Finals Day: 2025 J-Bay Open
Finals Day: 2025 J-Bay Open
Epic Finals Day at pumping J-Bay concluded with wins to Connor O'Leary and Gabby Bryan and, it must be said, the WSL. The only tempering factor was a typically bewildering and maddening broadcast which seemed allergic to live action, including the most tense and high stakes moments.
Given the quality of opposition in front of him it was brave in the extreme for Connor to “call his major” at the conclusion of his tight heat win over Italo and claim he wanted to “showcase the best backside surfing anyone's ever seen here”. After the quality of his surfing on Finals Day, including a majestic 10 point ride, that claim requires serious examination. If not the best ever it needs to go up there with Occy in '84 and Gabe Medina in 2019, better than Wilko in 2017. Yago Dora also needs to go into that pantheon of goofy-foots setting an insane new performance bar at J-Bay after his surfing on Finals Day.
Connor (WSL/Alan van Gysen)
Let's rewind the tape. Early womens heats were a little underwhelming. Hesitation, lack of commitment, safety surfing etc etc. To be fair, early winds were a bit variable and lacking the stiff offshore surf was strong, sectiony and often with a funky wobble running down the Point which made it tough to get hold of sections, although Gabby Bryan's 8+ ride to finish off Tyler Wright showed it was mostly surfers, not conditions that were responsible.
Caity's Quarter-final appearance is misleading as far as her overall J-Bay campaign goes. She never found a comfort level out there that suggested a finals worthy performance. She picked wide sets that didn't offer much in the way of steep sections and her diminutive frame struggled to engage with the water mass to produce anything like world champ worthy turns. As always, no lack of style- trimming across massive walls looked majestic- or bravery, she slotted into a bulbous cavern on her first ride only to see the exit cut off by avalanche. She rode 11 waves in competition over 3 heats with her best a paltry 6.67. By her own words Caity doesn't seem prepared to “jock up” and hit the gym and the protein powder so it's likely this disadvantage she carries in more open water locations against more athletic opponents will continue on.
Her QF opponent and world title protagonist last year Caroline Marks looked equally ill-suited to J-bay. Sixteen rides for a Semi-Final finish with a top scoring ride of 6.50. Caz just does not seem prepared to take the judges very, very clear message about her surfing and lift the level. Introduce more risk and commitment to it. A whole year has now gone by without a single excellent ride. Somehow, despite this endless procession of 4's, 5's and 6's Caz sits at No 6, just outside the top 5. It would make a mockery of the current performance level of women's surfing if she made Finals Day.
There's no doubt the person setting that standard at the moment is Molly Picklum. Comparing her campaign with Caity Simmers is chalk and cheese. Excellence from the beginning. Huge turns, total commitment from the bottom to the top. Full repertoire of carves, top turns and going big on the end section. She got better as the event went on- better reads, smoother lines, nicer looking carves. Pickles was easily the best female surfer of the event. Unfortunately, as she has done all year, despite being the best surfer all event she just fumbled the bag right before the finish line. Four Finals with a single win is a bad winning percentage. It did make me wonder whether the new Final 5 rules had been rejigged just for Pickles. She'll highly likely carry yellow into Fiji and with the new rules, just needs to win a single heat to avoid the heartbreak that plagued Carissa's Finals Day meltdowns.
Molly (WSL/Alan van Gysen)
I think it's a terrible last minute shifting of the goalposts. Fans want more surfing under pressure on Finals Day, not less. Especially if it's pumping Cloudbreak. This is the last year, why not let the format play out as it was designed? Watering it down now just seems like a panic move to appease pressured surfers or their sponsors.
If, by some weird quirk ( a waveless heat, not making a tube etc etc) Pickles does lose early at Teahupoo and Gabby takes the yellow, she will rue the J-Bay Final where she had the waves to win.
Even in the last minute, with Gabby retaking the lead with a typical utilitarian ride punctuated with vicious lateral power gouges, Pickles had a choice of two waves with the clock counting down.The first wider set she duckdived instead of scrambling for the shoulder, the second, as the clock ticked down she simply looked at and turned her nose up at it. It was an inexplicable brain fart. What was she waiting for? A time machine?
