The Jordy Smith Story

Jordy Smith, born on 11 February 1988, shares a birthday with Kelly Slater. At this stage of the game, at age 21, his accomplishments topple Slater’s in comparison at the same age. Born in Durban, South Africa, Jordy now spends his time between Durban and America, with the odd trips to Australia and Bali, Indonesia. Wherever he and his surfing talents are needed, whether it be a World Tour event, a video session with Taylor Steele, a surf mag trip or a holiday with his friends and family.

Jordy Smith is close to his family, and they do everything together. Dad Graham is his shaper who along with his mom Luellen, manage his affairs as well. He also has a sister Casey, who used to surf. Sure enough, she used to win everything in sight as well

Jordy weighs in at 6’2 and a healthy 85 kilos. While some may think that this weight is a disadvantage, Jordy is one of the bigger surfers on tour who is clearly defining how waves can be surfed when there is a bit more weight over the board. Jordy has managed to use his weight to his advantage, using lightning-fast speed bursts, looseness, and the unweighting of his board to find every bit of energy that a wave has to offer. The judges and the spectators alike love his powerful and polished style, and it this combined with his full repertoire of classic roundhouse cutbacks, full rail carves and some of the biggest airs, grabs, reverses and punts in the business that is what is going to get him climbing onto that podium again and again.

Jordy lists New Pier, Supers and Duranbah as his favourite waves in the world, claims Slater, AI, Sunny and Dane Reynolds amongst his favourite surfers, and feels that the most satisfying move in the book is a big and straight backhand air. He has already felt the surf industry heat during his much-discussed contract negotiations, emerging with his character and concentration well and truly intact. He has graced numerous covers, including Zigzag Magazine, Surfer Magazine, Stab Magazine, Tracks Magazine and others. His filtration through the media is set to increase immensely.

Jordy has already started showing through on the top-end surf video productions, including an incredible section on Taylor Steele’s latest production, ‘Stranger Than Fiction.’ This is set to increase, with Jordy dedicating some serious time to filming project in various locations throughout the year, mostly with Taylor, the most successful and popular surf movie producer of the moment.

Jordy has been riding for O’Neill for a while now, and has a few other sponsors like Vestal, Dakine and DVS Shoes, as well as his latest sponsor, Red Bull. Careful selection of sponsors has allowed for Jordy to select the best brands that suit him and his approach.

The future of surfing, according to Jordy, is all about combinations.

“The future of surfing is combos. I think that it’s going to all boil down to combos. In the next five to ten-years combos are going to play a massive part in competitive surfing. Like a huge carve straight into a big air, or an air to a tube ride, or an air to an air. I also think that there are eventually going to be fewer moves. Like maybe three, max four moves on a wave, but each move has to be absolutely massive, really radical.”

According to travel partner Damian Fahrenfort, Jordy hasn’t changed much during his rapid ascent “Even though he is a super star now he never forgets to introduce his mates, or makes sure that we are getting hooked up where ever we all go. You get one of us you get all of us.”

Two weeks ago a Jordy Smith Google search gave 415,000 results. A week later it was 425,000. Today it is 480,000. You do the math.