBay. Photo WSL / Dunbar

According to Wikipedia, a hat-trick is the achievement of a positive feat three times in a game, or another achievement based on the number three. Either way, it's about back-to-back repeats, a relative rarity in the harsh competitive environment of professional spot.

It was a recent repeat in Rio for the high flying Brazilian, Filipe Toledo, who basks in his win at the Oi Rio Pro. He was the defending champion, and although Jordy Smith fought back hard, at the end of that long and noisy day, with 30,000 Brazilian fans baying for their boy to win, Filipe took victory with relative ease, making it back-to-back wins in Rio.

Being a defending champion is quite an ordeal at times. The focus is on you. There is a certain expectation because you have proven you know how to ride a certain wave. You have proven to the judges that you know the deal. Now you have to do it all again.

BACK-TO-BACK: Toledo has two wins in Rio under his belt, and guns for a JBay hat-trick. Photo WSL

In Rio, Filipe just took to the air, as he does everywhere around the world, and got the points needed to secure victory. Martin Potter mentioned that Supertubes in JBay, the venue for the Corona JBay Open, was not considered the ideal wave for huge airs, or so everyone thought.

He totally redefined how Supers could be surfedWhen Toledo won his first event there in 2017, he performed two of the most ridiculous, high scoring alley-oops on one wave, and he totally redefined how Supers could be surfed. Potter went on to explain how many waves and venues get redefined by surfing performances.

Toledo went one better, and won his second Corona JBay Open last year, defeating powerful rookie Wade Carmichael. The waves were smaller, but still the diminutive natural-footer took to the air in a performance that Carmichael never really had an answer to. No shame to the Australian, but Toledo beat him with an air game.

I LOVE WINNING: Like his peers, Toledo is hungry, flamboyant and talented. Photo WSL / Cestari

So now Toledo comes into JBay with the possibility of scoring a third win at JBay, and being the first to get a hat-trick at this venue. It has been close before, but it has never happened. In 2000 and in 2001 Australian surfer Jake Paterson won back-to-back events in JBay, but could not get a third in a row. Great achievement, but no hat-trick.

Then in 2010 and 2011, Jordy Smith did the same, winning two events back-to-back at Supers, and he was looking like the man to do it. Records show that the game changed in 2012, with the event downgraded to a 6-star QS, and although Jordy competed, the event was won by Adriano de Souza from Michel Duru, with Duru the person who eliminated Smith from the event.

Can Filipe do it for the third time at the Corona JBay Open? It is very possible, but gut feels says no.

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