Surfing
Surfing
Here's how South African surfing phenom Jordy Smith became a global star
From growing up in his Dad's shaping bay in Durban to spending 15 years on the WSL Championship Tour, Jordy Smith has lived a wild life on his own terms.
In the noughties, future star Jordy Smith became the most-hyped junior surfer since Kelly Slater and when Smith went sponsor hunting in his late-teens the world came calling. If you believed the rumors, even Tiger Woods was on the phone, trying to talk the South African into signing with Nike.
Jordan Smith's middle name is actually Michael, so maybe there was something there. Years later Smith did nothing to dampen the flames when he chose 23 as his jersey number. In the end, Smith signed with Californian company O'Neill, who's cold water ethos and understated core approach reflected a little of the scene back home in South Africa. A dozen years on and Smith still happily rides for the crew from Santa Cruz.
01
Smiths's stats
Jordy Smith
© LifeWithoutAndy.com
- 1988 – Born in Durban, South Africa on February 11.
- 1991 – Starts surfing at three years old.
- 1999 – Offered a soccer scholarship in England. Thankfully, chooses surfing.
- 2003 – Wins ISA U-16 World Championship.
- 2006 – Makes semi-finals of Billabong Pro J-Bay as a wildcard, wins World Junior Championships and Triple Crown Rookie Of The Year.
- 2007 – Billabong, Nike and O’Neill enter sponsorship bidding war, won by O'Neill. Wins World Qualifying Series by a record margin.
- 2008 – Rookie Of The Year.
- 2009 – Stars in Modern Collective, sticks that rodeo clown.
- 2010 – Wins Billabong Pro J-Bay for the first time, finishes second in the world.
- 2011 – Wins Billabong Pro J-Bay for the second time.
- 2013 – Wins Billabong Rio Pro.
- 2014 – Wins Hurley Pro at Trestles.
- 2016 – Wins Hurley Pro at Trestles for the second time, finishes second in the world.
- 2017 – Wins Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.
- 2024 – Currently ranked 10th in the world in his 16th season in the Championship Tour, as the oldest surfer after Kelly Slater.
02
Jordy Smith's junior days
Jordy Smith grew up in New Pier, Durban. His father, Graham, was a moderately successful pro back in the day who later became a surfboard shaper and Smith junior was in the water before he could walk. At knee-high he was Ollying a skateboard on the beachfront boardwalks and then tearing up the whitewater across the sand.
"For me, growing up in South Africa was pretty rugged and rough, but that's just the cards that we were dealt," says Smith. "You make the most of them and that moulds you into the person that you are, the character. There are good and bad parts of South Africa, but that's everywhere."
Jordy Smith at Red Bull Nightshift - Durban 2012
© Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Content Pool
Brought up Catholic, Smith was mixing sunday school with the life of a superstar grommet and, eventually, his talent was such that he enrolled in a surfing tolerant school. Amazingly, the same one that South Africa's most radical export, Martin Potter, had attended years earlier. He spent his school holidays bunked down with Billabong South Africa's first family, the Kraaks, at their house in the dunes in front of Jeffrey’s Bay’s legendary Supertubes section.
"South Africa is so unique, in the sense that you can get almost anything," says Smith. "On a surfing front, in Durban you've got warm water, long points and beach breaks that are some of the best in the world. The further down you go towards the Cape, the colder the water gets. Then, you reach the Transkei, which is more uncrowded right points, a little more risky, but an epic location if you're looking for an African feel.
Jordy Smith in full cry, carving Supertubes to ribbons
© Alan Van Gysen/Red Bull Content Pool
"Once you get to J-Bay, it’s like many have said, the holy grail of right points. After that, you get to the wild Cape Town, where the landscapes are as beautiful as landscapes get: mountains running into the ocean and these spectacular drop-offs."
03
Delivering on the hype
In case the early murmurs weren't loud enough, Smith went out and won the 2006 World Junior Championships to confirm to doubters that he was the real deal. Soon after, he landed a part in surf movie icon Taylor Steele's latest release, Stranger Than Fiction, with back-to-back Alley-oops on his opening wave screaming his name from the rooftops. Jordy Smith had landed.
1 h 11 min
Stranger than Fiction
Scandal erupts as news leaks that high-performance surfing movies are all just smoke and mirrors.
To this point, Smith's wares hadn't been witnessed much on film, but suddenly he was everywhere, including another release by Taylor Steele's former right-hand man, a young up and coming cinematographer by the name of Kai Neville.
