From the Ashes with Jordy Smith

How many times in the past three months have you heard someone say, “this is gunna be Jordy's year”? We've heard it plenty – and when you hear something enough you begin to speculate – could it be true?

Jordy Smith finished at number four in the world last year. He got married to a lovely lady named Lyndall in February. Things seemed to be going his way, and we started to believe he could be a solid contender. Then he was knocked out in round two of the first event of the year.

Now, going into Margaret River, does he have confidence? Does he have drive? Does he, well, have it in him? Rather than blather unknowingly amongst ourselves, we decided to ask the man himself.

Jordy! How are you?

I'm good! Just in between shoots at an O'Neill photo thing in Sydney.

Eek. So that means you've been in Australia since Snapper?

Yeah. We drove down from the Gold Coast and scored a lot of good waves along the way – Yamba and Angourie, down to Sydney, Manly and then a place a few hours south called Ulladulla. There have been some good swells running and we've scored. Yesterday wasn't epic, but I'd say it was the most fun conditions I've had in quite some time.

What did you listen to on the trip? You're always carrying those headphones around...
Lots of opera.

Nah. Just kidding. It depends what mood I'm in, but it's mostly rap and hip-hop.

You don't seem too rattled from your last result.

I mean, I've been training pretty hard and surfing a bunch, and everything's been going really well. It was just one contest, and one bad result, and it's a long year ahead. I'd say I'm a very confident guy. I'm happy to get the bad one out of the way because the target isn't on my back anymore.

And now it's onto the next one...

Yeah. Margarets is gonna be pretty new for everybody. Previously, no one had priority at Margarets and it was quite bad for hassling. But now that there's priority you're gonna get people sitting in the right place, and I think there's gonna be some huge scores going down – some massive turns. I'm really excited for that. I actually can't wait.

We heard the backup wave is going to be The Box. What do you think?

I think it's a great option but I can't really see them moving there… If The Box is good then Margarets is pretty much the best ever. Especially with the tides, it would only have 2-3 hours of solid surfing before...

For full interview, check out SL's 'Is it Jordy's Year?'