Great Whites, Perfect Rights and Rookie Upsets: Welcome to the Billabong Pro, J-Bay

Jul 21 2006 / Los Angeles, CA

With stops and starts, storm and sunshine, the annual Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay this week has been a carnival of unpredictable conditions and contest results. So far there have been four lay days in the eleven-day waiting period called for blown-out waves, two rounds with a no-show from three-time J-Bay champ Kelly Slater—who was still en route to the site during his heat— plus a false alarm that Sunny Garcia might compete at the last minute, one expression session, and traditional rookie domination in the second round of the contest. With three days left (at the time of writing), two days of competition left, and a complete roster of the world’s highest-ranked surfers, the Billabong Pro is emulating its own textured tradition.

Legendary for multiple hollow, perfect right-hander tubes, J-Bay is home to surfing’s halfway point on the World Championship Tour (WCT), and known as much for its world-class point breaks as its numerous hazards, including great whites, a punishing lava reef floor and sometimes-icy waters Each year, the Billabong Pro event beckons a lineup of the world’s best at storied breaks—including the famed Supertubes, where the contest is set up each year—and often features fantastic upsets from local wildcard entrants. These surfers have J-Bay dialed in like a 900 number, and can shoot fear through the upper tiers of the WCT roster just paddling out, thanks to famous knockouts and point upsets.
 

PHOTO GALLERY   Photos from the Billabong Pro at Jeffrey's Bay.    View Gallery>

While many of the WCT events boast wildcard pre-events in an effort to support local surfers and showcase untapped talent, the Von Zipper Wildcard contest at the Billabong Pro became infamous for introducing some brilliant riders whose scores affected upper-echelon WCT rankings. The Von Zipper event offers 12 J-Bay locals and six internationals the opportunity to enter as wildcard competitors in the contest. Three of the best of these land spots in the lineup against the 45 world’s best surfers on the WCT. In the face of exquisite talent on the typical J-Bay contest roster and Supertubes’s ferocious power, a wildcard entry seems like a cruel joke. One of the most famous J-Bay coups d’etat was in 2002, the Von Zipper event’s debut year. In that contest, local star Sean Holmes surfed his way past a segment of the Top 44 to eliminate Aussie phenom Andy Irons and score fifth place overall, sharing equal fifth with major figures including Taj Burrow and Mark Occhilupo. Irons would later go on to win the J-Bay comp in 2004, and wrestling with Slater for the J-Bay win ever since.
 
As the halfway mark on the World Championship Tour and the premier surf event in Africa, the annual contest there also has historic significance for surfing and for the town of J-Bay itself. In its 25-year history as a contest spot, the event—which became the Billabong Pro in 1996-- has hosted some of the world’s top riders, and seen its small fishing village develop into a global surfing destination. The first contest there was the Beach Hotel Classic in 1981, with total sponsorship totaling R850 (now US $130), and featured legend Shaun Tomson beat 27 other hopefuls. Later, the J-Bay’s annual comp would host other rising legends like the 18-year-old Mark Occhilupo, the presence of new-school surfing with Kelly Slater and Lisa Andersen, and the emergence of huge talents like Melanie Redman and next gen wunderkind Mick Fanning, who dominated in their heats there. For Occy, J-Bay even inspired the name of his son—Jay.
 
With its long lineage, this year’s comp is shaping up as another suspenseful one with unpredictability and a short window left to find this year’s J-Bay champ. After two rounds, some of the world’s most elite surfers—including three-time Foster’s ASP Men’s World Tour champion Andy Irons, his brother Bruce Irons, Bobby Martinez (currently ranked third), 2001 world champion CJ Hobgood and 2005 ASP Rookie Of The Year Fred Patacchia—have all been eliminated. Given these oustings, plus the diversity of talent paddling out this year, the final lineup at the Billabong Pro is still wide open. 
 
                                   

 

-Anna Dimond