58 min
Modern Collective
A vogue group of rogues frame the future of surfing in this wild, progressive and provocative film.
Neville's first film was called Modern Collective and it was a game changer, with Smith starring alongside the best freesurfing talent of his generation: Dane Reynolds, Dusty Payne, Dion Agius, Mitch Coleborn and Yadin Nicol.
Jordy Smith rodeo
© Brian Bielmann
Smith stole the show with an insane Rodeo Clown flip, captured while in the Mentawai Islands on a Red Bull trip and right in the face of fellow star Julian Wilson. "Right before I took off he was giving me sh*t, saying 'why don’t you just do something on a wave'," said Smith. "So, I was super psyched when I took off and as soon as I hit that section if felt so perfect. I stuck it and was like 'Ha! In your face Julian'." Smith's star could not have been burning brighter.
04
Points on the board
While the world knew that Smith could surf, could he do it in competition? He answered his critics in no uncertain terms, his strong results silencing the army of naysayers ready to denounce the overpaid and overhyped kid from Africa as he marched towards the Championship Tour. He qualified in 2007 to the delight of his friends and fans, kickstarting an unbroken 16-year run on the CT that, to this point, has netted him six event wins and 100 lifetimes' worth of tubes.
Jordy Smith, no nerves here
© Ryan Miller
"I'm getting back to doing my own thing and just being me," Smith said, as he found his feet on the tour. "The people I'm hanging with now are easy, I always bring friends to events and try make my environment fun. That’s been one of the biggest changes, having family and friends around me. You've got to choose a crew who make you happy, especially in foreign countries where you don't know many people."
05
SMTH Shapes
As mentioned above, Graham Smith is a celebrated South African surfboard shaper, his G-Force label well known in the Rainbow Nation. In his younger days, Jordy rode plenty of his father's crafts, before the costs became too high and he started bouncing around the world's major labels.
Jordy Smith's surfboards for J-Bay
© Tyrone Bradley / Red Bull Content Pool
In 2019, Stab took Smith to the Mentawais Islands to film Stab In The Dark, their double-blind surfboard test, wherein the surfer doesn't know who's made which boards, and the shapers don't know who the surfer is. Out of a dozen boards, Jordy picked his Dad's anonymous entry as his second favorite and realized that maybe he'd been judging his dad a little harshly in the past.
Jordy Smith's surfboards for J-Bay
© Tyrone Bradley / Red Bull Content Pool
Smith stopped riding for other shapers straight away, he and Graham found investors and went into business. Now, SMTH Shapes is one of South Africa's fastest growing surfboard manufacturing companies.
06
Stacking clips
As well as building a bulletproof competitive resume, Smith has continued to film endlessly around the world. His own biopic, Bending Colours, was shot in collaboration with Kai Neville, while he has continued to work with Taylor Steele and an army of his own videographers to compile clip after clip.
Shaping Jordy follows Smith and Mikey February as they trek the length and breadth of South Africa in pursuit of ramps and roping barrels. Of course, No Contest has also captured the King of J-Bay in his element a couple of times, famously mic'ing up his dad in 2017 to capture his reaction to Smith's insane Perfect 20 heat, beautifully wrapping up a touching piece dedicated to his childhood.
8 min
Jordy Smith. Jeffreys Bay. Game on!
South Africa's favourite son returns to the wave that changed his life, shaped his career.
Last year, the No Contest crew again ventured back to South Africa, combing the coast from Durban to Capetown in search of waves and adventure. Safe to say they over-delivered on both fronts.
07
The elder statesman
16 years after first qualifying, Jordy Smith is still doing the rounds. Now married to his beloved Lyndall, he's a Dad and a new home owner in Jeffrey's Bay, as well as spending a ton of time living on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii, where he's neighbors with John John Florence.
Jordy Smith drawing timeless lines at his favourite wave, Jeffreys Bay
© Craig Kolesky
Life is good, but Smith isn't going anywhere soon. Paris is on his radar and as long as he's on tour, he won't rule out the world title.
"I still want to win one! Just keep banging on that door and, you know, it's not whether you win it or you don't, it's just trying to give it the best effort. I'd love to win Pipe, that would be incredible. I'd love to win Fiji as well, and Margaret River would be insane. I just need to string events together and get some consistency. You've just got to play it right and let things fall your way. Let the results fall your way."
Don't expect Smith to leave his homeland anytime soon either. No way: "It's all of my makeup," he says. "South Africa's given me the resources and the facilities to be able to do what I love. The place has moulded me and my culture into who I am."
