Success for Smith in Tahiti
Jordy Smith won his opening heat in the Billabong Pro Tahiti to advance directly to Round 3 at stop No. 7 of 11 on the Champion Tour.
SOUTH African surfer, Jordy Smith, tasted success in Tahiti at the weekend as the World Surf League’s (WSL) Samsung Championship Tour (CT) moved into the second half of the 2016 season.
Smith won his opening heat in the Billabong Pro Tahiti in uncharacteristically inconsistent and small 1.5 metre waves at the fabled surf break of Teahupo’o to advance directly to Round 3 at stop No. 7 of 11 on the CT.
The Durbanite overcame the disadvantage of having to contest the first encounter of the event by posting the heat’s highest single ride score on the first wave and then staying busy throughout the 35 minutes to relegate his rivals Ryan Callinan (Australia) and Dusty Payne (Hawaii) to cutthroat Round 2 match-ups.
Currently ranked No. 7 on the Jeep Rankings list, Smith will face Matt Banting (Australia) in Round 3 after the injury wildcard defeated Caio Ibelli (Brazil) in his Round 2 duel. With the surf forecast for the event indicating that the waves will remain in the 1m to 2m range during the remainder of the event holding period, which runs until Tuesday 30 August, Smith will be keen to improve on his best result of 9th in the event (in 2009 and 2013).
The South African has earned 21 200 points from six events this year, the bulk of which came from his runner-up finish at Bells Beach in Australia at Easter and fifth place at the J-Bay Open last month.
After an injury ravaged 2015 season, Smith will be hoping to stay in touch with the rankings leaders Matt Wilkinson(Australia), John John Florence (Hawaii) and Gabriel Medina (Brazil) in Tahiti before the CT swings through his more favoured events at Trestles in California, where he won in 2014, France (3rd in 2014 and 2011) and Portugal (runner-up in 2014 and 2010).
The 2016 Samsung WSL Championship Tour culminates at the Billabong Pipeline Masters in Hawaii in December where Smith has not placed in the top 12 since his fifth place in 2010, the year he achieved his career best runner-up finish to Kelly Slater (USA) in the chase for the World Surfing Champion title.
