Kelly Slater just single-handedly saved Jeffreys Bay for the WSL

If you haven’t watched it yet, then do yourself a favour, give yourself enough time to watch all 5:40 of pure raw beauty. If you have watched it, well then watch it again like the rest of us, and maybe ten more times.

There is absolutely no doubt about it, the J-Bay Open this year scored some great waves, not quite as big as last year, but it was cooking. The quarter final between Slater and Medina was mind-blowing, with excellent scores being thrown around like they were child’s play. Fanning was on fire, and Julian’s surfing was looking the sharpest it’s been in a long time, last years drop down the rankings has really lit a fire beneath him.

The stage was set and the waves were pumping at the world’s best right point break, Supertubes, Kelly had stayed out after losing his semi-final because the waves were so good and Fanning and Julian were set to do battle when it happened. The incident with Mick, that which we do not speak of in the water over here in SA, was close to everyone’s worst nightmare and to be seen live made the whole situation that much more intense. In the end Fanning was okay, but it was on the front cover of every newspaper worldwide and there has been much speculation of whether or not the world tour would return to Jeffreys Bay.

Nothing was confirmed either way, but even surfers on the World Tour used social media to express they wouldn’t want to return.

Except for one guy.

With the official launch of Kelly’s new brand, Outerknown, we’ll just assume that the champ needed a little holiday and chose Cape Town as his destination of choice. Local rumours started spreading around of people seeing him surfing Dunes, and then that he was up the West Coast with South Africa’s own world champ Twiggy surfing some of the lesser known spots up there. All we do know, is that there has been a whole lot of swell in South Africa lately, and with a huge South Westerly swell on the horizon there was no better place to head than back up to Jeffreys Bay.

The significance of this? Well Guy Mac happened to be up there filming Matt Bromley’s new movie Risky Business at the same time, and well let’s say he knew an opportunity when he saw one! By all accounts, Kelly Slater and Sean Holmes put on a real show that day, with Sean’s first tube in the video as well as his carves showing us that he’s still got what it took to become renowned as the deadliest wildcard of all time! Kelly on the other hand, well you can watch this video over and over, and you’re not going to get bored! He definitely looks different free surfing, more casual, more relaxed, in fact maybe Matt Bromley who was there in the water said it best.

“He chooses average looking waves which turn into bombs and he was drawing crazy lines throwing snow all over the tree. He knows something everyone else doesn’t. He is in tune far beyond anyone I’ve seen out there. Next level”

Guy Mac did the hard work, documented all of it, choose a great sound track and put it up for the world to see! Everyone saw it, spoke about it, shared it, facebooked it, tweeted it, instagrammed it, and it has in no more than two weeks put Jeffreys Bay and South Africa back on the map for those who were in doubt! Has he chased this next swell up to Namibia? If he did let’s hope someone documents it!

Ex QS surfer and current Ticket to Ride Trip Leader Chris Bond is South African born and bred, so he knows a thing or two about J-Bay. Read more of his words here.