Two great surfers forced to suppress their native brilliance…
Is there a sadder tale than the one of Julian Wilson and Jordy Smith? Two men whose brilliance was beaten out of ’em? Two men for whom the world title beckons but remains out of reach? Yesterday, Jordy was beaten by Wade Carmichael and Julian by Pat Gudauskas, “those torrid journeymen viciously hurling sixes and sevens.”
How? Why?
Jordy and Julian, both of whom will turn thirty this year, began their tour lives at a time when progression and risk wasn’t adequately rewarded. In other words, the progressive surfing that they were known for before joining the tour had to be dramatically suppressed.
Over the years, Jordy and Julian adapted their surfing and fully embraced a castrated approach to surfing heats. As a fan, it was devastating to watch. The difference between their freesurfing and their contest surfing was so wildly exaggerated it allowed movies like Modern Collective to have the impact they did.
Surfing safe, smooth and consistent is what racked up the scores and led to world titles. Cue: Mick Fanning and Adriano de Souza.
Over the years, Jordy and Julian adapted their surfing and fully embraced a castrated approach to surfing heats. As a fan, it was devastating to watch. The difference between their freesurfing and their contest surfing was so wildly exaggerated it allowed movies like Modern Collective to have the impact they did.
The tour was for boring, athletic surfing and Kai Neville’s movies were for exciting, risky surfing.
Jordy and Julian obliged and continued to live their double lives.
Then, out of nowhere, came John John and the Brazilian Storm and the floor fell out from under them completely. Within a season, the paradigm completely shifted and the best surfing in the world, by a long shot, was happening on tour.
Jordy and Julian spent the first half of their careers reigning in the progressive aspects of their surfing only to be blindsided by the highest level of in-jersey progressive surfing ever seen by John John, Gabriel Medina and Filipe Toledo.
The saddest thing of all is that they never truly did their best surfing in a jersey.
Fanning, Parko, Slater and Andy did their best surfing during contests. Look at any of their movie parts and the level is the same while Slater pulled shit in a jersey that you would never have seen from him in a movie. The same can be said for John John, Medina and Toledo. Their heats are the ones to watch and are at least as exciting/progressive as their freesurfing clips.
Jordy and Julian have been left to wallow in the void left between Fanning/Slater and John John/Medina/Toledo. As hard as they tried, they were never able to beat Fanning at his game and sure as hell aren’t going to beat the progressive young-bloods of today, at least over the course of a season.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Wrong, almost profoundly so.
Julian and Jordy are not quite as talented (in the air) as JJF, Medina, and Toledo, and therefore unable to pull the radical shit with the same frequency. Though both Julian and Jordy have made many ridiculous airs, their make rate is lower than it is for JJF, Medina, and Toledo, hence their unwillingness to employ them unless they find themselves in a desperate situation.
Absolute bullshit that big moves aren’t scored. Cue JJF ten for air at Keramas, Julian ten for air at Portugal, Kelly’s tens for NY and Bells, Italo’s ten at Snapper, Toledo’s tens at France, etc.
Also, you are in need of a history lesson: AI’s best surfing did not occur in a jersey. Cue his parts in Trilogy (Mexico and Mundaka), epic sessions in the Mentawaii (particularly Macaronis), a crusher at P-Pass, and of course an epic session at Teahupoo in 2002. I’ll guess your under thirty-five and didn’t witness them in video, etc.
To think? I have to pay a woman in leather a LOT of money just to beat me. Getting a price quote for brilliance later. My safe word is “stabmag”
yep.
How fucking boring is Fanning and Parkos style compared to the new school progressive surfers.
Jordy is way over hyped arrogant and self entitled , pulling faces and double flex fisty pumps is not new buggz mastered it in the late 1970s , Jordy is well described as competent but not outstanding , a bit like Jake the Snake and Micro , rock steady but not boogalloo.
Oh you mean the two Bells stories? To cut a dull story very short, I was overseas, Chas was busy wrapping up his Lisa Andersen documentary and posted ’em without reading. I felt they needed work before publication and hit the delete button.
i’m going to have to disagree a tad. both J-boys put down their clips when double grabs were ok, even on straight airs. dude never came back from that froggy-ass superman.
Jordy surfs at 50% of his ability and is a lower tier backside tube rider on tour.. Julian over cooks his bottom turn and throws lowest spray. He holds too hard off the bottom so is using too much power on the bottom turn. His bottom turns look sick but watch the replays of his top turn. Lowest spray on tour. Both are amazing surfers though
he needs to watch Irons bros, even Noa Deane, they don’t waste shit and get plenty of angle
Watching Jordy surf Bells is like watching Ron Jeremy pump a blow up doll. Both gentlemen’s backs are bending, but the lust is absent from their eyes.
I always considered Ron a lusty sorta cat. Did I tell you I once photographed him for GQ?
Wow. Was he a quiet operator or a leery sort of chap?
The Hedgehog.
Ugliest cunt ever bequeathed with the mother of all meat hammers.
I’ve always been disappointed that the world never got to see the Dane vs. Jordy rivalry that we were promised
Watch any of Danes clips from 5+ years ago and he is still surfing better than 2/3rds of that tour.
The QS crap shoot is depriving the CT of the best surfers.
I haven’t lost any sleep over it.
Yeah I guess I haven’t either
Good. That’s a solid indication you aren’t a drop kick or Damien Farenfart.
I reckon there will quite few of the older guys on tour having a hard introspective look at themselves come years end. Micks got out in the knick of time.
Lmao at Conner’s post heat interview – “Suck fest at the end.” Which it was
What was up with Parko today? Shocker is an understatement.
lookled like he could care less..
Yea – clearly disappointed with himself. But gracious in defeat in the post heat interview.
Hey, maybe that’s karma for all the step offs at Kirra n snapper !
pretty much spot on….. the life of a eunuch is measured in inches….
Julian got on tour in 2011. Medina and John John qualified halfway through 2011. Medina won two events (from six) in Julian’s rookie year. There was no void other than age. Jordy’s failings are his own.
beat me to it
Christ, first I spell RVCA wrong in a headline and then I run a story where the central premise is utterly wrong. One of those days, as they say.
Don’t feel bad. Einstein had to write in what he called a “cosmological constant” in the math of his Theory of General Relativity to balance his equations. Einstein got it wrong. Soon after he published his work, they proved the Universe was still expanding. Hence, not constant. You had a bad Einstein moment. Nothing more. Everyone still believes you’re brilliant.
Smart Facts
Fast Eddy Hubble broke the bubble.
Turning the handles
were standard candles .
An astute luminous observation.
Let there be Light 💡
Poor Sam Einstein is not an Einstein in recent competitive surfing knowledge.
And kolohe still hasn’t won an event .Feel that both Jordy and Julian would have had much more success if Haleiwa and Sunset had remained CT events ? Nice to see Zola and the Dreyfus affair get a gig in a Beach Grit headline.