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The event was a 6-star prime event on the World Qualifying Series and Julian was rewarded with a R408 000 prize and 6 500 WQS points. Julian is currently placed 11th on the World Championship Tour and has been on a world title hunt this year.
In the punchy beach break conditions at Ballito it was all about aerial surfing, with Julian coming up against crowd favourite Jordy Smith, with both surfers doing huge aerial turns including forehand air reverses and boosts into the wind to impress the assembled judges.
The results switched throughout the final, with Jordy leading in the beginning of the heat with some solid scores. Julian came back with a huge aerial move, a perfect alley-oop, to score a perfect 10-point score from all the judges, to leave Jordy trailing.
Jordy fought back hard in the tail end of the heat, but was unable to find the high scoring waves that he needed, and as the clock ticked down the win went to a very stoked Julian Wilson.
“It's great to make a final. Julian’s an amazing surfer and
it was an honour to be in a final with him,“ said Jordy.
“That air that he pulled off was pretty sick. The fans have been amazing as well, and without you guys I wouldn’t get as amped as I get.”
Julian was an all-smiling winner on the podium. A big fan of the people and waves of South Africa, Julian comes back to compete every year, and this has been his best year so far.
“I was really happy to get a win,” said Wilson.
”South Africa is a great place with lovely people and amazing food. It was great that the final had those sorts of waves that we had. It was really good conditions to do some airs and make a final of it.”
Julian was also pretty excited about that 10-point ride that he scored in the final.
“It was the first time I have landed that air in the
contest,” said Julian.
”I was pretty stoked to get a perfect score for. I knew
that I had to do something big, and was happy to pull it off.”
