Jordy Smith Walked Away From A Paycheck To Sample These Shapers

“I asked for one board and he came with six!” Jordy Smith smiles on the sand above Little Marley. He had ordered a Holy Grail (a board Stab’s quite fond of) from Hayden Cox. “I was like holy crap, trying all these out is extra work. I got heats to surf!”

We enlisted Jordy for Stab in the Dark 2017, towards the end of the trip, Jordy became frustrated with the process and flippant. One thing consistent with our blind taste test is the surfer's mood prior to their surf predicts how they'll feel about the board. Jordy, during SITD wrote off two boards, one of which happened to be a Hayden.

“This board sucks! I didn’t think I could bog two rails at once,” he said regarding the HS blank slate floating beneath him.

“I’m not one for closing doors,” he continues. “I always leave room for opportunity if I feel there’s something there. I think he’s a good shaper that’s willing to work hard and makes good boards.”

Regardless, surf fans were surprised to see Jordy jumping off the rock at Snapper with a dark railed Haydenshapes under his arm. 

“The Holy Grail went good when the waves were small. I’d like to ride it in a smaller beach break setting where you’d have to float sections to get from A to B to C.”

Since he left Channel Islands, walking away from a rumored $65k earlier this year, Jordy's been shopping around. 

As he puts it, “I just want to have the best equipment under my feet.”

His hunt for the elusive and consistent It looks like Jordy’s year title, has taken new form. There wasn’t a time before or after the event, morning or evening, that Mr Smith wasn’t in the water, sliding his arsenal of fresh foam above the brine.

“I was feeling a bit hindered riding only CI models,” he says. “I’m going to continue riding some of their boards that work for me. But, I just want to be able to ride anything. I want to experiment with a few different things and see how they go.”

He told Stab he’s been sampling JS, G-Force (his father’s boards), Haydenshapes, Chris Gallagher, Channel Islands; he even grabbed a couple Slater Designs. “Kelly’s board was a little too under-buoyant for me. But the one I rode felt really fast.”

"I'm not looking on settling on anyone, if they go well, I'll ride them in events." 

Jordy claims to have found some “pretty good boards,” and, unsurprisingly, the Snapper award went to the famed Gold Coast shaper, Jason Stevenson. “The JS has been going the best at Snapper. If I were to surf Kirra big I'd ride the Gally (Chris Gallagher). If it’s one-to-two foot, I’d ride my Epoxy Bunny Chow from CI.”

After Jordy’s dad came third place during Stab in the Dark, he decided to – for the first time in years – give G-Force another go. “I think he was pretty nervous when I ordered a few boards from him,” he quips. “The first board I got from him went really well. I brought it over here but I put a little crease in it so it didn’t make it out.”

We asked him why he hasn’t given Pyzel, the 2x World Title shaper and Stab in the Dark winner, an order form. But, Pyzel has the world's best surfer on his shapes and doesn't gain much from having Jordy ride them in competition. Plus, Jordy already gave Pyzel the nod unbeknownest to him in last year's SITD. 

“Umm, I don’t know. I’ve asked him... But he’s busy, I think." 

So, if a surfer who can have any board he wants walks away from a near $6K a month contract to test a variety of shapers, does that validate them as the best shapers in the world?