Coming off a first place win at the 2013 Billabong Pro Rio, Jordy Smith a name to be reckoned with the ASP World Championship Pro. This South African-borne surfer is proving that he has what it takes to surf with the dig dogs. At just 25 years old, however, there are some people who know very little about Smith. So, we decided to do a short little bio here about Jordy Smith to shed some light on how this talented surfer was thrust into the limelight.
Smith was born on February 2, 1988 in Durban, South Africa. Like many other children living in the coastal city of Durban, Jordy Smith took to the ocean at an early age. When he was just six years old, he went out into the ocean to try and learn how to surf. It didn’t happen overnight, but over the years of surfing in the waters off Durban, Smith eventually toned and sharpened his skills.
In 2007, Smith came away with a win at the World Qualifying Series, which ultimately placed him in line for the World Championship Tour (WTC). Unfortunately, however, he didn’t make it pass the final surfing competition to make it into the 2007 WCT. While I’m sure this was a serious psychological blow to the South African surfer, he didn’t let it stop him from reaching his dream of competing in the ASP WCT. Smith continued to hit the waves and work on his surfing skills. Because he was in South Africa and not the Malibu beaches of California, there wasn’t as much publicity surrounding him, and this likely took some of the stress off his shoulders.
In 2010, Smith made it through to the WCT and won the Billabong J-Bay event in South Africa. In the following year of 2011, he also won the same event. These two wins gave him the title of the #1 ranked surfer in the world. Of course, Smith had something else to prove to himself: he wanted to know that he was physically and mentally capable of winning an ASP event outside of his hometown of South Africa.
It didn’t take long for Smith’s dream to come true. Earlier this year, he nailed a first place win at the Billabong Pro Rio in Rio Dejanero, Brazil. When asked about the win, Smith said he was thrilled to win an ASP event outside of South Africa. By the looks of it, though, he’s on track to win more events this year if he keeps surfing the same way.
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