Few waves on Earth fit a surfer the way Supertubes fits Jordy Smith. The 37-year-old South African grew up tracing the green walls of Durban, but it is 75 kilometres farther south-west—on the long, ruler-straight lines of Jeffreys Bay—where he forged his legend. Smith first stormed J-Bay as an 18-year-old wildcard in 2006, then went back-to-back in 2010-11. His masterpiece arrived in 2017: a perfect 20-point heat, two flawless rides stitched with deep barrels and rail-carves so precise that even the judges had nothing left to give.
Rolling into the 2025 Championship Tour stop, Smith is again wearing the yellow jersey after wins in Hawaii and Margaret River. At 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m) he still throws spray like confetti, but the real edge lies in home-break intimacy—knowing the timing of “Supers” sections that most mortals only read about. Locals swear they can spot him before sunrise, alone, sketching lines through the dawn offshores before the contest horn sounds.
The impact stretches well beyond the line-up. Hotels and guesthouses are booked months in advance, surf schools and shapers crank overtime, and the newly minted craft-beer trail along Da Gama Road overflows each lay-day. Municipal economists estimate the event injects tens of millions of rand into the Eastern Cape every winter, crowning Jeffreys Bay the economic as well as spiritual surf capital of Africa.
Yet Smith’s presence transcends dollars. In a post-heat interview he called J-Bay “our endless playground—Africa’s gift to every kid who dreams on a surfboard.” Whether he lifts the trophy a third time or not, his relationship with the wave is already etched beside Gerry at Pipe and Kelly at Teahupoʻo: proof that when the right surfer meets the right canvas, the result echoes far beyond the beach.