Jordy Smith Just Wants To Win!

Who’d have thought a little huck in Portugal could’ve ended in such grief? After tearing ligaments in his big toe, Jordy Smith was sidelined during the Rip Curl Pro and missed the year’s exclamation mark that was Hawaii’s winter. While the injury might sound comically unspectacular, if you’ve ever dealt with such a thing, you’ll know how tedious mending it can be. But Jordy’s now surfed couch for the appropriate amount of time and has since climbed back into South African water.

With a wedding right over that next hill (he’s marrying longtime sweetheart Lyndall Jarvis), and the Quik Pro firing up at Snapper on the first day of March, Stab wished to engage the headspace of Mr Smith at present. Unsurprisingly, all he can think about is winning things this year. After his wedding, of course…

Interview by Craig Jarvis | All photos by Ryan Miller/redbull.com/surfing

Stab: Such sad on last year’s injury. How’s the therapy rolling?
Jordy: I’ve been having my foot treated every single day since October, so I’m well on the road to total recovery. It’s crazy how something that seemed so minor at the time has given me this much grief.

There’s been some nice swells in South Africa of late. Have you been on them? Yeah, so stoked. I waited until the New Year to get back into the water, just so that I was 100 percent sure that I’d given the injury plenty time to heal, y’know? I lucked into a few good swells early in the year and managed to score a few pits down the beach at Dunes in Cape Town.

Despite the injury, you had a phenomenal tour. What was your best event? I’d have to say Brazil, because it was my first big win out of Africa and my first win in a couple of years. I had a slow start at Snapper, thanks to Travis (Logie). I got a third at Bells, and then after Bells I had this, like, confidence boost thing, and I knew I had it in me to win again. It was amazing to follow up the third at Bells with the win in Rio.

Blasting right around Bordeaux o’clock in France.

What event are you looking forward to most this year? All of them, every single one of them, but right now my focus is on Snapper. You know the whole interview thing anyway! One heat at a time, one event at a time, treat every heat like a freesurf, have fun out there (laughs). Such boring answers, aren’t they?

Best session you had in 2013? It’s hard for me pick one, but I’m going to go with Mozambique, the session in Now Now. It was just Chad and I out, and we were getting barreled for eight hours straight. It was a crazy experience. I also found some really good waves in and around Cape Town that I just can’t share with you.

People are jetting in from all over the world for your wedding! Yeah, I’m really excited. Everything is sorted thanks mainly to Lyndall and our wedding planner. I’m really looking forward to the day and a little bit nervous. It’ll be cool to see everyone.

Where are you going for your honeymoon? That cool apartment at Snapper? (Laughs), no. Lyndall and I are going to postpone the honeymoon until later in the year. We’re not sure where yet but somewhere neither of us have been. We’re looking at Bora Bora in Tahiti, but we have so much stuff going on, so we’re going to take a bit of a break and then go when we feel the time is right.

What’s your biggest goal for 2014? Win, win, win. Yeah, I really wanna win. I made some quite big changes in 2013 and tasted some success. This year I’m fine-tuning my pre-season training, adding a few different things and focusing on what I can improve to tighten my whole act. This will be the best prepared I’ve ever been.

So, the goal is… World Champion.

One last kicker before heading to a World Cup qualifier in Portugal. Dude loves his soccer.