J-Bay Blog

ANT Fox J-Bay photo blog:

IT'S been a while, months even, since Brazil's leg of the World Tour and with swell queueing up at J-Bay and axe hanging heavy over those who fail to perform the stage is set.

J-Bay is a wave the locals do well on, it might look like the perfect point but it can section like a bendy bus making knowledge of what the sand's been doing key. A bit of pre event training goes down pretty well here hence why the competitors tend to turn up early.

Rides of 300 metres are not uncommon with fast wall, barrel and punt sections all lining up, but the wave is incredibly unforgiving of the jerky, shaky brigade. You need a fast flowing style like the wave itself, speed in and speed out.

Newcomers to the spot need to know the sections, first up is Magnatubes, then moving down the line: Boneyards, Supertubes, Car Park Section, Impossibles, Salad Bowls, Coins, Tubes, the Point and finally Albatross.

The best day so far was Friday, July 9th. Starting off with the howling devil wind from the north west but by midday the wind had backed off to a gentle offshore with 4-6 foot sets pushing through.

Up until now the direction of the swell had been a little off with a touch too much west in it but Supers was still serving up some treats for the boys to smash. The freesurfing has been pretty amazing to watch.

The view from the point parking lot looking up the point towards Supers.

Ozzie ripper crowd pleaser in action.

The scene so far has been pretty quiet but the Gaudaskas brothers and Adriano de Sousa have been blowing up and definately the standouts so far. Damo Hobgood (pictured) has been doing alright as well.

That said though in the last few days has seen the arrival of the bigger names: AI, Taj, tour veteran Knox and shredder Luke Stedman. So far no Kelly or Jordy...

Pat Gaudaskas pastel coloured ally-oop.

Out of the water the circus is steadily growing with the usual fanfare of groupies, photogs, hero worshipers trickling in as well as the entire cast and crew of the sequel to the Blue Crush flick who are busy filming down at Supers too.

Whacking off-the-top in 'early morning bashes the lip' kinda way,

Same deal with a sunrise carve, no-one but you, the photog and the sharks.

How's the sand compare to last year? It's not looking bad at Supers.

Gaudaskas bottom turn...

The late evening view from our host's house at Livethelife.tv.

Not a bad place for an AM surf check either.

Wide angle view of Supers, this is the main comp peak.

Nate Yeomans doing his do, practise makes perfect and all that.

Gaudaskas is looking pretty good out there, time to shine? He needs it.

Luke Steadman bashing it at Supers, he's looking good too.

Local Ryan Payne, everyone's scared of the locals here, you don't want to come up against them in your heat. But I think that reputation puts the pressure back on them in many ways.

Ryan is surfing in the VonZipper Superheat, a four-man encounter that will be run immediately before the first heat of the main event, winner gets a place at the top table so there's everything to practise for right now.