South Africa’s most successful surfer, Jordan ‘Jordy’ Smith, drops in for a chat about how a life spent riding waves has made him the man he is today.
Despite it being a cold, wet and grey morning on the day we photograph Jordy Smith for our cover story, his sunny disposition shines through. Easygoing and carefree, even when forced to pose in a waterlogged suit, Jordy is unflappable.
In the hour it takes us to drive to Kraalbaai near Langebaan, and with Jordy a captive audience sitting shotgun, both the writer and photographer of this story – amateur surfers (or kooks, to use surf slang) – ask Jordy everything a pair of fanboys could possibly think of.
“Jordy, Jordy, is it true, did you really buy a house at Suptertubes?” I talk over the photographer, who’s asking about the World Surfing Tour, using my driver’s privilege to get my question to him first.
Yes, Jordy’s property portfolio now includes a home in Jeffrey’s Bay, where he’ll fly to as soon as we’re done shooting, because the same cold front we’re experiencing in Cape Town will slowly move up the coast and make the world’s most famous right-hand wave come to life. There’s also a house in Hawaii, next door to John John Florence’s home at Pipeline, and his home in Camps Bay, Cape Town, plus he’s bought property for his family too.
“I’m fortunate to have homes in some of the places that I love,” he says, humble to a fault. “I’ve been at this for 25 years now and I’m privileged to be able to support my folks and help my sister. Surfing has put me in a good financial situation, and I’ve been lucky enough to have people around me helping me to make the right decisions.
“Sometimes it’s a much more personal than financial decision, though, like with J-Bay and Hawaii… those locations will always be special to me because I want to keep surfing there until the day I die.”
Getting his name on the board
It wasn’t always like this. When Jordy was 16 years old and the hottest young surfer in the world, he found himself temporarily homeless after his long-time sponsor sued him for half-a-million rand for breach of contract. Without hesitation, Jordy’s dad sold the family home, paid the penalty and the Smith family moved in with Grandma, where they took turns fielding calls from brands all wanting to put their sticker on Jordy’s surfboard.
The ‘shoe dog’, Phil Knight, picked Jordy up in his private jet, flew him to Nike HQ, gifted him with the boot that Ronaldo was wearing when he scored the 2002 World Cup winning goal, and even got Tiger Woods to chat to him. It didn’t work.
“I’ve been part of the O’Neill family for almost 20 years now. Same goes for Red Bull. There are a few others – I was with Oakley for 25 years, and because I have such an incredible relationship with the founders, Jim and Jamin Jannard, I’ve recently started a partnership with their new brand, M-Experiment.”
Other stickers on Jordy’s surfboard include Heaps Normal (the non-alcoholic beer company he founded in Australia), SMTH Shapes (the surfboards he manufactures in Durban with his dad) and Future Fins. He’s been having conversations with Breitling watches, but can’t be sure where that will go…
It’s always exciting. You’re never going to ride the same wave twice
Riding life’s waves
No longer the grom phenom, at 38 Jordy is now the oldest competitor on the World Surf Tour since American Kelly Slater’s retirement. And while he’s wiser and a lot more business savvy, there’s still that same happy-go-lucky nature where he’s quick to smile, have a laugh and can think of nothing better to do with his life than chase waves.
Content? Oh yes. Happy? You bet. Does he sometimes have to pinch himself to check whether he’s dreaming?
Jordy’s the first to admit how blessed he is. The husband of former swimsuit model Lyndall is also a father to future skate champion Ziggy and is the son of legendary surfboard shaper Graham Smith – who pushed Jordy into his first wave at just three years old and continues to push him still.
Despite being a mountain of a guy – more rugby player than surfer at 1.9m tall and 90kg, and surfing in a style that’s synonymous with aggression – he’s all about his family and is just a big softy.
Jordy made waves on the international surfing scene as a teenager with his distinctive blend of power and innovation. In 2006, at age 20, he entered the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour, the start of a remarkable professional career that saw him rise to prominence among the world’s elite surfers and become one of SA’s most celebrated athletes.
Throughout, Jordy has amassed an impressive list of achievements, including multiple Championship Tour victories and top rankings in the world standings. One of the defining moments of his career came in 2010 when he narrowly missed out on the WSL World Championship title.
Despite getting so close to that elusive title, and setbacks like the serious knee injury that sidelined him from Tokyo 2020 (when surfing made its debut as an Olympic sport), Jordy has demonstrated determination, grit and resilience.
Included alongside other new sports like breakdancing and skateboarding, surfing has been introduced to encourage more youth viewership. Jordy won’t be in Paris, though, but a 22-hour flight away in Tahiti, French Polynesia.
This is a good thing. The opposite of Tokyo’s weak mushy waves is expected this year, as the Olympic surfing venue moved to what’s considered one of the most dangerous waves in the world, Teahupo’o.
“It’s beauty and the beast. As nice, blue and warm as it looks, it’s a crazy, scary and treacherous wave. It will send shivers up your spine just looking at pictures of it. Anyone who tells you that they’re not scared to surf there is lying. Every time you paddle out, you know what’s at stake.”
Teahupo’o has claimed five lives over the years and seriously injured countless more. Translated, it means ‘to sever the head’ or ‘place of skulls’ and honours the son of a murdered king who avenged his father’s death by eating the brain of his father’s killer.
Changing tides
The sport of surfing is as much about adapting to your environment as it is athleticism. The field of play is constantly changing, with all the elements needing to align during a competition window. If wind, tide and swell are favourable, surfers need to be in the best position on the water when a wave rolls through during their heat. And say all of that happens, and a surfer catches a good wave and rides it to the best of their ability, there’s still a level of interpretation where – unlike athletics events when a winner is confirmed by who has crossed the finish line first – judges make the final call.
“As far as surfing goes in South Africa, it’s difficult for us to compete at an international level. We’ve got the skill set, just not the numbers. We probably only have about 10 000 surfers countrywide. The States has that in one little beach town. So, the volume is a lot bigger. Brazil has 200 million people, all of whom are active and outgoing, and at least half of them live an ocean lifestyle. Same with Australia, which does a great job of facilitating surf talent. That’s something we lack.
“Look at Bianca Buitendag – she won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics and got no recognition here for it.”
The swell comes in
Jordy has also contributed to the cultural and developmental aspects of surfing and sees himself pushing this further from a media and content creation point of view after his competitive career is over. He says that while he’s been around the world, he’s only had a small taste of our continent and would like to explore Africa and share what it has to offer with the rest of the surfing world.
“Yes, surfing is a sport, but more than that it’s a culture. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a life choice. After I’m done with an event, the only thing that I want to do afterwards is go surfing! Mother Nature provides you with something new every single day, so it’s always exciting. You’re never going to ride the same wave twice. And as cheesy as it sounds, that saying, ‘Only a Surfer Knows The Feeling’, is so true.”
Words by: Dylan Muhlenberg
Photographs: Francois Visser