Credit to Gabby Bryan for her willingness to gouge hard on every corner J-Bay offered. It wasn't as aesthetically pleasing or as comprehensive as Pickles approach but in the end she only needed to be better than her over a 30 minute period, and she was. The women's title race is wide open. No-one carries experience or favouritism into Fiji. The fact the WSL has just removed one variable makes it only marginally less interesting.
By the time the men's Quarters started the offshore had kicked back in.The top end sets were a little less frequent and the tide was draining. J-Bay was in full dream sequence mode under bluebird skies. Performances started to ramp right up. Some of the losing surfers offered up the best surfing seen all year. Epic heats were consistently won via closing rides. First was Yago who set the template for big wins for goofy-foots with a buzzer beater to knock out Leo. The goofy-foot advantage is the ability to create a crescendo of vertical turns culminating in a massive end section hit.
Griff (WSL/Kody McGregor)
Griff looked sensational to take down Kanoa. I thought both of his scoring rides were excellent but judges kept them in the 7 point range. That stingy judging carried over the Toledo's heat win over Marco Mignot. Big turns that in previous years had gone excellent were locked into the 6 point range, hinting at a meltdown. It took a long, deep double tube for Toledo to finally shake off Mignot and go excellent. Once again Toledo hosed down any expectations of making the Final 5 making it clear that his performance was about J-Bay and “there's no Final 5 involved”. A strange position for a 2 time world champ to take with one event remaining. It's like he's put the cue in the rack as a title contender and is content to make up the numbers.
It presents a stark split-screen contrast with current world No1 Yago Dora. Yago has been explicit in his belief that his surfing is world title standard and that is what he is aiming for.
There were a lot of great heats on Finals Day but the Semi-Final between Dora and the elder Colapinto would have to take the cake for the best. Griff was insane, throwing down every bit of repertoire at full throttle against Yago. He came up, in the end, one or two failed end section hits short of Yago's stylish vertical whips. It could have easily gone either way.
Yago (WSL/Kody McGregor)
Connor's heat wins on Finals Day were more definitive. He went into both Quarters and Semis as massive underdog against former champs and acknowledged masters of J-Bay. 75% of fans picked Ewing to knock out O'leary and for most of the heat that is exactly what looked like occurring. Ewing had control of the heat with winning exchanges and Priority with minutes remaining. Sets were stacked and Connor took a mid-sizer off Ewing with P that grew down the line like the best Point waves do. As the wave increased in size and intensity O'leary's backhand belts grew more extravagantly violent and daring. It was like witnessing a choreographed fight scene from a Tarantino film. Not quite real. Judges had to pay it with the best score of the heat and threw it the winning number. Coming in down through Impossibles O'leary found property owner Jordy Smith yelling himself hoarse from his ocean view balcony. The big goofy had done a favour (in his words) for the “big bru”, by knocking out a Final Fiver and preventing Smith from sliding further down the rankings.
Ethan (WSL/Kody McGregor)
If he was a massive dog for the Ewing heat he was even moreso against 3 time winner Toledo. A full 81% of fans had picked Toledo as the winner. 4 minutes and change remaining and chasing a 7 O'leary found another mid-sized set hugging the Point. Two big outside carves and then he found a long tubing section through the middle part of the wave- the only one all day. A long, deep backside tube ensued then he hit the backhand combinations which had been so deadly all day. Five huge turns were added to the outside turns and deep tube. Collective roars, hoots, screams and various other animal sounds were heard from the crowd as this greatest ever backside ride went down in the glorious African afternoon light, famous for it's clarity. It had to go ten and it did go ten.
You couldn't blame Connor for a come down in the Final after that stunning summit was reached.
He started the Final strongly after one small throwaway ride. It took some time before we saw it.
Perfect J-Bay is a dream for the fans and purists- it's a highwater mark for the sport in the same way Wimbledon or the US Open is for Tennis and Golf. Unlike those sports though, we now know it doesn't work like that for pro surfing. In a candid interview with STAB magazine WSL stalwart Graham Stapelberg indicated “iconic” events like Fiji and J-Bay “don't make us money” and they couldn't add more (like Indonesia) or “we won’t be in business much longer”.
