Hope Springs

Using 19th Century novelist Charles Dickens as a way to introduce a surf blog is a far stretch, and probably pretentious, but it rings true.

Jordy lost to Tiago Pires, the Portuguese surfer who made it onto the 2014 World Tour through the backdoor, being awarded a wild card as a result of a big injury last year. Tiago is a very strong and powerful surfer with a great style and a dogged determination in his approach, but Jordy shouldn’t have lost to him.

Prior to Jordy’s heat there were plenty of sets. Every five minutes or so a set would appear and run down the sand bank, offering plenty of opportunities for all the moves in the book, including those hugest airs that Jordy is notorious for. There was also the opportunity to build houses, which Tiago opted for. With a 7.17 under the belt and a 5.53 as his target, Jordy had every right to be confident that there would be another set, and another opportunity for a decent scoring wave. So Jordy sat and waited for that decent wave.

He sat for 15 minutes, and while there were a few little runners that filtered through on the inside, there wasn’t a wave that Jordy wanted. As time ran out and as we watched in frustration at a dead spell in the day’s pulses, it became evident that the ocean had conspired against Jordy and his game plan.

Maybe he could have hooked into one of the smaller insiders – if anyone can turn a 2-foot insider into a 6 plus score it’s Jordy – but it wasn’t to be and the heat ended with a whimper, possibly an expletive or two and maybe even a fist-induced stress crack or two.     

With the cricket already weighing heavily on the South African contingent present, it was a tough time, but before we knew it Travis was in the water and up against one of the best new school surfers in the world in John John Florence.

With the cricket already weighing heavily on the South African contingent present, it was a tough time, but before we knew it Travis was in the water and up against one of the best new school surfers in the world in John John Florence.

The Hawaiian picked up a small but good wave in the beginning of the heat and straight off the bat performed two massive on edge wrap around cut backs, and raced to the inside where he set up a solid drop-wallet layback and fell, blowing a really good scoring potential wave.

Travis, trailing closely, picked up a way better set wave and proceeded to smash it on his backhand like only Travis can. Needing whatever the fuck he needed, Travis was awarded a fair score of 8.77, JJF was left so deep in comboland there was no ways he was going to extricate, and the siren went, sending the Hawaiian straight to the skate park.

John John didn’t look that good the whole week so far, and it was no surprise to many that he was out. Still, the two South Africans were thick involved in the two major upsets of the day, and while Dane and Ryan Logie were stoked and smiling along with Travis, Jordy, his wife and his parents were left to ponder the vagaries of a windswept ocean.