Superfreak! Jordy Smith has his sights set on the world.

Jordy Smith (Umbilo) was named the South African Surfer of the Year for 2006 at the South African Surfing Awards presented by Zigzag in association with Paarl Web last night (Saturday, February 17, 2007).

In early 2006 an eighteen-year-old South African by the name of Jordan Michael Smith appeared in //Surfer// magazine's "Hot 100" special edition. The editors of the famous surfing pamphlet ranked Jordy a respectable eighth. They also referred to his debut video performance - the opening segment in Billabong's /Passion Pop/ - as "The second coming of Parko."

Yet despite such praise, Jordy's position could have seemed a tad high to the casual observer, especially considering his lack of experience and unknown status outside of his home country.

But if you were lucky enough to catch him freesurfing around that time, you too would have realised the kid's potential. When someone who is still too young to drink in a pub can alternate air reverses, tube rides and lip thwacking, spray-flinging hacks down the line with a mature style beyond his years, he's surely destined for greatness.

It is no coincidence his nickname is Superfreak. Yet word of his incredible surfing abilities had yet to spread significantly. Besides world amateur surfing circles, where he had already snatched a couple of world titles and assorted junior crowns, he remained an enigma.

But not for long. Surf hacks first began paying attention following a third-place finish at the hyper-competitive Billabong World Championship Tour (WCT) event at Jeffrey's Bay.

His performance, which included multiple airs and massive carves, also elevated him to the status of the next potential prodigal son and promoted him to realm of comparisons with King Kelly himself. Not bad for a teenager who cites reading Harry Potter books and making amateur movies as his downtime hobbies.

Through the remainder of the year Jordy beat more WCT surfers to take the ISA World Title in Huntington Beach, California, and then ended fifth at the Haleiwa Op Pro in Hawaii. He then got another fifth at Sunset in the Xcel Pro and held the runner-up trophy next to Parko at the O�Neill World Cup, also at Sunset. The sequence of results got him the Vans Triple Crown Rookie of the year accolade.

But Jordy wanted more. And he went on to win the Billabong ASP World Pro Junior Title at Narrabeen, Australia, this past January. Victory in that contest, often regarded as the soothsayer of events when it comes to determining future world titles, was one of the sweetest for Jordy, who admits to not having achieved a good result in Australia for some time.