Jordy Smith vs Luke Thompson | Corona Cero Open J-Bay 2025 – Elimination Round

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As stop No. 10 on the Championship Tour, the pressure to make the WSL Final 5 is peaking at the Corona Cero Open J-Bay. This right hand point break delivers one of the fastest, most technical waves on Earth. With World Title campaigns on the line, every carve and section counts. J-Bay is no longer just a proving ground. It’s the penultimate decider who will make it to Fiji for the Lexus WSL Finals.

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Corona Cero Open J-Bay – Men’s Elimination Round heat 1 – Condensed Heat

00:00:00 – Heat Start
00:00:17 – Wave by Jordy Smith
00:01:35 – Wave by Luke Thompson
00:03:01 – Wave by Jordy Smith
00:04:59 – Wave by Luke Thompson
00:05:42 – Wave by Jordy Smith
00:06:31 – Wave by Luke Thompson
00:07:15 – Wave by Jordy Smith
00:07:53 – Wave by Luke Thompson
00:09:21 – Wave by Jordy Smith
00:09:33 – Heat End

Big thanks to Emma Smith showing us around this beautiful part of the world here in South Africa. Still enjoying our time here in big heats and a huge one right in front of us. Elimination round heat one here at the Corona Sah Open. J Bay features world number one, South Africa’s Jordy Smith. Luke was a loss for words. He just started balling. You’re just seeing everyone cheering for him. It was a really cool thing to witness. Watching Jordy now, who is gifted priority since Luke got the wave before the heat started, throws the carb to tail release. This man creates time on one of the fastest waves on the planet. Now starting to roll. Smith lays it down. Solid compressing power carve. Taps the lip. Rides out with it. More than people would probably expect. Well, lucky for him that was the last turn, too. That’s true. And this is what Jordy got to catch. And so, he started the heat with priority. Rosie, I love that first turn from Jordy. And another person that is just so um uh he’s putting his turns in the exact right place, the pacing of his surfing. I mean, he rolls out of bed and and he’s got a bird’s eye view of this wave. So, he knows it so intricately. This is going to be an interesting like obviously George Jord Jordy bringing a a much more aggressive approach and more variety to the table like that first turn bringing the nose all the way back around and that layback combination with this finish right here. But it felt like Luke had a better pace of a wave like the wave connected all the way through backto back major maneuvers fist pump to match the crowd’s energy. Luke Thompson now hitting it off the top. Getting a huge response from the crowd as well. South Africa celebrating surfing and Luke Thompson feeling a flex in his equipment point, but he’s still going to have to paddle out. And Jordy slowly making his way out the back. So, as we watch Luke’s opening ride, Luke still on the beach. What did you see here, Rosie? Oh, just such a beautiful aggressive approach. I mean, a lot of people saying that he was one of the standouts during the free surf to see him apply that same surfing to this heat. I think a lot of speed in his surfing, a lot of flow, and not too much downtime between turns. But I wonder when it the the the crease happened maybe on this uh finishing maneuver, Jesse. You see it kind of reverb right there in that ver um that looked like the most critical part that he could have done, right? Like right on top of the fin boxes right there. like the typical hard not to think of great wild card stories as Luke Thompson wants to put his name in the narrative to be next to guys like Shawn Holmes who was dismantling the top surfers of the tour for for many years. That was a big moment in JB history and 210s against Lao years back. Up and out is Luke Thompson. Luke just fishing for something to work with there. And all of a sudden, the heat starts and they try doing back flips in 10-ft airs. You know, your brain can almost explode. As we look at Jordy Smith, one of the best ever to ride this wave. Starts off with a climb trying to find that beautiful tempo. Big arc engaging the rail. Hits it off the lip. Nice easy pace to follow from the big man. And he’ll line up this nice carve back into the pocket. drives into another classic little carving section and thinking about a big rooftop flow covering so much ground beating that section snaps off the lip line winds up again and a huge response world number one flexing to this local crown watch him perform like this it’s a it’s a special moment against the next generation as well and like I mentioned a 783 it’s not enough and the pace that he carries through this wave is so smart. He starts it off kind of slower, make sure he doesn’t overcooks it. And I really like that turn right there. After he finish it, he looks over to the bottom of the wave to make sure all that noise and that whitewash from the previous wave tracking didn’t bother him. So just knows how in tune and how present in that moment he is. Massive floater right here. Looked like the wave was going