Leaving Durban behind, with friends and family, is never easy, but coming in to land in Port Elizabeth everything to be sliding into the right places. The wind was definitely offshore and the ocean swell lines were solid. The drive out to Jeffreys Bay flew by and from 15kms away we could count the lines winding around the point! It was just perfect and 6' on the small sets. Every surfer and his entourage filled the lineup from Boneyards on the outside all the way through to the Point and Albatross onto the beach. Phenomenal waves and great to see a whole bunch of different styles on the winding walls of Supers. One of those backhand styles belonged to Royden Bryson, no stranger to the Newquay Boardmasters event. He was looking on-form during the free surf but on one big tube ride, down towards the end of the car park section at Supers he just got clipped and ended up breaking his leg very badly . . . both tibia and fibula! For Bryce, the 2012 season is pretty much over.
The opening function was the usual of speeches and shmoozing before work was to begin and although there was still work going on at the contest site we were aware that it was to be a start in the dark for us all. There were very few rides surfed before it was time to start trying to clear the line-up and by the time we were finally able to get the first heat going we had issued a number of $1000 fines for competitors in the line-up It was a heavy situation to get the event going on but that is what it is and the surfers know the rules. But at J Bay, how much would you be prepared to pay for a wave or two in those incredible conditions with only a handful more alongside you?
Blazing sunshine, solid 6'-8' perfection and rapturous applause all day long was the order of the day with the most amazing vibe amongst everyone – competitors and organisers alike. I shot over 100 photos from the top of the tower on my first day and had trouble convincing myself that I was not looking like a tourist in my own country. We surfed all 24 heats on the first day, finishing just upon dark.
And day two was exactly the same. Who were the stand outs? Well call a few names? In waves like this who would you have liked to see? There were 144 of the world's top Star Series surfers here to compete and most impressed. I have to say though that over the course of this year's Billabong Pro it was truly shocking to see how some surfers of this calibre were unable to read a pointbreak, in these perfect conditions with only three others in the water, and end up with counting rides of 1.30 or a heat total for their best two rides, of 3.27. I mean come on . . . . I feel confident that I could've scored more than that!? Nic Muscroft surfed really well down here in proper waves but despite his opening wave score of 7.33 he was unable to find another high score and was eliminated along with Tom Whittaker in this heat in the round of 96.
Thursday, day 3, was supposed to be a dodgy one but the expected swell increase overnight proved correct and we awoke in the dark again to get set for our best line-up so far. 8' walls of delight from far up off the end of Boneyards, reeling down the line into Supers and beyond with the surfers needing around 4 minutes to paddle back up to the take-off spot. We continued to plough on thru as much as we could and eventually came to a stop in the dark again with just the quarters, semis and final to run. We were expecting Friday to be bad and had severe weather warnings for the arrival of a storm front, the likes of which had not been seen since the 1940's!!!
And so we moved into Friday morning as early as we had become used to. And by 12 noon the Billabong Pro was over. The waves were terrible - onshore, small and the unreal weather had become rainy with skies blackening all the while. We had had too many good performances to pick a possible Champ and it was always going to be whoever managed to put it together in exhausting conditions for 4 consecutive days, with the most equipment surviving. Jeffreys delivers a harsh lesson to equipment here and many boards and legropes were broken.
In the 35 minute final Joan Duru surfed smooth and stylishly. He was up against – no surprises – Adriano de Souza. This guy is truly a machine of a sportsman and is quite possibly the most determined and focussed surfer I have ever known. On one of his waves in the final he put everything he had into it and rode the wave onto the rocks – like, ONTO the rocks, squashing two of his fins flat, crushing the FCS plugs into the foam! He carefully hobbled in over the rocks, wetsuit leg torn apart and leg scratched open, bleeding and ran up to the keyhole paddle out channel alongside of his caddy with a fresh board. With 4 minutes remaining he made it into the line-up, paddling deep, deep into the ocean before swinging around and sprint paddling back almost onto the reef to pick up a wave that stood up and ran itself off the shelf, allowing him to jam a few hard off the tops, a little air and finally a strong radical finish on a ride that had easily won him the title. For 10 years Adriano has been coming here and finally he was the one holding the trophy high. The number 4 ranked surfer on the World Tour is undoubtedly the greatest to come out of Brazil and while many have their eyes on Gabriel Medina to become a future World Champion, the smart money is still on de Souza to become Brazil's first! He is totally contained in his determined focus for perfect performance and it seems that very little can distract him. He is a worthy Champion and a credit to his Nation. The Brazilians once again showed themselves to be a solid and tight crew and this season has been theirs.
Jeffreys Bay is a strange mix : disgusting architecture of all styles right alongside each other, Afrikaans/English/Malay cultures intermingling with the blend of international cultures in town for the surfing and not a whole lot of places to let off all the understandable steam that comes with this. While the housing is largely B&B spread around the break of Jeffreys Bay, evenings usually get moving a couple of miles down the road and so everything is quite disjointed. Days can go by without seeing anyone of your crew after the long days were over. Instead of just the top 44, this year was the top 144 surfers plus all the extras. Jeffreys Bay has never been so packed. Getting a table for breakfast, once the event was over, and especially suppers each night would entail a wait for a table at Nina's of up to an hour and the same again once your order was in!
It has been the craziest 5 days of my life on tour pretty much and an impossibility to get online to even speak to my family in Newquay, let alone get a daily blog in! The two storms we have had here on the night of the final and the night after, destroyed the VIP area, the food and retail area as well as the grandstands and in a race against the clock everything possible was removed from those areas before we left it to the mercy of the elements. Homes, shops, restaurants all flooded and the town was plunged into darkness in the power failure and the 5FM Music Festival aborted the first night and did it's best to salvage the millions invested to bring in 30 bands and 20 DJ's. The bridge to Cape St Francis (Bruce's Beauties) washed away again and Supers pumped once again once the storm broke. The airports once again resumed flights and those delayed began to scramble for the first seats available to move on to the US Open, coming up next.
You'll have to check the www.billabongpro.com website to try unscramble everything that went down in these few crazy days we survived. With all our heads still spinning the only excuse I can offer for this one-piece summary on the Billabong Pro is “only in Africa!” This place is not for sissies and what we went through down here will be forever etched into our memories as one of the most extreme and unique Billabong Pro's EVER! Whether there will be an event here next year and who the sponsor will be, remains to be seen. Billabong's status as a trading company is uncertain and only time will tell whether the company will survive.
But so be it, and if it is the end, then what a note to end on. Christian Surfers SA were amazing when the storm hit and we went into disaster-mode. I think God looked upon us in many areas of this testing week down in the Eastern Cape – protecting surfers and residents alike.And so to all who made this trip possible a huge thank you. Who knows where the Pro Tour and South Africa will stand next year.
I'm back now, so come get your orders in so I can do some glassing - I need some summer weather and some surf for myself!
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