Fiji Pro Doors J-Bay: Are They Back?!

Image World Surf League Fiji Pro 2016 -When Cloudbreak is pumping!

With just days to go for the J-Bay Open revisiting what went down at Fiji is inevitable. Some riders are fun to watch, others surf with unquestionable technique and flow but then there are just a few Surfers which are capable of generating strong emotions...that feeling that anything can be done...a certain magical element of surfing which only seems to happen when surfing straight from the heart. 

A few of these top World Surfers had been on a strange roll throughout the first better half of the WSL World Tour 2016. The early start of the season, Australian Legs and the Brazilian Rio Pro settled rankings with some Big Names gone missing but when Fiji´s Cloudbreak got pumping, when the best waves of the year came rolling in and the best swells finally gave into wide tubes they, came back. 

WSL warns that it is not over and far from it. The J-Bay Stop 6 of the World Tour is already warming up its engines and ready to kick off on July 6 to July 17.

At Fiji names likes Italo Ferreira, Sebastian Zietz, Kolohe Andino, Nat Young, Conner Coffin, Kanoa Igarashi, Dusty Payne and Davey Cathels which have been making big noise through the year where rapidly dimmed out by the "Usual Suspects". Crowds rose to their feet to celebrate the classic rides, the emotions run high, Burrow, Florence, Wilkinson, de Souza, Medina, Fanning and Slater lead the charge.   

Kelly Slater made an impressive showdown and massive comeback. Having like Mick Fanning bailed out on the Rio Pro event, Slater surfed Cloudbreak like no other rider. His heat score 19.77 was the highest score of the entire event. There is no doubt that Slater catched on to his Spirit and brought it down to Cloudbreak for a ride. Locking in and going really deep Slater found the way out 9 out of 10 times. Along with Medina Slater was the only rider who dared to take to the air in these Fiji monster waves and landed perfect balance. Slater moved up from 36 to 26 in the Jeep Leader Ranking in just days. 

Wilkinson managed to keep the yellow jersey but is seeing hard competition. Medina´s win at Fiji moved him up to Contender Number 2 at this point. JJ Florence´s Fiji result tracked him on the the World Title race ranked 3rd in the World and going into J-Bay with confidence and well positioned. 

The first days of competition at Fiji saw impeccable waves under a brilliant sun which provide all riders with the same turquoise fast conditions. Fiji slowed down and went flat not for one nor two nor three days but for entire 8 days. The time of lay days played into the anxious surfers which awaited the conditions to go out and prove themselves. 

They say that riding Cloudbreak requires experienced riders as well as surfers who can read the ocean, Medina and Florence while young are known for knowing their positions and knowing how to pick them. Fanning, Slater, Buchman, Wilkinson are considered the “top experienced”. 

Surfing Cloudbreak is far from surfing Perfomance shore Waves. With little room for air displays and turns locking into deep wide pipes and finding exit standing or pushing hard on the breaks and going into small technical tubes and out with the spit are the things that make Cloudbreak so special and so dangerous. But was there something else happening in the water game?

It was signaled -almost prophesied during the first stops of the WSL 2016 Tour when the new Rookies were taking over the rankings, that legends on the Tour would hardly give up their positions and long years of work just as easy. Some say they were just waiting for the right waves, the perfect conditions, the perfect flow and to be honest there were no better waves on the 2016 Tour as those that broke on Fiji on the final days. We are talking about massive waves rising first 6 to 8 and then up to 10 feet in the air. Breaking to the channel on the shallow ends providing perfectly wide tubes enough to fit a freight train going through the wall. 

Keeping optimal physical conditions is a must when surfing Cloudbreak, just paddling and finding the way to the position in these hard conditions is challenging even for the best surfers in the World. Often -and by often we mean 4 to 6 times per heat surfers took these giant waves on the head moving as far back as 30 meters in one duck dive. White water washing down everywhere just hanging on to the surf board waves rolled over and over and over again. Fiji waves broke boards and teared leashes apart more than once. This was Fiji, this was the place they chose to come back. 

