Cape Town - South African surfer Jordy Smith has made it to the final of the Real Surf X-Games Surfing event.
The summer and winter X-Games is an annual sports event, which focuses on action sports, and the event has been around since 1995. Featured sports comprise motocross, skateboarding, BMX and snowboarding to name a few.
This year is the inaugural year for surfing to be included in the X-Games. Due to the nature of the sport of surfing and it not being a stadium sport, the surfing event has been a purely online event, with eight of the best surfers in the world dropping 90-second video clips of themselves surfing, and then going man-on-man online with the winner chosen by a voting panel and a public vote.
Voting link for the final
Twenty-five-year-old Smith, from Camps Bay in Cape Town, has had a clean run to the final, eliminating Hawaiian Albee Layer and Australian Josh Kerr along the way.
Eleven-times world champion Kelly Slater was looking like a sure bet for the finals, but was eliminated by young Brazilian Gabriel Medina who eliminated Slater in the semi-finals and advanced into the final.
Smith’s 90-second clip was shot in and around Cape Town, as well as at a very remote and little-known location Mozambique and it is the Mozambique section that has seen him advance to the final.
There is a respected panel of judges, as well as a public vote in place to find the Gold Medal winner.
Smith is currently placed seventh on the ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) WCT (World Championship Tour).
The summer and winter X-Games is an annual sports event, which focuses on action sports, and the event has been around since 1995. Featured sports comprise motocross, skateboarding, BMX and snowboarding to name a few.
This year is the inaugural year for surfing to be included in the X-Games. Due to the nature of the sport of surfing and it not being a stadium sport, the surfing event has been a purely online event, with eight of the best surfers in the world dropping 90-second video clips of themselves surfing, and then going man-on-man online with the winner chosen by a voting panel and a public vote.
Voting link for the final
Twenty-five-year-old Smith, from Camps Bay in Cape Town, has had a clean run to the final, eliminating Hawaiian Albee Layer and Australian Josh Kerr along the way.
Eleven-times world champion Kelly Slater was looking like a sure bet for the finals, but was eliminated by young Brazilian Gabriel Medina who eliminated Slater in the semi-finals and advanced into the final.
Smith’s 90-second clip was shot in and around Cape Town, as well as at a very remote and little-known location Mozambique and it is the Mozambique section that has seen him advance to the final.
There is a respected panel of judges, as well as a public vote in place to find the Gold Medal winner.
Smith is currently placed seventh on the ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) WCT (World Championship Tour).