Smith and Matthew McGillivray from South Africa, and Moroccan, Ramzi Boukhiam, will compete against the world’s best.
The Durban-born surfer is currently 16th on the World Surf League rankings – just ahead of American legend, Kelly Slater. Smith also represented South Africa at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan, and he says proper infrastructure is required in order to develop young surfers in the country. “I think there’s always going to be nerves coming into your first event. It’s been a long off-season for everyone; it’s been the longest break I’ve had. But it’s been so good to have that chance to reset and come in fresh now and come in extra motivated. It’s straight into the pipeline, one of the gnarliest waves on Tour,” says McGillivray.
In 2012, he won the European Junior Championship and finished runner-up to Brazilian Gabriel Medina at the World Junior Championship the following year. It seemed inevitable that he would finally secure his spot on the prestigious Tour.