Jordy Smith

            This is a pretty brain dead pick only because he is the most exciting surfer on tour and he finished second in the world last year (with a couple shocker results). Jordy is starting to evolve into a perfect contest surfer. With the new criteria changes and his surfing ability and style, its not a question of if with Jordy, but more of a question of when. Jordy has the perfect balance of power with huge hacks on open faces as we have seen at Snapper, Bells, Lowers, and most importantly J-Bay. He also has the amazing arsenal of airs that he can do pretty much anywhere at any time. The one aspect I have seen him need improvement in is the heavier waves on tour being Tahiti and Pipeline. He has been able to hold his own but not become a standout just yet and that may be due to lack of water time in those specific spots but as I stated earlier this is just a matter of when not if. Maybe a little coaching and advice from a fellow South African, Shaun Thompson, could guide him in the right direction as far as Pipeline is concerned. I’m predicting the over-under on wins for Jordy this year at 2. Hopefully we will see him dominate as the hype predicted and take charge of the new generation on tour.

It’s “Eggy” intern and I’m making a comeback from a little break kind of like the world’s best surfers. Its been about 7 weeks since the last contest at Jeffery’s Bay and as I predicted Joel came out firing and won that contest without and controversy. I remember those late nights or early mornings, depending where you were watching, seeing Joel rip wave after wave flying down the line looking like the surfing version of Usain Bolt. Now with past wins at the next 2 of 3 stops Joel’s eyes must be gleaming with excitement.

Three contests in and who would have thought Kelly Slater would be out of the running and Joel Parkinson has won 2 out of the first 3 contests. Joel is sitting on a 682 point lead over fellow country man Taj Burrow and a 792 point lead over third place Mick Fanning. With Joel sitting in the lead this early the question has to be asked if he can keep the fire going and in my humble opinion I would have to say yes. This could ultimately be Joel’s year and there are many reasons for this.

Surfers beware! Mexico has had numerous problems throughout the years but this year there has been a few that made global news. This was not good for surfers because Mexico is an easy escape from the norm of their local surf spot. Mexico is easy to get into, the living expenses are extremely cheap and most importantly the waves are EPIC! So when surfers heard the news of swine flu and a deteriorating government did that stop the surfing world from heading to Mexico? I went to Mexico a month before this Swine flu outbreak but the big problem before that was the government and the drug wars. Do all these problems stop people from going to warm water and sick beach breaks.

The biggest question on everyone’s mind surrounding the surfing world has to be, “What is up with Kelly Slater?!” How could a 9-time world champion get 3 17^th place finishes in a row? Maybe the surfing world is seeing signs that Kelly Slater is actually human, and more so than that maybe the end of an era. Granted, Teahupoo was not offering bombing 6-10ft surf like many people wish it was but young gun from the Basque country, and WCT’ rookies, Aritz Aranburu upset Kelly Slater in round 2. For the record, Kelly Slater has won one heat in the 2009 WCT’ seasons. Right now Andy Irons has to be kicking himself in the butt wondering why he is not on tour this year. But the real question still remains, why is Kelly slumping so badly?

There has been a lot of controversy surround the Billabong Pro Tahiti especially because they took away two wildcard positions from the trials. This has pissed off a lot of people including a video made public online by a large Samoan looking guy. The argument was that Billabong took away spots that could have go to locals, potentially, but were given to sponsored riders like Andy Irons. Now, anyone who knows surfing at all would probably have a problem with this because if there was a contest at their home break they would want an opportunity to beat the top surfers in the world whom take over that spot for a couple weeks or more. This is exactly how the Tahitians feel because they have had spots taken away from them.

As I was skipping through surfline.com one day, recently, I came across another article about recent events around the world and personal watercrafts pissing people off. Ok, I get the fact that they are needed SOMETIMES when the waves are too big to paddle into but on days when there are paddle surfers present and getting waves they should be banned. There have been attempts to regulate the use of these PWCs but how successful have they been? People are still using them in crowded line ups like at Kirra a couple weeks ago and at Tres Palms in Puerto Rico. This is not only taking away from the actual sport of surfing but it is dangerous more than anything else.