Thus we get the curious and maddening situation whereby live broadcasts are interrupted by long ads by the Tourism ventures which bankrolled the event. Imagine Wimbledon with a tiebreak in the Finals and we cut to a long segueway about riding on the London Red double-decker buses and how it brought one of the commentators to tears. Which is what we got if you substitute a safari for the bus ride. Surely the sport has to instigate some kind of pay per view, at least for these iconic events so they can be broadcast as sporting spectacles and not loss leaders for tourism ventures.
Not even these egregious broadcast fails could dampen the spirits when Connor ran through the gears yet again for an excellent ride and a winning back-up to take his first event win.
Connor (WSL/Kody McGregor)
Author and concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl in his famous ode to the human spirit “Man's search for meaning” ascribed meaning to any acts that fulfilled the potential in any given moment and that once performed these acts had this value “irrevocably stored and treasured”. Such will be that day for Connor, Gabby and surf fans, an asset now in the past that can never be removed.
No great change, somehow, to the Final 5 on either Men's or Womens sides. Yago swaps Jordy for yellow and Molly and Gabby sit out at one and two with daylight to Caity.
Bring on Teahupoo. //STEVE SHEARER
(WSL/Alan Van Gysen)
Comments
Man that was an epic day. The Griff v Yago semi was as good as it gets, neither deserved to lose. Stoked Connor finally cracked the code and got a win, Italo, EE, Filipe and Yago is a hell of a roll.
Feel a bit gutted for EE, he ripped, that photo is incredible, but again fell at critical moments on potentially heat winning waves. He seems to perform much better as an underdog than a favourite, when he just seems to wilt. Hopefully he can find a way to unlock a bit more mongrel next year, but in a season where he couldn’t even crack a final with El Salvador, Bells, Burleigh, Margs, Trestles and J bay on the schedule, something’s not right.
Thanks for the great write up, as always Steve.
It was an entertaining day, nice wrap Steve.
"...property owner Jordy Smith"
Brilliant! Big night in jbay !
“Imagine Wimbledon with a tiebreak in the Finals and we cut to a long segueway about riding on the London Red double-decker buses and how it brought one of the commentators to tears.”
Lol. Funny/sad but true.
How was your steak big guy ?
Viktor Frankl just earned you a 10.
And well done Connor O
I guess he was treated much better in those camps than is currently happening in Gaza.
Here we go:
So, according to your logic, being gassed to death by the Sturmtruppen SS for the crime of being Jewish in Nazi Germany, the greatest genocide of the century, was a cup of tea in the park compared to the current situation in Gaza, where Hamas tries to hide their command centres and active combatants under hospitals, below schools and among supportive civilians and these civilians suffer casualties as a result but continue to support Hamas and the eradication of the State of Israel?
What sort of curriculum do they teach in Australian schools, if the original poster has attended school of any type at all?
You sound like an American.
Thank You.
I am a citizen of the United States of America.
Don’t be thankful mate.
I’m surprised someone as well travelled as you is still so USA x3 brainwashed.
aka just anutha ‘seppo cunt’ ;);)
Carrot cake ;);)
Connor 10 points !!!!!!
Congrats enjoy the moment !
Bravo to all the finalists !
Especially as they say , "The winners are grinners and the losers have to please themselves."
Crazy finals day in beautiful waves. Couldn't sum it up better.
Kinda feel like going on Safari.
molly was quickly ordered told not to mention the apple watch malfunctioning
sucks if she thought there was more time. might have to wear their own watches as well to timekeep.
Great write up as always Steve and what a legendary finals day. Couldn’t even be mad at Connor’s last minute wave against Ethan robbing me of a substantial pay day - stoked he then went on to take the whole thing out. Not bad for a renter
Best comp for a long time for excitement.
I am sick of seeing Toledo overscored. The 8 in the semi with Connor was at best a 6. No decent turns and you could see him the whole time in the barrel. Totally over the favoritism to him by the WSL and panel.
Great result for Connor and the celebrations with Dog and the dog pound would have been epic...
So refreshing to see NO Airs on finals day
Just good surfing
As close as professional surfing gets to the mantra of "Best surfing, Best surfers and Best Waves" -
Is it fair to suggest that similar to margs the last turn on the flats/bricks seem to get overscored and more often than not turn heats
Moments that sear, like Connor disappearing in that delectable flaring SA sun, ..he's going again ? Moments when the camera pans.
