- According to the latest update from Panama, all of our surfers are still alive in the competition at the Panama ISA World Masters Surfing Championship! This means that South Africa is tied for first place with Brazil and Australia. The winners will be determined tomorrow, 4 September 2010. Good luck, guys and gal!

- In the mean time, back in home surf, the Billabong Junior Series has gotten underway in Herold’s Bay, near George, after organisers made the decision to relocate the event from Victoria Bay in search of better waves. The move paid off and now South Africa’s top junior surfers, including the likes of Dylan Lightfoot, Sarah Baum, Bianca Buitendag, Tarryn Chudleigh, Alice McGregor, SA Open champion Chantelle Rautenbach, Kirsty Delport, Benji Brand, Steven Sawyer, Mikey Venter, Jarred Veldhuis and Slade Prestwich are all vying for the title and one of three spots in the inaugural ASP World Junior Tour to take place in Bali at the end of October.

-For those of us who aren’t quite as skilled on the board, here’s your chance to conquer the biggest waves in some of the world’s top surf spots – including South Africa’s very own J-Bay – simply by using your fingers when you play a new game called Billabong Surf Trip. The arcade-simulation surfing game, which was developed by Billabong and Biodroid, a Portuguese game developer, can be played on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Featuring some of the best professional surfers in the world, such as Andy Irons, Taj Burrows, Joel Parkinson and Tiago Pires, players will be able to experience super-realistic waves from Billabong Surf Trip destinations such as Mundaka in Spain, Pipeline in Hawaii and many others.

The surf-art style graphics create super-realistic visuals, and the game has many highlights that create a whole world inside the surfing culture. Future platforms will include Sony PSP, Wii Ware, Xbox 360

By accomplishing this amazing feat, during which he defeated Australia’s Adam Melling in the last round, the 22-year old also managed to secure the top spot on the ASP World Title Race Rankings, knocking the legendary Kelly Slater from his perch as the world’s number one surfer.

“This is the best day of my life,” Jordy said from the podium. “The crowd on the beach has been supporting me the last few days and hearing the cheers and the vuvuzelas just get me fired up to perform. It feels like they’re pushing me along. I couldn’t have done it without them.

“I knew the swell was dying and I had to take advantage of every wave that came through.” Referring to Adam Melling, he said: “[He] is such a dangerous surfer. He’s been in form all day and I knew that if he got the waves, he would get the scores. I went out there knowing I had to open up strong.”

Adam said: “The ocean didn’t cooperate with me in the Final so that’s a shame but I couldn’t be happier. We had amazing waves and to get the best result of my career is huge. I came into Jeffreys with a long road ahead if I were to make the mid-year cut-off, and now that I’m 19th, I feel like I have a bit of a buffer heading into Tahiti. I worked really hard to get here and I want to stay here.”

The next stop on the 2010 ASP World Tour is the Billabong Pro Tahiti from August 23 through September 3, 2010.

Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Final Results:

1 – Jordy Smith (ZAF) 17.93
2 – Adam Melling (AUS) 10.00

Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Semi-final Results:

SF 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.83 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.40
SF 2: Adam Melling (AUS) 14.00 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 10.67

Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Quarter-final Results:

QF 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 16.43 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 9.20
QF 2: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.17 def. Sean Holmes (ZAF) 11.83
QF 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 11.00 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 3.66
QF 4: Adam Melling (AUS) 16.43 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 5.67

Current ASP World Title Race Top 5 (after South Africa):

1. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 28500 pts
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) 24750 pts
3. Kelly Slater (USA) 23500 pts
4. Dane Reynolds (USA) 20000 pts
5. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 19500 pts
6. Mick Fanning (AUS) 19250 pts
7. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18750 pts
8. Bobby Martinez (USA) 16500 pts
9. Jadson Andre (BRA) 16000 pts
10. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 14750 pts

The 22-year old East London native has qualified for her fourth consecutive season on the ASP Women’s World Tour after finishing in the top ten (she’s ranked at No. 9) at the end of 2009. Hodge also got to rub shoulders with surfing’s elite.

