Jordy Smith is the highly decorated surfer from Durban, South Africa. Starting out at just 3 years old, he’s now aiming to complete 20 consecutive tours – a feat no other rider has done.
Jordy Smith grew up on the world stage of surfing. He's a two-time runner up for the World title and was selected to represent South Africa at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Although a World Title on the WSL Championship Tour has eluded him this far, Jordy doesn’t hold onto this. Afterall, it's not about the destination, it’s about how you get there.
“[World titles] kind of hasn’t happened for me, but at the end of the day they say it’s about the journey and not so much the destination.”
Dubbed the King of the Metaphor by his good friend and manager, Damien "Dooma" Fahrenfort, Jordy Smith has a delightful ability to pull figurative analogies out of his pocket like paper. Granted, some teeter on the verge of being Dad jokes over anything too profound, but for the most part he’s armed with a well-timed figure of speech or quote to pull you out of the trenches and it’s just one of the reasons he is so well-respected on tour.
While Jordy isn’t short of some serious titles to his name, the one that feels close enough to grab but always remains fractionally out of reach is the World Title. A runner-up in both 2010 and 2016, and a top-five finisher in 2017, 2018 and 2019, he’d be lying if he said that securing first place on that podium wasn’t still a driving force behind his career. That said, when he achieves it – it won’t be chalked down as his greatest success. No, that accolade is reserved for his son and the fact he gets to travel the world with his family – experiencing beautiful new places, people and cultures firsthand – all while earning a living doing the sport he’s besotted with.
Jordys' Picks
