The Corona Open J-Bay is an annual, international surf competition organised by the WSL which takes place at Jeffreys Bay every July. KAREN RUTTER was there:
The World Surf League (WSL) has a penchant for pithy and oddly prescient taglines – the year that Mick Fanning met a shark at Jeffreys Bay was branded You Can’t Script This (before the event even happened!) and last year played around with the phrase We Were Always Coming Back. This year, instead of inventing a new tagline the WSL could just have put the two together – such was the drama and the crazy déjà vu-ness of it all.
Who would have believed that Mick Fanning would have yet another shark experience on the exact same day and at the same time as his 2015 encounter? Yes, the Great Whites clearly were always coming back. And who could have predicted that one of the safety boats would get a score in the excellent range for surfing a freak wave that threatened to wipe out not only the boat, but the surfers in its path? You bet you can’t script this stuff.
The Corona Open J-Bay was certainly a humdinger this year, and reason enough to start planning a holiday break at this pretty coastal village for the same time next year. The annual surfing competition is the midway point in the 11-stop WSL men’s championship tour which zig-zags across the globe from Australia to Hawaii. It features the world’s top surfers – including Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, John-John Florence, Koleho Andino, Julian Wilson, Adriano de Souza, and our own Jordy Smith.
The competition period is stretched over 12 days, and during this time the main beach at J-Bay is transformed into a spectator zone with seating sections, coffee spots, pop-up food counters, giant TV screens and, taken the main sponsor into account, a beer bar. During the day the queues for hot java and cold Coronas are about equal, while at night there’s live music, movies and autograph sessions. If you’re a surfer, then obviously the chance to surf at one of the world’s best right-hand point breaks is an added extra – but even if you’re not, there’s enough of a buzz to keep most people happy.
The competition always coincides with the J-Bay Winterfest, which offers a load of activities from mountain biking and trail running competitions to a kite festival and the ever-popular Oakley X-Over (a hilarious event in which sports celebs such as John Smit, Ryan Sandes and Bobby Skinstad compete in three disciplines – golf, mountain biking and surfing). So there’s a serious amount of stuff to do. Throw in walks on the smooth Jeffreys Bay beaches, shopping for surf gear, buying a pair of those ubiquitous J-Bay boots, booking a booth at Nina’s Real Food Restaurant (where you’re bound to see one of the surf stars – I once sat opposite Gabriel Medina) and collecting seas shells, and your holiday will be pretty full up.
It was epic!
But this year it was hard to pull oneself away from watching the surfers. This year’s Corona Open J-Bay was epic, as even hardened locals were saying. A lot of the competitors had arrived earlier in the month to practice, and the actual action began on Saturday 15 July. This is when the waves started to build up – from five to six feet up to ten and more. Vertiginous take-off points. Perfect barrels. Endless sets. The J-Bay was on, and things were cooking.
The first round of the comp was a non-elimination bout between three surfers, with one going on to round three and two entering a sudden-death battle in round two. There were actually three South Africans in the mix – Jordy, who is part of the WSL world tour, and wildcards Mikey February from Cape Town, and Dale Staples from St Francis. It made for pretty emotional watching, especially when both Mikey and Dale lost out in round two in abysmal surf conditions (the one day of the comp that J-Bay didn’t deliver).
But it was from Monday that things started going next level. For the next couple of days we saw the kind of surfing you dream of watching once in your lifetime. Our own Jordy pulled off a perfect 20 score – two 10-point rides, the maximum one can achieve in a heat.
In doing so, he became only the 10th person in WSL history to achieve this. Filipe Toledo John John Florence and Julian Wilson responded with their own 10s, and the moves just became bigger and better. Longer tubes, huge cutbacks – and a series of thrilling aerials.
More and more drama
But the dramas were not only happening in the water. First Kelly Slater injured his foot really badly while practicing. Dramatic shots emerged of him being helped out of the water, in tears. He’s going to be out for at least four to six months, he says.
Then there was The Boat incident. Early on Tuesday morning, a huge set thundered through and caught the water safety crew on the inside. The skipper had two choices – give up and let the boat capsize, or try and surf his way out. He chose the latter option, and actually made the ride. Clips of this incredible feat are now being shown all around the world. It was insane to watch live, I can tell you.
And then as though there wasn’t enough excitement, there were two shark appearances. The first featured a Mako shark which jumped out of the water a few times during Julian Wilson’s heat (Julian was also in the water during the infamous 2015 encounter). The water safety people on their jet-skis are pretty well primed, however, and had the surfers out the water and on the (non-capsized) safety boat in seconds.
The following day the same thing happened, but this time with a Great White which slowly cruised the competition area while Mick Fanning was pulled from the water (again). Conditions were so transparent that all of us on the beach could clearly see the shark each time it cruised through a swell. It was big, one can say …
Extreme highs, inevitable lows
It was a week of extreme highs, with inevitable lows as local fave Jordy was knocked out, as were John John Florence and Mick Fanning, in shock heats. The final glory went to Filipe Toledo (pictured), who surfed like a demon from his very first ride. He fully deserved to take the Corona Open J-Bay crown.
So there it was – another year, another title. It’s hard to imagine a more thrilling week, but you never know. Better make plans to book your J-Bay seat next year. As far as I’m concerned, I am always coming back …
WS