Other honorees at the event, which took place at the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Queensland, Australia, last Thursday evening, were Gold Coast natives duo Mick Fanning (28) and Stephanie Gilmore (22) who were officially crowned ASP World Champion and ASP Women’s World Champion respectively.

Another Australian, 28-year old Joel Parkinson and Brazilian Silvana Lima (25), received the 2009 ASP World Runner-Up and ASP Women’s World Runner-Up respectively.

Former nine-time ASP World Champion and current ASP World No 6, 38-year old Kelly Slater also attended the event and was on hand to give Fanning the ASP World Title trophy.

28-year old Australian Joel Parkinson surfed away with the honours in 1 – 1.5 metre surf, beating American Damien Hobgood.

After the beginning of the championship was delayed due to disappointing surf, conditions improved to such an extent that the event – the fifth of ten on the on the ASP World Tour – is already being called one of the finest in history.

Reports Girl Racer: “Parkinson wasted no time in the 40-minute Final, smashing an excellent 9.47 out of a possible 10 on his opening wave. The wave exhibited the Australian’s unparalleled mastery of the Jeffrey’s Bay lineup, a symphony of beautiful forehand arcs and committed barrel riding, taking off from “Boneyards” section at the top of the point and riding well over 200 metres to the eruption of crowds on the beach.”

This is the second Jeffrey’s Bay Billabong Pro victory for Joel. The first time he won the event was ten years ago in 1999.

The next stop on the 2009 ASP World Tour will be the Hurley Pro Trestles in Southern California from September 13 – 19, 2009.

For more information about today’s Billabong Pro final, visit the official website.

So it’s a bit ironic that small surf was the cause for a lay day being called at the Billabong Pro surfing championship. The event, the fifth of ten on the 2009 ASP World Tour, has been delayed until tomorrow morning – when conditions will be reassessed – due to this morning’s small two-to-three (one metre) waves.

According to Mike Parsons, Billabong Pro Contest Director, the swell models they’ve been tracking have moved a bit south, with improving swell models giving them an optimistic outlook that they’ll have bigger waves as early as tomorrow.

Yesterday, at the completion of the VonZipper Trials, local Devyn Matthews won his heat, earning himself a wildcard berth into the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay. Other South Africans who also received wildcards are Shaun Holmes and Ryan Payne.

Once the conditions improve, the first round match-ups look as follows:

Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF), Tim Boal (FRA), Michael Picon (FRA)

Heat 2: Tom Whitaker (AUS), Jay Thompson (AUS), Nathaniel Curran (USA)

Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA), Josh Kerr (AUS), Nic Muscroft (AUS)

Heat 4: Mick Fanning (AUS), Kai Otton (AUS), Phillip MacDonald (AUS)

Heat 5: Bede Durbidge (AUS), Dean Morrison (AUS), Marlon Lipke (DEU)

Heat 6: C.J. Hobgood (USA), Chris Ward (USA), TBA

Heat 7: Adriano de Souza (BRA), Dustin Barca (HAW), TBA

Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Kekoa Bacalso (HAW), TBA

Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS), Tim Reyes (USA), TBA

Heat 10: Kelly Slater (USA), Dayyan Neve (AUS), TBA

Heat 11: Damien Hobgood (USA), Heitor Alves (BRA), Greg Emslie (ZAF)

Heat 12: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW), Chris Davidson (AUS), David Weare (ZAF)

Heat 13: Jeremy Flores (FRA), Aritz Aranburu (EUK), Michel Bourez (PYF)

Heat 14: Taylor Knox (USA), Jihad Khodr (BRA), Roy Powers (HAW)

Heat 15: Mick Campbell (AUS), Tiago Pires (PRT), Ben Dunn (AUS)

Heat 16: Kieren Perrow (AUS), Dane Reynolds (USA), Drew Courtney (AUS)