There are many things that happen in JBay when the Corona Open JBay trundles into town. There are all sorts of surprises, there are a multitude of egos bouncing and bumping and clashing, and there are the most chilled out best surfers in the world. There are surfers who embarrass and surfers who make you proud to follow the sport. There are surfers who are lit, and there are those surfers who just need to chill out and take several seats.
And then there’s this wave.
Supers, it has been said a thousand times over, makes you look good if you’re good, but it makes you look really average if you have weaknesses. So, often this year, we’d be watching the action live, and some faceless entity would say, ‘why did he hit that section? He needed to race it, not hit it,’ or ‘look at that!’ as another empty wave peeled down the forever after a surfer had fluffed a silly move when the wave still had at least 150 meters to go.
There have also been many absolutely golden moments though, when Supers has done nothing but make the world a better place for you, and for me.
Some examples:
That time when Occy surfed it for the first time in 1984, and gave the world a glimpse into the void, or when Parko won the event in 1999 as a wildcard, and started a dinner-party revolution of beautiful but non-critical smoothness at Supers. Tom Curran’s opening ride (which was actually his second, he got burned on the first, as you do at Supers) and Jordy’s aerial-style win in 2010 on Nelson Mandela’s birthday. And of course there was Filipe’s dizzying double alley-oop in 2017. <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/7iRNlf0kFYI” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>
Caroline Marks is one such person who blows minds at Supers for fans, spectators and judges. People come down to the beach to watch her surf, people whisper words like ‘Occy’ and ‘power’ when she paddles out, and commentators toss superlatives at her every turn, and it’s all pretty much spot-on. Ain’t nothing going to stop her from a world title. Or two, or five, or more.
The girl kills it.
In the Corona Open JBay she came up against Tatiana Weston-Webb and Silvana Lima, both seasoned competitors. She smoked them both with her devastating backhand attack and rooster tails to the sky, with surfing that is raw and powerful, yet stylish.
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/vy-mmVxZcgg” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>
She’s definitely not a plug-and-play world champion though, with certain voices in the JBay peanut-gallery not sold on the deal.
“A bit repetitive,” and “not the best style,” are two of the negativities that can be heard at times, but no one can fault the fact that under the current, basic judging criteria of speed power and flow, she does have all the markings of a world champion. With Luke Egan in her camp, her insight on the world’s best right-hand point-break must be vast. Egan won the Dream Sequence Derek Hynd contest back in the 80’s, and was a standout on big Sunday before the contest began. <blockquote class=”instagram-media” data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BzsYi4KBR9F/” data-instgrm-version=”12″ style=” background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% – 2px); width:calc(100% – 2px);”><div style=”padding:16px;”> <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BzsYi4KBR9F/” style=” background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;” target=”_blank”> <div style=” display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;”> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;”></div> <div style=”display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;”> <div style=” background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;”></div> <div style=” background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;”></div></div></div><div style=”padding: 19% 0;”></div> <div style=”display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;”><svg width=”50px” height=”50px” viewBox=”0 0 60 60″ version=”1.1″ xmlns:xlink=”https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink”><g stroke=”none” stroke-width=”1″ fill=”none” fill-rule=”evenodd”><g transform=”translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)” fill=”#000000″><g><path d=”M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631″></path></g></g></g></svg></div><div style=”padding-top: 8px;”> <div style=” color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;”> View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style=”padding: 12.5% 0;”></div> <div style=”display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;”><div> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);”></div> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;”></div> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);”></div></div><div style=”margin-left: 8px;”> <div style=” background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;”></div> <div style=” width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)”></div></div><div style=”margin-left: auto;”> <div style=” width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);”></div> <div style=” background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);”></div> <div style=” width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);”></div></div></div></a> <p style=” margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;”> <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BzsYi4KBR9F/” style=” color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;” target=”_blank”>After over thirty years of visiting #supertubesjbay the feeling of flying down the line with such an amazing huge green face in front of you to draw what ever lines you want never gets old. Getting that feeling again this week continues the love affair I have with this place. #jbay #grateful #lifetimememories ����</a></p> <p style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;”>A post shared by <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/lukeegan/” style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;” target=”_blank”> Luke Egan</a> (@lukeegan) on <time style=” font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;” datetime=”2019-07-09T10:58:24+00:00″>Jul 9, 2019 at 3:58am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async src=”//www.instagram.com/embed.js”></script>
Sitting at number 6 on the Jeep leaderboard, Caroline has five pretty gnarly surfers ahead of her, but winning the opening event of the year, the Boost Mobile Pro Gold Coast at 17 years of age, definitely proved a point to her and the rest of the tour that she most definitely has the skills and the temerity to win, and she has the next 20 years ahead of her to do just that.
She does need another win this year however, to confirm her status as a future contender, and after her performance in the women’s seeding round this event could be the one where she does just that.
Marks will come up against Paige Hareb in the round of 16 at the Corona Open JBay, when the contest resumes.
There is a new swell that is forecast to arrive on Friday in JBay, but the main push is only late in the afternoon, and there is a wise old surfer from the area called Zibie who always talks about his ‘4 hour late’ rule for south-west swells. Any swell moving up the coast arrives about four hours later than forecast, while the wind will always arrive early, which means that the swell will only make landfall in JBay too late for competition. The next good storm is further out, with a strong pulse for Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Stand by.
Women’s results here: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2019/wct/2918/corona-open-j-bay
