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Jeffreys Bay - Jordy Smith has ended the 2010 ASP world tour season ranked number two, the best result by a South African surfer since 1977 World Champion Shaun Tomson finished second in 1984.
Smith won his maiden event title at the Billabong Pro in Jeffreys Bay in July and also reached the final in two other events, finishing runner-up to Australia's Taj Burrow in the season opening Quiksilver Pro on Australia's Gold Coast and to newly crowned 10-time ASP world champion, American Kelly Slater, at the Rip Curl Pro Portugal in October.
The 22-year-old Durbanite started his break-through third year on the dream tour, the highest level of competition surfing, with an entirely new strategy.
Realising he performed at his best when relaxed and not under pressure to get results, his mantra became "I'm just going to go out there and have fun and let the results take care of themselves."
And the new approach really worked as a more relaxed Smith employed his patented aerial attack and futuristic manoeuvres to defeat the cream of the world's top competitive surfers on a regular basis, only failing to reach the last eight once in the 10 events - when he was bundled out in the round of 32 by wildcard Manoa Drollet at Teahupoo in Tahiti.
His one victory, two seconds, six fifth place finishes and one 17th, plus a couple of good results in Prime and Star rated events, saw Smith amass $235 150 in prize-money in 2010, taking his career prize-money earnings to just over $526 000 and signing up a slew of new sponsorship deals along the way.
Slater, 38, undeniably the best competitive surfer of all time, reached the final in six of the 10 events, winning four titles, and accumulated $416 000 in 2010, including a bonus of $100 000 for winning the ASP World Title.
The other five event titles were won by Burrow, rookie Jadson Andre (a 20-year-old Brazilian whose father is two years younger than Slater), the late former three-time ASP world champion Andy Irons (HAW), two-time and 2009 ASP World Champion Mick Fanning (AUS) and Jeremy Flores (FRA) who became the first European surfer to win an event in Hawaii by capturing the Billabong Pipeline Masters in memory of Andy Irons.
The 2011 ASP World Tour will get underway with the Quiksilver Pro on Australia's Gold Coast at the end of February.
