Jordy Smith Enters YouTube Arena, Drops His Best Surf Edit in Years

Originally posted on SURFER | By August Howell | Last updated Feb 3, 2025 8:21 PM ET

It’s funny how pro surfing works in that money, fame, and success rarely satiate the desire for good waves. If they did, Kelly Slater would have hung it all up a long time ago. Or take Jordy Smith, one of the most experienced Championship Tour vets in the game, who still froths like a grom when he sees a tube down the beach.

It helps when those tubes are in his native South Africa, a coastline he knows as well as his Smith Shapes. The region boasts numerous points, slabs and beachbreaks with far fewer heads in the lineups compared to surf hubs in Europe and the United States. Jordy has his pick of the litter in South Africa, especially at J-Bay. So it’s not nothing when a wave of such quality mesmerizes the big man, as is the case in this film below.

By his own admission, Jordy is late to the YouTube game. But his recent debut ranks right up there with the best of them. “Plus27” premiered on Red Bull TV last year, but is now awaiting clicks on Jordy’s channel. And it’s absolutely worth the 23 minutes of your time.

For context, Jordy joined the CT (then the ASP) back in 2008. He’s now competing in his 17th season, a hard-fought journey that's seen him overcome injuries, board sponsor changes, and numerous ups and downs over a long career. All of which is to say, we’ve seen a lot of the 36-year-old over the years, in a jersey and out. But “Plus27” is the best surfing we’ve seen from him in a long time.

This clip has a lot to offer: a lonely left slab breaking in front of a cliff, pumping J-Bay and Mozambique rights. But the icing on the proverbial cake is Jordy’s surfing on the last wave, a stunning right point that gives shades of the “Maps to Nowhere” episode with Soli Bailey and Timo and Caity Simmers.

“Intergalactic,” Jordy exclaimed upon seeing a reeling sand-bottom pointbreak that concludes the edit. “Not going to need sun cream today, bru. Going to be sitting deep in that tube. I’m going to levitate.”

Jordy does exactly that over the next two sessions. For fans of fast, powerful, engaged surfing, it’s particularly gratifying. Jordy zips, rips, highlines, stalls, carves and gets flung out of barrel after barrel with calculated abandon and enviable speed. Waves this good are a rare gem. You can bet Jordy is still frothing.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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