Sunrise revealed a slightly ruffled but groomed overhead Supertubes lineup good enought to call on finals day for the Corona Open J-Bay. Photo: WSL / KELLY CESTARI
The dates are locked in for the 2018 JBay Winterfest and this year’s festival has some exciting new changes and additions.
The WSL’s Corona Open JBay will anchor the JBay Winterfest with their entire roster of Championship Tour competitors in tow. Filipe Toledo will be coming back as JBay’s defending champ after winning last year’s event over Frederico Morais in the Final.
The big news this year is that the Corona Open JBay will also have a Women’s Championship Tour event at Supertubes, which is a welcome return for the women after nearly two decades without a premier event at JBay. The inclusion of the women’s event brings the total Corona Open JBay prize-pool to a staggering R10 million! The contest will be one stop in their 10-event tour, and locally, everyone is excited about the best women surfers in the world returning to JBay. “It gives us great pleasure to include the Women in the 2018 Corona Open JBay, taking place at the world renowned Supertubes,” says World Surf League (WSL) EVP/ General Manager Tours Graham Stapelberg. “Expect to see new levels of performance by the women who can’t wait to test their skills at this perfect right hander.”
JBay sits as the fifth event on the 10-event women’s tour, making the official midway point in their season. It is just after the new Bali Pro Keramas and before the Vans US Open Of Surfing. After South Africa, the women move on to the Surf Ranch Lemoore competition.
It’s worth noting the three new contests — JBay, Keramas and Lemoore — all take place in perfect rights, automatically favoring the regular footers on tour. The tour does have more right-breaking venues than lefts, but this is by chance more than careful planning. The goal of the World Surf League is simply to place the world’s best surfers in the world’s best waves. Meanwhile, it’s also worth noting the only goofy-footer in the Jeep Leader Board’s top ten entering 2018 is Tatiana Weston-Webb.
The JBay Winterfest has the Corona Open JBay as its anchor event, but the rest of the contests and tournaments will take place again this year, including mountain biking, trail running, open water swimming and more. The full event lineup will be released shortly, so watch the press for details.
More information on the JBay Winterfest can be found at www.jbaywinterfest.com
