Jordy Smith and Alejo Muniz advance to Round 3 of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay
The first day of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay continued with the fifth and sixth heat of Round 1 on Friday, July 15, at the coastline of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa.
The fifth heat saw the defending event champion from South Africa, Jordy Smith, surf to victory with comfort and ease to go through to Round 3 directly. His compatriot and event wild-card, Sean Holmes finished in runner-up place, while Australia’s Adam Melling,
who finished as runner-up in previous edition of the event, rounded out the third position. Both the surfers were relegated to Round 2.
Brazil’s Alejo Muniz prevailed over South Africa’s Shaun Payne in the sixth heat to advance to the third round. Payne was relegated to the sudden-death Round 2, along with America’s surfing legend, Kelly Slater, who was included in the heat line-up but was
currently stuck in Fiji.
While the event was not yet graced by the classic Jeffreys Bay waves, the three-to-four foot waves were good enough for the Elite Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) surfers to show off their surfing prowess.
The current event site was one of Smith’s favourite and the 23-year-old local left hardly any doubt in anyone’s mind about the reason for it. During his heat, he went on a rampage, showing off his lightning fast turns and airs to collect a 9.00 and 7.87
off his two best waves, moving to a two-wave total of 16.87 points, the highest of the day so far. The score remained unbeatable, eventually seeing him off to victory.
Talking to a reporter after his heat, Smith said, “Sean (Holmes) is obviously a very competent surfer at Jeffreys and Adam (Melling) was Runner-Up here last year so I definitely wasn’t taking the heat lightly. They both got really good waves and I had to
make do with what was left. It’s not classic J-Bay, but even when it’s like this, it’s still a pretty good wave.”
Holmes responded to Smith’s challenge with a couple of good scores of his own, which included a 7.00 and 7.93, but finished in a 1.94-point deficit and settled for runner-up place. Melling also put up quite a show for the crowd, catching a 7.50 and 7.07-point
wave to finish with a heat-total of 14.57 for third place.
The next heat turned out to be a man-on-man battle instead of a triple-threat due to the absence of Slater. The two remaining surfers in the heat, Brazil’s Muniz and South Africa’s Payne, competed against each other for a spot in the third round.
21-year-old Muniz took the lead early in the battle, scoring 6.67 points of a wave, to put his local rival under pressure. He further increased the pressure by adding an additional 6.10 to his account to reach a heat-total of 12.77.
Payne kept waiting for a good wave to come his way, but he seemed to be out of luck. In the end, he had to settle for a 3.33 and 4.13-point wave to finish with a two-wave total of 7.46 points, surrendering victory to his Brazilian rival.
For more updates on Round 1 of Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay, stay tuned to bettor.com
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