Winning at home, man these beachfront rentals are XE, no pressure big bru but you better fukin win, has a flipside. Looking at the beach grandstand chockas with property owners and their mates who’d made a special effort, put away the big game hunting gear for a day, gathered the clan and turned up to watch Jordy king of the jungle open Jbay's entrails as his chestbeating silverback dream run continued, then roast a baby rhino, some zebra legs, and get pissed.
Slow roasted indeed but he'll be back, with a vengeance. Probably working on a book right now, maybe needs some marketing advice?
Hey but thanks JC, you're alright by me, I mean anyone who can make me laugh that hard at my phone, and the smart-arsery you inspired, priceless.
Connor aggressively attacked the gnarliest sections he could find at Jbay and won, so did Gabby and Pickles, the way they shaped up to solid jbay, Steph would be so proud (how's the season earnings on those two, yew) Izzy too, though she'd Pro Surfer’d herself to a standstill by the end haha, great comp.
?si=O9bTruVKajwbagPIThe Risin Sun done stole our C.O’l away
Good report Steve, thanks. An epic J-Bay comp and great wins for Gabby and Conor. Richard Marsh's coaching deserves mentioning too. Good on him. And I agree with you on the miserly judging in the some of the quarters and semis. I hope the judges have a good look at their own performances after every comp. They really need to. After so many years complaining about this, it still irks me when judges don't use the full spread of scores available to them. Giving scores in the high 6 and seven point range, when some waves ridden clearly are excellent rides, happens too often. This sees the judging panel regularly painting itself into a bad corner. By not awarding higher scores, that are deserved, the margins between competing surfers become narrower. Heats then become closer on points than they should be. This can lead to poor/wrong results, and controversy. The remedy is simple. Award more excellent rides. Give higher scores that are deserving. Even if you award a 9 point ride, you all still have another 10 points to adjudicate and play around with to help analyse and separate the differences between all excellent rides. In short, allow yourselves more breathing room with your scoring. Please use the full range of scores better. You will feel better doing so. So will the competitors. And us spectators too. Cheers.
What an epic day, thanks for a great writeup.
yes! Connor with the win.
and the way it was done, pumping J-Bay, a fellow finalist at the top of his #1 worthy game... along with pro surfing we were the winners (broadcast missing key waves aside).
the heads coming out to congratulate Connor show that the vibe he puts out in interviews are legit and he must have a massive level of popularity and sincere respect from both the Womens and Mens competitors. a dead set legend... and a good bloke.
and his ten.... no dickheaded demand for a ten (like the usual dickheads) just a "holy shit that wave was awesome" arms up claim and then the reach flip top head tilt back when told it was a ten when he was climbing out over the rocks.
Connor rules.
in summary... YES!
Well said Nick.
Top write up Steve.
Great photos in the article, in particular Connor's
Congratulations Backhand-san and Boring-san's roundhouse.
Great report FR.
I really enjoyed the backhand hack-fest.
And extra points for avoiding the C word FR.
Good read and i really thought your analysis on the womens side was brilliant. Glad you mentioned that Caitys surfing was beautiful even if lacking the turns. Marks seems to have regressed under L.E...i remember hearing something about him telling her to fall off more. Has that had some reverse psychological effect in heats? She can do the big turns, she showed it on a couple of end sections.
Mollys melt was bizarre. Just knowing simple maths, 13 seconds doesn't go into 18 seconds as you paddle over the last wave of A FINAL should be a bare necessity in heat management. Incredible surfing.
That pic of EE above is insane. Would love to have seen him bring more of that carving game to his campaign.
And after watching that semi, if i ever need a refresher on how to backhand surf, that's the heat i'll be bringing up on youtube and watching in slow mo. Top of the tree stuff right there.
Great wrap FR! And epic finals day to enjoy.
Btw my favourite highlight of the WSL missed live waves catalogue, was when they filmed a rock for over 40seconds while live action was playing out. Surely they're missing live waves for a reason.
That was the best viewing since Gabs and Italo.
The forecast had me reminiscing that final all week and the goofies had my money and they took it next level.
So stoked for Connor.
Theres many non CT surfers that can charge big slabs or land big airs, but no one outside the tour is doing surfing like that.
Hopefully one day we get to see what JJF can do on a finals day like that.
