Photos: J'Bay warm up
As Craig Brokensha noted in his J'Bay Open forecast, the first half of the waiting period is looking barren, though the organisers unfortunately missed a swell by just two days.
Yesterday Supers was six feet and superb with an all-star cast getting used to its distinctive tempo.
Aaron Hughes, expat Australian and husband of WSL commentator Shannon Brooke-Hughes, clambered among the aloe and snapped these shots.
Conner Coffin
Kelly Slater
Steph Gilmore
Unidentified with room to spare
Willian Cardoso
Say g'day to Bruce Gold! First visited J'Bay in 1953.
Adin Massencamp
Conner Coffin
Carissa
Dillon Hendricks
...and his posse on the beach
Griffin Colapinto
Jules
The Supers lineup
Seth Moniz
Comments
The 2nd photo of Connor Coffin setting up the barrel gave me goose bumps.
Incredible eh! Gives a great perspective of the speed and what's coming down the line. Oh so dreamy, can just stare at it and mindsurf it for ages.
Epic photos, got what a dream that would be!
Photographer Hughesy said the barrels he saw could really only be appreciated by video. Keep eyes peeled for that footage.
Kinda depressing how many times the WSL misses it by 1 or 2 days
Even worse when its you missing it by a day or two!
i'm a goofy and if i had a choice, i would rather surf j-bay than skeleton bay. if there's a wave with better walls i'd like to know it
When is the WSL going to get a little more flexibility into their schedule? The 9-12 day waiting periods just isn't working. I reckon they need to start combining some of the Southern Hemisphere events and having a 30 + day waiting period. Just imagine how good the waves would have been if they did this for the 2019 Bali / J Bay / Tahiti events. Indo and Tahiti have been absolutely smoking lately. The WSL could have knocked over those events in quick succession and then waited for J Bay to start firing.
Dreamy, creamy walls of goodness.
Totally agree, in the absence of scoring one of those beauties, you could mind surf that forever.
Epic
Truly is the 8th Wonder of the World with Bruce Gold coming in 9th!!!
Was a good day. I'd say solid 6 with 8ft sets around lunchtime low tide. I managed to snag a few amongst the elite and the local presence wasn't hectic so sitting up top and getting waves wasn't an issue. The pros dont know who is local and who isn't so an unfamiliar face to them can assert himself a bit easier there given the place's reputation.
Technically Bruce's is my local and was about head high and barreling but watching the lines march passed on the horizon I knew it'd be worth the 30min dash to Jbay...and it was nothing short of firing. There were some ridiculous barrels I saw go down and the ones I didn't get to see I can only imagine. I was busy getting my share amongst it all. I'll say one thing, those guys (and girls) dont let a wave go to waste. If theres a hint of them able to swing and catch it it, they'll get it, and they hardly fall off which makes sitting down the line frustrating as every freight train had a body on it coming down the line. But fuck it was a good day. After 5hrs in the water and being fueled by only 2 eggs a 2 small slices of pizza for breakfast I wasn't physically at my best.
And the next section down from supers had only 1 or 2 on it (incl me) having it to themselves. When its that solid and consistent the whole point lights up and gives opportunities for some memorable ones.
One last thing the pros were busy, ripping but also polite and not greedy. It was a pleasure to watch up close and watch how good jbay could be ridden in a freesurf with every top 32 out there. Sometimes I question my transplant from west oz to South Africa but yesterday makes me forget about all those doubts for another year.
To quote the Life of Brian- 'You lucky lucky bastard!'
Sounds awesome Mishad.
I saw Jordy surfing Bruces on his instagram. Just a bit bigger than in the Endless summer flick I never realised it got that good and big.
awesome mishad. great to hear first hand and glad u got amongst it
Steph's barrel...
Photo of of Bruce, Conner, Stephanie...
The gold price in Africa just shot up!