The factor of "Can-You-Surf-the-Duration" began playing its toll at Fiji. Guys who have been on the World Tour for some years now are more aware that the World Tour is a marathon and not a sprint race -in fact it is a one year marathon surf race around the World. The rookie Start-of-the-Year energy can fade away fast once the Tour experience begins to settle. Travelling from Continent to Continent, shifting mental, physical and wave conditions, making gear changes, adapting and avoiding the stress and tiredness that a year long of stops can bring in, that is what it is all about. This and free surfing can lead to injuries and Wildcard replacements come into play with fresh energy. 2016 Rookies are in for this marathon, can they "Surf the Duration"? 

Smack in between the middle of the laydays Taj Burrow retired after taking on the final heat of his career against John John. WSL called the heat an "Instant Classic". Burrow went down swinging against JJ who took the heat with just a 0.16 points of difference. Florence scored a total of 18.76  with his two best waves finding a 9.33 and 9.43 against Burrow who scored a 18.60 with a combination of a 9.20 and a 9.4, an impressive exchange. The heat revealed in the Round 3 what was coming after the lay-island-fever-days at Fiji.

Josh Kerr also turned in a nice run at Fiji reaching Round 5 and losing the heat and door to the Quarterfinal to Buchman. Kerr without doubt has a talent specially when it comes to big waves, cloudbreaks and riding hard.  

John John Florence was inspired and threw at Judges rides which were scored above the 9s. Almost every wave Florence locked in and railed into saw decent numbers. Fanning -which declared 2016 a personal year also delivered some of the best surfing seen in 2016 and dropped in high scores. Medina which surfed even 15 waves in just one heat at Fiji was hungry for surf. It seemed he was just kicking back and having fun while dropping big numbers. Medina scored a perfect 10 ride at Fiji and even then wanted more, he played with air moves, alley loops and reverses knowing all the time airs were not going to get big numbers up in the 9s and 10s. Playing his own game he made the road to the quarter final and then faced Slater in the Semifinal only to defeat him and face Wilkinson in the final and take the win. 

Slater admitted to making several mistakes during his Semifinal at Fiji against Medina but even then smiled all the time. Who would not smile after tube riding the best waves in the World in the best location in the World? WSL called Fiji waves "Perfection-Paradise". The way Slater blazed through the rounds and up to the Quarterfinals was special and driven by focused surf. Some of that Slater magic went off during the Semifinals just a notch for just some minutes and Medina -being the relentless rider he is saw the opportunity and took it. After surfing that hard semifinal against Slater Medina rested about 30 minutes and got back to water to face only bigger waves the still Ranking Leader Wilkinson. 

Wilkinson paved his way to the Final with little noise almost like a wolf stalking its prey, silent, low and under the radar. By the time Wilkinson brought down JJ Florence at the Quarter Finals it became obvious that he was into the final run. Wilkinson faced his friend Buchman at the Semifinal in a big wave stage and only rested a couple of minutes to face the final and Medina. Medina had more gas in the tank and had some nice cards under his sleeve. The exhaustion of surfing all day in these conditions brought forward some nasty comments from world around viewers who complained about the quality of the heart but Medina found the big waves which opened nicely and delivered double tubes, deep turns, rail work and speeded into air maneuvers. 

The taste of Fiji waters in our mouth, the waves rolled out and wanting more for sure more is to come, what comes next is South Africa J-Bay and the rest of the Tour. If ranks will shift because it comes down to Cloudbreak riding or Performance Surfing then things will become very interesting.

"The speed at J-Bay is what makes the wave so technical and difficult to master. But when you find that perfect takeoff spot and drop into a bomb, it sets up a potential 300-meter wave. If you haven't been, it's a good idea to watch some experts tackle it first before heading out," WSL signals. 

After J-Bay there are still 5 more Stops to go and while France and Portugal fit into more performance type waves Tahiti, Trestles and Pipe Masters are where the big moves will be made.