Didn’t even watch it don’t really care. Only read this for Steve’s words.
This was the classic comment of all time:
“Imagine Wimbledon with a tiebreak in the Finals and we cut to a long segueway about riding on the London Red double-decker buses and how it brought one of the commentators to tears.”
No one really cares for Pro surfing. It was only ever designed to sell Surf clothing and the surfing lifestyle to the masses. Surfing is a participation sport not a spectator sport.
Surfing is the most alluring activity in existence for non surfers. In any line up from your local to Speedies 10% of the surfers get 90% of the waves…lots of crew just want to feel like they are part of the action
But I agree with the comment about selling clothing, what fraction of people who own surf attire can actually surf?
Didn’t even watch it don’t really care. Only read this for Steve’s words.
This was the classic comment of all time:
“Imagine Wimbledon with a tiebreak in the Finals and we cut to a long segueway about riding on the London Red double-decker buses and how it brought one of the commentators to tears.”
No one really cares for Pro surfing. It was only ever designed to sell Surf clothing and the surfing lifestyle to the masses. Surfing is a participation sport not a spectator sport.
Genuinely watchable from start to finish…why can’t it always be so?
EE should follow the Armand Duplantis playbook - do the bare minimum required to beat your opponent, then go to town…
Do yourself a favour Hamishbro.
I usually find Shearer's writings more exciting than the actual contests. This time, it found its match.
No talk of Bella’s and pickles semi which was the final for me both very smooth and stylish surfers
If I were Ryan Crosby, the WSL CEO who was supposedly in attendance at this Jeffrey's Bay event, I would impose an immediate executive order that plain white surfboards are no longer acceptable for professional surfing competition.
Just think how much more compelling (and watchable) a half-arsed graphic presentation on Connor O'Learys board would have made his epic 10 point wave in the semi-finals - a red board or variation thereof would have been so much more attractive on screens worldwide than this pathetic white board / black logo combination we have had now for more than 40 years of professional surfing.
With MILLIONS of views of this 10 point wave on social media within 24 hours, a compelling graphic presentation, as has been done in the past by World Champions like Martin Potter with his iconic Flames and then, the circular Target graphic and by Derek Ho, with his iconic Red, Green and Yellow graphic on his Island Classic surfboards and Mark Richards before them, who NEVER rode a white surfboard in a contest if he could do otherwise, there are many examples but for some reason, probably because no one told them it was important, surfboard graphics have regressed to plain white foam and black logos.
In the Social Media Age and in the Attention Economy, when a wave like Connor's 10 point ride in the semi-finals will rapidly proliferate on social media into millions of views in mere hours - a compelling graphic and distinctive, identifiable colourway should be made mandatory at the top level of professional surfing.
Every Formula 1 car and MotoGP motorcycle has a distinctive graphic pattern and colorway - immediately identifiable on ANY SCREEN without explanation,. The surfboards ridden by professional surfers at the top level of professional surfing competition should be the same.
Anything less is simply unprofessional.
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
identifiable
/ʌɪˈdɛntɪfʌɪəbl/
adjective
able to be recognized; distinguishable.
"His plain white surfboard with black logos were not easily identifiable"
Well, yeah, you’re not farkn Ryan Crosby …
& the wsl isn’t formula one or moto gp
- so, as us semi feral savages sometimes say:
Get a dog up ya ;)
It's because their boards are disposable so pumped out at cost minimum.
Not saying it's right.
How many boards would Pottz, Ho and MR have used in a whole tour year?
Like album covers ?
Artists everywhere saluting John C.
Nice Cover Art on this
?si=ZrWa5fVFrkTZjzf6Great waves, great show, great review.
Two Australian actors play the lead role in the 'Time Machine'. "All the time in the world...." in the 4th dimension...
Rod Taylor from Lidcombe NSW Movie 1960 worthwhile https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ducs6
& Guy Peirce Time machine Movie released in 2002 (yep same guy, way back in neighbors)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine_(2002_film)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9h61dm
HG Wells was / is ahead of his time ..... He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
"The Time Machine is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine
" You have all the time in the world...."
If I was Ryan Cosby, I would tell the production crew that live surfing takes priority over all the other crap.
I would also tell Turps and Jesse to rest their tonsils now and then.