It’s a hard old challenge surfing solid JBay on your backhand and winning against a natural footer. This year the goofy-footers tried hard, but to no avail in the all natural-footed final.
Mick Fanning beat Joan Duru in round 5. No disgrace to lose to the formerly fastest surfer in the world. That title now belongs to Filipe, but Joan Duru has shown to the world that’s not a trifling rookie kind of guy, that he is not going to be bamboozled by Championship Tour gamesmanship and mind games. He has the big match temperament and is determined to make this shot at the CT the real deal, with no quarters given. Being one of four goofy-footers, and one of two rookies to advance thus far means that he can bank the result as a bloody good effort.
Owen Wright was taken out by John John Florence in their quarterfinal encounter. At this stage of the contest John John still looked like he had the eye of the tiger and was determined to bring his carving approach all the way from Margaret Rive to JBay. Owen’s performance is still remarkable, and it is hard to find fault in a surfer to have made such a remarkable comeback. The fact that he is still sitting at number four in the world after a quarter final at the mid point of the year is testament to how this year is going to pan out for him. Owen is not the flamboyant wild child that is going to publish his bar tab should he win a big event, but he is quietly punching above his weight at the moment, and making everyone proud. Going into Tahiti, the tall guy could really shine on the rankings.
Matt Wilkinson was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Julian Wilson, and it could have gone either way. Wilko wobbled on a good set wave, but made up for it by totally destroying a mid size wave until there was nothing left of it in front of the gully. Julian has turned into one of the great JBay surfers, mostly eliminating the double-pump bottom turn, and utilizing every ounce of speed on the rail through his big wrap carves. He’s a popular guy in South Africa as well, amiable and scandal-free, and was one of the surfers expected to bank a final at the event. The result was a bit unfortunate for Wilko however, as he could have gone further on the waves that he caught but he remains in the yellow jersey going into Tahiti, and seems to be in a really good place at the moment with his approach, and his attitude to holding onto the lead. It seems way less serious than last year.
The closest the goofy’s got to a win at JBay this year was a third place finish by Gabriel Medina. His route the final stopped one place short by a rampant Frederico Morais. Gabby had been looking solid all week, owning those flyaway backhand floaters over barrel sections, despite Shaun Tomson continuously admonishing exponents of the move for the danger level, for the risk of broken ankles. Gabby however, places himself at such risks often enough, and as a result has a world title under the belt as does Tomson but I digress. Frederico’s 9.27 in that semi put paid to the top placed goofy’s goal of a JBay win. The result saw Gabriel rise 2 spots to number nine on the Jeep leaderboard and no doubt has fired him up going into Tahiti.
The Billabong Pro Tahiti has a waiting period from 11 – 22 August, and the defending champion is Kelly Slater. More at www.worldsurfleague.com
