Smith and Logie Drama

Smith and Logie in repeat showdown

The much dreaded and anticipated heat between Jordy Smith and Travis Logie turned into a twisted story of note. Logie and Smith who are both Durban boys, good friends and old travel buddies were pitched against each other in the third heat of Round 3. The stakes were high, with Smith well on his way in his 2011 world title campaign and Logie desperate to re-qualify.

Nobody was ready for what happened on the second wave of the heat. Smith was caught in a deep takeoff while Kelly Slater was being interviewed. Smith was obliterated by the foam ball, then signalled for the water patrol after he popped up.

As the jetski fetched him, things did not look right and judges suddenly put the competition on hold. There were a few minutes of confusion as to the seriousness of Jordy´s injury, leaving questions about why the heat was placed on hold in the first place.

The official call by the judges was that they stopped the heat because there was no ambulance on the point and there was fear that Smith may have a punctured lung due to a broken rib, possibly a life-threatening situation. In total, the heat was placed on hold for 3.5 minutes, with Logie concerned for his friend, but perhaps frustrated that good waves were going to waste.

Smith looked in agony as water patrol and medics checked him out on the jetski. The webcast, Twitter and Facebook lit up with comments and questions. Eventually, Smith opted to finish the heat, visibly in pain, probably grasping what was at stake.

Logie waited patiently to start again, and pulled into a big wave, but was too deep and went over the falls in a standing position. The ski fetched him and passing by the tower, he glared at the judges with a huge question mark on his face, showing great maturity in the situation where a younger surfer might have shown more than a facial expression.

Jordy got two more waves and scored enough to take the heat, claiming with one arm in the air, but holding his ribs with the other. Social networks lit up with opinions, congratulations and outcries about the ASP judging criteria.

Martin Potter, the webcast commentators and CJ Hobgood were all very vocal about the situation. Potter was seen heading into the tower after the heat, no doubt telling them in certain terms what he thought. Back in South Africa, Wok and Jarvi were tweeting back an forth, with news that Jordy moved into the number 1 position to the point that Wok´s twitter account was reported as trending for the Cape Town region.

Smiths eliminates Logie, or maybe not...

Neither Smith nor Logie was available for interview directly after the heat, and word came out that judges are talking about doing a rerun. Soon the rumours were confirmed, with the ASP calling the rerun to be surfed before the start of Round 4. 

When interviewed eventually, Jordy said that he agreed that the ASP made a mistake to pause and restart the heat and also said that he probably cracked his rib but that it´s Sunday, so they won´t be able to get him to go for X-Rays.

Something that went by unnoticed, was that Logie also hurt his shoulder on one of his last waves, leaving both surfers injured for the heat rerun.

The rerun

After Freddie P ousted Mick Fanning (which was a drama in itself), Logie and Smith took to the water once again. The beginning of the heat was slow with a lack of waves. Most of the airtime went into discussion about Jordy´s injury and the restart situation.

Both surfers were extremely careful, but Logie dominated the heat from the onset. With 6 minutes on the clock, Smith needed a 7.84 ride to back up his 7.10 and drop the only other ride of 4.27. In the last 2 minutes, there was another exchange, but Smith was left lacking with only 30 seconds after the scores came in awarding Logie the win thus ending a dramatic and controversial dual between the two South African friends.

Logie on the move

With two heats surfed already, Logie´s fitness was tested with the round 4 heat that came up only two heats after the rerun. Logie proceeded to come from behind making sure he nailed things and took the three man heat with two high scoring rides, which advanced him immediately to the quarter finals.

Logie, stoked to rack up some well needed points, mentioned in a post heat interview that it was a fine cut to rush through from France, thanking his wife who supported and encouraged him to attend the event after he got a slot on very short notice.

Logie has the advantage as an experienced goofy footer, and with that he is keeping the hopes alive of South Africa to have one of our boys in the final heats and even take the event.

Logie will face Brett Simpson (USA), 26, in Quarterfinal 3 when competition resumes.

(And yes, Jeremy Flores did score a perfect 20 for two amazing waves which is very newsworthy, but we felt covering our South African boys was more important.)

When competition resumes, up first will be Josh Kerr (AUS), 27, against Jeremy Flores (FRA), 23, in the opening Quarterfinal of the Billabong Pro Tahiti.

Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 6:30am to assess conditions for a possible 7:30am start.

Highlights from the Billabong Pro Tahiti presented by Air Tahiti Nui will be available via http://www.billabongpro.com

Surfline, official forecasters for the Billabong Pro Tahiti, are calling for very solid surf this morning, with a decreasing trend through the day. "We’ll get a reinforcing pulse of new south-southwest swell on Monday, although the overall swell trend will be a slow fading one through early next week. Easterly trades continue to ease on Sunday, with light ENE/E flow early next week."

BILLABONG PRO TAHITI REMAINING ROUND 3 RESULTS:

Heat 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) def. Dusty Payne (USA) – Payne withdrew from competition due to injury sustained during a free surf on Thursday afternoon.

Heat 5:Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 15.77 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 14.94

Heat 6:Kelly Slater (USA) 17.60 def. Ricardo dos Santos (BRA) 15.84

Heat 7:Travis Logie (ZAF) 14.93 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 12.43 - Re-surfed at the end of the round.

Heat 8:Chris Davidson (AUS) 11.77 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 10.86

Heat 9:Brett Simpson (USA) 17.26 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 16.70

Heat 10:Owen Wright (AUS) 16.80 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 5.00

Heat 11:Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 12.20 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 6.44

Heat 12:Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 12.60 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 7.93

BILLABONG PRO TAHITI ROUND 4 RESULTS:

Heat 1:Josh Kerr (AUS) 16.30, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 12.16, Kai Otton (AUS) 8.10
Heat 2:Kelly Slater (USA) 13.77, Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 6.50, Michel Bourez (PYF) 2.90

Heat 3:Travis Logie (ZAF) 15.66, Brett Simpson (USA) 15.00, Chris Davidson (AUS) 14.43

Heat 4:Owen Wright (AUS) 19.77, Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 12.23, Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 11.60
BILLABONG PRO TAHITI ROUND 5 RESULTS:

Heat 1:Jeremy Flores (FRA) 20 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 18.13
Heat 2:Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 11.84 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 11.56

Heat 3:Brett Simpson (USA) 17.33 def. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 14.00

Heat 4:Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 15.50 def. Chris Davidson (AUS) 15.14

BILLABONG PRO TAHITI QUARTERFINAL MATCH-UPS:

QF 1:Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Jeremy Flores (FRA)
QF 2:Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)

QF 3:Travis Logie (ZAF) vs. Brett Simpson (USA)

QF 4:Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)