to finish, but somehow just makes it around. And I got to say, he’s going to get something close to the best wave that we had so far today. That was Yagodoras. Like the damage he’s done on that wave was incredible. Just has so much time, doesn’t he, Rosie? And I think with JB, it’s not just the maneuvers that you’re doing. It’s what you’re doing in between those moves. And there’s no kind of tic-tac toe for him. It’s all just seamless, just a well sequenced wave um choreographed. It’s such a good point. It’s that there’s it’s easy to look lost on this wave or look like you’re not sure where you should be going. Jordy never looks like that going with his seven-point ride out front. So now Luke Thompson really needs to fight back here. Needing an 861. The wild card from Cape Town. Floats it off the top. [Music] Little check turn there for Luke. There’s his version of that rooftop float. Jordy was able to do that float and then created a bonus section to finish back in the day as we check out the last of Luke Thompson. Rosie. Yeah, I’m loving the aggression from Luke and definitely the speed from him. Um, just doing some beautiful surfing. I think the the last floating maneuver. He almost he flipped his board over just to have a look to see if he’d maybe buckled it again because that was such a So, Miguel Poop versus Marco Mo. Priority heat is with Jordy Smith and Luke Thompson. Speeding down the line is Jordy after the 943. Attacking the Whitewater targets. Filling in the gap well with a wrapping cut back. The best with speed management on this right hand wall. Little off balance float and trying to reather himself. Now Jordy on his last Jesse. Yeah, with that texture that Rosie mentioned, you can see the first wave of the set just very chattery, kind of broken. And that’s what happened at Jord’s wave. He needs to keep the rails kind of flat because if you try to dig too much, you’re going to get caught and all these lip line turns kind of the same way. He’s definitely not going to better the sevenpoint rider that he already has. And he catches once again on your forehand. So very very clever that he picked that out and just gave himself an attack mode in advantage from obviously the opponent that he is against. Marco Mor regular footer and Luke Thompson getting the chip in. Got a nice tail release right in front of Jordy Rosie. Yeah, this wave um you could just tell that it had better shape, more vertical sections to attack. That’s our first look at it. So just getting hung up there on that last maneuver. That’s how Jordy had to get that extra heat in round five. And then Jordy beat Fanning to take his second win of his career. Thompson trying to create an upset in the title race. Throws down his first turn. Second one flying away. And now Jord’s on the next one. Smith opening up. Big powerful front side hook. Nice easy float now. Stepping into another big open face section to lay down the carve. He gets caught behind. on that one. We’re really indicating to good things. He’s got to drop the seven from his score line. He’s locked in the nine. But this was looking just so beautiful, Jesse. Yeah, that was so incredible. It felt like he was on his way to another nine. Like looking at the pace of the wave and how much rail he was digging in both of the carves he had, but that wave just slipped out of his hand by a touch. But when it came to the final, he grabbed that V12 from his dad, GeForce. Thompson. Here comes Luke Thompson. Nice opportunity to lay that rail down. Great style and flow through the climb. Even popping the fins out the back into a nice clean wrapping cut back. Keeping that flow in sync going rail to rail and variety down the stretch. He will shut it down. Jordy got the 943. Great response from Luke Thompson on this one. Really good use of priority. And this is just championship tour caliber surfing. That first maneuver absolutely dismantles it and puts him in such a good position for that second maneuver. Staying low and just anticipating the next turns. Much like Jordy, there isn’t much downtime between his maneuvers and the flow is beautiful to watch. Needs the 8.6 to take the lead. That’s a really good wave. That is a very good wave. The only thing is you got to compare it to the 9.43 to it. I mean, he was solid. He was impeccable on that wave. I don’t think he even had any mistakes as far as you know catching any rails or misiming turns. It was just everything on the perfect spot to it. But was that enough? Now back to Luke live. Nice clean snap and just flowing down the line off the top. Chuck tail reverse. Bard flips under his feet. Scary little landing when your board starting to flip underneath you with those sharp fins. got a lot to be proud of and South Africa has got a ton to be proud of. Jordy Smith, world number one, survives a great battle with Cape Town’s Luke Thompson. He powers sprayed. Look, that was right behind right there. We couldn’t see it from from the screen, but that’s why he was smiling. He’s like, “Hey, I’m still in town, buddy. You got to spray the grommet,