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Cape Town - South Africa's Jordy Smith has increased his lead at the top of the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT) rankings.
According to SASCOC's website, Smith finished runner-up to Brazil's Filipe Toledo in the final of the Hurley Pro Trestles - the eighth stop of 11.
In a wave-starved final in San Diego, Smith's strategy of waiting for the bigger waves saw him record the highest score of the 35-minute encounter a 9.0 out of 10.
However, Toledo stayed busy and racked up scores of 8.0 and 7.67 to secure his first title at Trestles and in the process became the first male CT surfer to win two events this year.
"I would've liked to get a couple more waves in that heat, but it wasn't my day, unfortunately, and Filipe (Toledo) just surfed really well," Smith said.
"I went out there with a strategy and executed it pretty much as perfectly as I could. But in surfing there are some things you can't control and that's Mother Nature. In those 35 minutes I just didn't get a second chance.
"Now I'll just try to focus on the next event and live every moment for what it is and what's to come. It's time to get ready for Europe where it's very happy-go-lucky and I like roaming those lineups and just being there."
Smith, who came into the event ranked No 1, is 950 points ahead of 2016 world champion John John Florence of Hawaii and earned $50 000 (approx R650 000) and 8000 points at Trestles.
The Durbanite is now 2450 points ahead of Florence, who remains runner-up in the rankings following his defeat by Toledo in the semi-finals, and 8650 points above No 3 Julian Wilson of Australia.
