It was almost like the surf gods of J-Bay had seen the negativity flowing off my keyboard last week, because within hours of me filing my column, Jeffreys did a complete flipperoo, producing the best day of world tour surfing I’ve seen since Kelly Slater smashed sizeable Pipe to win his (surely) last event a week before his 50th birthday in 2022.
In fact, last Wednesday 19 July, may have even pipped that, with waves, weather and performances by the best surfers in the world in perfect alignment. It certainly kept your ageing surf columnist up way beyond his bedtime. Thank god for wine and whisky!
A little bit sleepy at the get-go, J-Bay started to fire with the coming of the sun, and it got bigger and better as the day progressed. By the time Connor O’Leary went near perfect to absolutely smash Callum Robson in the elimination round, conditions were magnificent for the goofy-footers, with Connor and Caz Marks in the women’s leading the way.
Kelly Slater put up a decent fight against Jack Robinson but never really had the tool box to match him on the day, so bowed out with yet another equal last. In the round of 16 it became obvious that Ethan Ewing was smoothly moving into best chance for the Aussies, while Robbo and R-Cal were also looking dangerous. But no one could touch Toledo in the yellow jersey.
Unfortunately there wasn’t enough winter sunlight in a flawless day to complete the event, and on the resumption the next morning for the men’s and women’s finals bracket, it was like someone had woken us up from a dream. Cold, wet and blustery on a dropping and somewhat ragged swell. But there were enough good waves to get the job done. Aussies Ewing and Picklum bowing out in the finals to a rampaging Filipe Toledo and Lakey Peterson respectively in a great recovery for the iconic event.
With just Tahiti to go before the WSL finals series in September, the women’s final five is just about wrapped up, with Carissa Moore leading Tyler Wright, Caroline Marks and Pickles with one to be decided and Caitlin Simmers in the box seat to grab it.
In the men’s, Brazil’s reigning world champ Toledo has number one on lock and will lead the five into Trestles with Ethan Ewing and Griffin Colapinto behind him, two to be determined in Tahiti and they look a bit Brazilian.
Just one more thing to say about J-Bay.
Tyler Wright surfed confidently and beautifully throughout to finish third and shore up her second position in the rankings, but as my Swellnet colleague Steve Shearer has noted, someone needs to tell her to lighten up!
We know she had period pain throughout the event because she kept telling us, but hey, she’s made an incredible comeback this year and could easily win another world title, she’s happily married to the woman she loves, she’s making shiploads of dough and life is good. Remember the glass half full, Ty, and don’t take yourself so seriously.
Vids to chill by
I’m not much of a fan of a lot of the wham, bam, thank you ma’am short vids of wave after wave being lacerated by young people I’ve never heard but who surf very well, but lately I’ve been flicking around and finding some surprising gems.
Nathan Oldfield has always had a classy eye for deceptively good surfing and soft light in beautiful places, and his eight-minute latest, In The Family of Things, is a real find.
I love watching Dave Rastovitch surf the unexpected, and this beautifully backlit edit is a stunner. (I also caught the trailer for Heath Joske’s “hardcore surf and gardening show”, Farm Boys, which also features Rasta and Addy Jones, and can’t wait for that to land.)
But for me the real find has been Bryce Young’s Following the Fall Line, shot by Milo Inglis and featuring cameos from mum and dad, Ty and Nat Young. The title itself a nod to the legendary Nat’s Fall Line movie of the 1980s, this lovely 48-minute feature is a homage to family life, simple values and surfing to the beat of your own drum.
Having been close to the Young clan at various times over nearly half a century, I understand what has driven Bryce to the soul surfing, artistic approach to life that he has taken, but his ability to express it so poignantly with an understated narration and subtle selection of shots, not to mention his extraordinary ability on all kinds of surfcraft, took me by surprise, and I loved it. The way he handled the loss to bushfires of the much-loved family property at Nymboida also brought a tear to my eye.
Bryce gets very close at one point to saying, “Dad’s Dad and that’s that”, which would have been too perfect, but it’s clear that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, and that goes for skateboarding mum too.
