Jordy Smith, Boardbag roulette, Reunion Island

How many boards do you take on a surf trip? Jordy Smith likes to travel with a waist-high stack of sleds. During his recent Red Bull x Stab x Surfing trip to Reunion Island, Jordy came with 10 and left with 10. Julian Wilson, who was also on the trip, came with six boars and left with six. “Many boards were buckled in multiple places and deemed totally gone, but none broke completely in half,” says photog Ryan Miller. “I’ve been on trips with Jordy and with his size and the punts he does, he’d go through a board every session. I’m pretty amazed the boys didn’t crush any boards with the amount of damage they were doing on the waves.”

While preservation of boards might not have be too high on the priority list for Jordy and Jules, avoiding being stung at the airport certainly was. “It’s always a bit of Russian roulette at the airport with surfboard baggage fees,” Ryan continues. “Jordy got off with only paying 90 Euro for these boards out of Reunion and onto Mauritius. Then in Mauritius we had to check in again to get to South Africa. He paid nothing in Mauritius. That is about as good as it gets. Checking in twice, with 10 boards both times, and only paying 90 Euro? Note the huge smile on his face.”

The reason Jordy returned to South Africa was for the Ballito WQS event. But, as Ryan says, he’ll need all 10 of those boards if the waves are the same as they were last year.