Historic clean sweep by SA surfers

Greg Emslie’s victory in the O’Neill Cold Water Classic in Cape Town with Jordy Smith’s earlier victories in the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay and the Mr Price Pro completed an historic clean sweep by local surfers of all three ASP events staged in South Africa.

Smith’s triumph in J-Bay made him the first local winner of an ASP World Tour event and the first to lead the ASP World Title Race rankings, since Shaun Tomson won the World title in 1977.

Meanwhile his win in the Mr Price Pro saw Jordy become only the third SA surfer to capture the title after Tomson (1973-78) and Ricky Basnett in 2006. The event was first run back in 1969. At the same time Smith rose to the top of the ASP World Rankings which combine the all the ASP World Tour, Prime and Star rated events.

Sean Holmes once again confirmed his status as the ASP’s most dangerous wildcard by carving his way through the world’s top surfers to reach the quarter-finals of the Billabong Pro J’Bay for the third time, notably eliminating nine time World Champion Kelly Slater and three-time ASP World Champion Andy Irons at Supertubes on the same day.

ASP World Title Race Rankings: Top 5 (after Event No. 4 – Billabong Pro J-Bay):

1. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 28500 pts

2. Taj Burrow (AUS) 24750 pts

3. Kelly Slater (USA) 23500 pts

4. Dane Reynolds (USA) 20000 pts

5. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 19500 pts

6. Mick Fanning (AUS) 19250 pts

7. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18750 pts

8. Bobby Martinez (USA) 16500 pts

9. Jadson Andre (BRA) 16000 pts

10. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14750 pts

South Africans

30. Travis Logie (ZAF) 6500 pts

ASP World Rankings: Top 5 (after event No. 30 – O’Neill Cold Water Classic, Cape Town):

1          Smith,Jordy             ZAF    34428

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2          Burrow,Taj                 AUS    30625

3          De Souza,Adriano   BRA    23807

4          Slater,Kelly                USA    23500

5          Durbidge,Bede         AUS    22683

South Africans (top 200 of 885)

27        Logie,Travis                10651

39        Bryson,Royden           8560

66        Palmboom,Rudy         5372

91        Jackson,Brandon        4094

105     Weare,David                3367

120     Basnett,Ricky               2993

132     Joubert,Shaun              2819

141     Gibbens,Brendon         2576

153     Grant,Casey                 2218

164     Fahrenfort,Damien       1985

180     De Vries,Beyrick          1611

195     Staples,Dale                1504

200     Du Toit,Chad               1395