3 Musketeers

Thousands will descend on the JBay Winterfest. Many will watch the JBay Open - the anchor event of the festival. It’s mid year on the Tour and there will be some breakaways, and a few fades. Some surfers will rise. Others will crumble. Partisan crowds will support our surfers. Our surfers? Well, there are three.

There is always much hype around JBay and the pros that arrive and rip it to pieces. Who is better? Taj or Joel? Kelly or Mick? John John or Kolohe? Gabby or Michel? While so many of the top pros are the best surfers to ever grace a surfboard, Supers tends to favour the surfers who have the most experience out there, and by the simple process of repetition this tends to be the local boys.

Travis Logie has been surfing JBay, and in particular the ASP World Tour events in JBay, for many years. He has similar experience in the line-up, and has a very potent and fast backhand reo. Travis has threaded through barrels in front of the crowds, has smashed lips to pieces, has taken off on bombs out the back and has ridden waves all the way through to the gully at Impossibles.

He is a well-experienced Supers campaigner and while big results might have eluded him in the past, he could easily turn it on this year and get the sort of result he deserves. Hell, all he needs is to come up against Kelly Slater intent on a world title, and Travis will kick butt and put our champion on the beach again. He’s done it before. Twice.

Not shy, Travis might just have the ultimate big match temperament. Maybe it’s a converse relation to his size. Mighty mouse fights to the bitter end. Case in point. Who remembers his 9.5 in Rio on the end-of-heat buzzer? Travis will be coming up against Julian Wilson and Kolohe Andino in heat 12 of round one of the event.

Travis profile http://www.aspworldtour.com/athletes/572/travis-logie

Then we have the true local in the mix in Dylan Lightfoot. Dyl has been turning heads at Supers for a while now, first gaining attention for paddling out on big days when he was still a tiny grom, and threading some big caves down at the bottom section. Dylan also takes off on big waves at Boneyards, and is not scared to pull in up there as well. Want proof? here you go

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Dylan put his money where his mouth is by winning the JBU Supertrial presented by RVCA and got a spot in the main event as a result. He will be competing in either heat 5 or heat 6 in the first round. Dylan is one of those surfers who is so hungry and so determined for success that he does not get fazed by the competition, by any competition. If he comes up against Slater in heat 6, so be it  - just another heat to get through. Dylan has all the local knowledge, skill and tube riding style to go far in this event, and maybe even put down a breakthrough performance on his home turf. Wild cards can win events. Ask Joel. Ask Peter Devries.

Dylan profile http://www.aspafrica.com/surfers/mens-star-profiles/dylan-lightfoot/

Finally we have Jordy Smith. Jordy is the tried and tested in this situation, using all of his hard earned experience to show the world how to surf there. He knows exactly where to sit, which waves to go for, which waves to ignore and when to paddle down the point.

He can win the event if he wants, that’s a given. Thing is, despite electrifying performances at every spot on the world tour so far, the winning formula has been eluding him. He needs to find the rhythm, find the formula, and stick to it all the way through to the final. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again, he just needs it right now, at this point mid-way through the 2014 season.

If ever he was going to kick this year in it’s teeth and climb back on top, JBay would be that place. He has every move in the book suited to the wave, and he has the strange calmness whenever he takes off on a bomb. He collects himself, sets up the line, and just unleashes all the way down to the gulley, normally finished up by some crazy rote or invert down over the bottom bricks to just be that one level more emphatic to the judges.

When it comes to total dominance of a break, Slater has it at Tavarua, John John has it at Pipe, and Jordy has it at Supers. He owns it. Jordy will come up against Owen Wright and Jadsen Andre in heat 10 of round 1.

Jordy profile http://www.aspworldtour.com/athletes/564/jordy-smith