THE Corona Open JBay, the anchor event of the annual JBay Winterfest and the only World Surf League Championship Tour event in the country, is set to take to the waves at Supertubes in Jeffreys Bay from July 2 to 16.
The event attracts the top competitive surfers in the world, including current world champion John John Florence from Hawaii, multiple world-champion Kelly Slater from Florida, previous multiple event winner Jordy Smith from Durban, previous world champion Gabriel Medina from Brazil, as well as last year’s event champion Filipe Toledo, also from Brazil. They will be joined by rookie Mikey February from Cape Town.
This year will also see the women return for their cham- pionship tour event at Jeffreys Bay – the first time since 2000.
The top rated women on the Championship Tour includes Stephanie Gilmore from Australia, Lakey Peterson from USA, Tatiana Weston-Webb from Brazil and Carissa Moore from Hawaii.
LIVE WEBCAST
The Corona Open JBay also enjoys a live webcast that is beamed to hundreds of thousands of viewers worldwide in real time. The webcast has multiple camera angles and a full complement of commentating staff to bring spectators the blow-by-blow breakdowns of the plays taking place, the world title ramifications, as well as any other interesting side stories going down.
There will be a full shark mitigation system in place for the contest – including shark spotters, drones, spotter planes, and jet ski surveillance.
With US$100 000 for first prize, the competition is fierce.
Last year’s winner, Filipe Toledo from Brazil, surfed amazingly with new school air surfing winning the heats. Durbanite Jordy Smith was the only surfer to score 20 points out of a possible 20 – a perfect heat score.
