A year ago the Jeffreys Bay contest was on the rails, the infamous Fanning shark attack putting its future in jeopardy, but thank the surfing gods that everyone came back to compete in the 2016 J-Bay Open. No one wanted to miss out on this event and all the CT surfers were there, but luckily the man in the gray suit stayed away this year. To see just how beautiful Jeffreys Bay is, and how sick the waves here are, check out this clip…
So the action went down from day one, with the rookies on tour really put through their paces when surfing Supertubes. The experienced guys were in their element, with extra wave knowledge that really helped during the round stages. Rookies who have been causing upsets all season struggled to make headway here, with young guns like Conner Coffin, Kanoa Igarashi, Jack Freestone, and Caio Ibelli all knocked out of the contest by the third round.
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As soon as things were warming up the waves cooled down, and there was a big run of lay days that lasted for an entire week. So before we move onto how the finals eventually went down, let’s look at some of the stand out surfing from the round stages…
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First up, here’s South African local Jordy Smith demolishing a Jeffreys Bay peeler, tearing into the lip and throwing up spray like only a few can. Super clean surfing that was rightly rewarded with a score of 9.50…
Next up it’s Felipe Toledo, taking advantage of his priority on a wave and making the most of it. Hacks, carves, floaters, this time Toledo surprised us all by not going for an air! This slick ride earned him a 9.00…
Now we have Kelly Slater, who always looks super comfortable when surfing at J-Bay. This year was no different, and just check out how he seamlessly goes from pulling a floater to getting barreled…
Kelly made it to the quarterfinals at the 2016 J-Bay Open, but it was Josh Kerr who narrowly beat him by less than a point that sent Slater packing. At the same time, local Jordy Smith lost to Futures team rider John John Florence. Mick Fanning took out Toledo and Julian Wilson to make it into the semifinals, and Florence beat Kerr in the semis to meet Fanning there…
Amazingly, after the shark attack last year, Fanning took home the trophy at the 2016 J-Bay Open, making it the fourth time he’s won the event!
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As for the rankings, well Fanning moved up 11 places to 5th, and Florence moved up one place to 2nd. Matt Wilkinson, who’s been killing it so far this year, failed to make it further than round 3, but still managed to cling onto the yellow jersey for another event. To finish up, here’s J-Bay from above, enjoy…
Featured image: JBayOpen @excitingafrica_travelagency via Instagram