Jordy Back and Out
Monday 29 June 2015 Jordy Smith suffered a Round 1 exit from the Ballito Pro presented by Billabong this afternoon after his comeback from a knee injury, with Aussie Brent Dorrington winning the heat in rampant form.
Winner of his heat 8 Brent Dorrington (AUS) was one the top point scorer of the day (16.60 out of 20), along with Alejo Muniz of Brazil (16.50).
Reigning champion at Ballito Jordy was returning from a knee injury, missing the Fiji Pro, and lacked his normal explosive best.
Willards Beach in Ballito delivered small contestable waves in the 2-3 foot range, and the lanky South Africa find it hard to get going in the small waves to lag substantially behind his opponents Dorrington, Thomas Fernandes (PRT) and Granger Larsen (HAW).
Jordy ended on 11.10 score with Larsen third (15.16) and Fernandes 2nd (15.33). Only one more heat (Round 8) was held before organisers called it off for the day in deteriorating conditions.
There is still time to gear up for the JBay for Jordy, and the outing at least gives him some form of warmup before the sixth stop on the World Tour.
The Ballito Bay event offers 10,000 Qualifying Series (QS) points and is the second last major QS event of the year.