THE Billabong Pipe Masters in Memory of Andy Irons, the final stop on the 2019 World Surf League (WSL) Men’s Championship Tour (CT) and third gem of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, witnessed a dramatic day of intense matchups in the Round of 32 as the world’s best surfers battled in eight-to-ten foot (2.4 – 3 meter) waves.
World No. 1 Italo Ferreira (Brazil) and No. 2 Gabriel Medina (Brazil) advanced out of a suspenseful Round of 32 to tighten the World Title race. World No. 3 Jordy Smith from South Africa and No. 4, Filipe Toledo (Brazil), fell out of the running after heartbreaking defeats by Ricardo Christie (New Zealand) and 2018 Vans Triple Crown Champion Jesse Mendes (Brazil), respectively.
After surfing well in his opening round heat and advancing straight into the Round of 32, World No. 3 Smith came up against the 2018 Vans Triple Crown champion Jesse Mendes (Brazil). With deteriorating conditions during his heat, the lineup went from dreamy to blown out in a matter of minutes creating challenging conditions for the surfers. With 10 minutes remaining, Mendes secured a score for the lead while Smith got caught inside as time winded down. Forced to return to the beach to retrieve his back-up board, the South African ran out of time to get the required result and was eliminated in equal 17th place.
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“I just feel like I didn’t make a conscious decision to catch the actual wave. I had a small glance at him and then I decided I was going to have a look at it and I didn’t really want it and I guess they deemed that it looked like I did. It just really hurts because at the bottom of my heart. I really didn’t want the wave and we could all see that the wave wasn’t anything special. Obviously, the wind came up, and on the very next wave he got a five and he went to the lead,” said Smith.
Despite the loss, Smith has had an incredibly consistent season with only four losses before the Quarterfinals. This was also Smith’s fifth time falling short in the World Title race (2nd in 2010, 4th in 2013, 2nd in 2016, 4th in 2017, 3rd in 2019). The 31-year-old will now look ahead to 2020, where he will once again battle for a maiden World Title and also represent South Africa after his provisional qualification for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
“It’s a hard one to swallow at the end of a big year. Way to break your board and to just kind of end that way just doesn’t seem that good. I think the highlight is probably the consistency, every year I just try and kind of pick up that consistency. Those other guys surfed really well the whole year, they got a couple of victories and that really put them ahead. It’s a tough one to swallow. You wake up in the morning and you just kind of give it your all. The last three weeks have been pretty tough. But you just fight every day for what it is and come back stronger and that’s it. Just try and make yourself proud I guess,” concluded Smith.
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