There are increasingly less things in this world of which I believe to be utterly certain. The water is wet. The Sky is blue and Joan Duru is a WCT standard surfer. He deserves a spot on tour in the same vain that Joel Parkinson deserved a world title.
Some of might be saying "Duuh, like ya I know!" and some might be saying " Who is Joan Duru?" but one thing I will wager is that none of you will be disagreeing with me. Just in case there are any doubters please indulge me with a small slice of your time. Lets un-concern ourselves with Joans story, identity, nationality and first focus on the facts as illustrated below in moving pictures.
Apart from his surfing, which clearly speaks volumes, it's Joan's countenance as a human and his very real presence and being both humble but confident that sets him apart. The 27 year old Bayonne born French/Basque local has been knocking on the WCT door for 6 years and has three times missed qualification by one or two places. Yet still he continues to smash away at that invisible barrier between the best and the rest.
At the time of writing this article Joan has just scored a 5th place finish at the Cascais 10,000 event in Portugal and is sitting pretty at 3rd on the WQS. Perhaps poised, you might say, for either qualification or ruin. Only the final leg in Hawaii will have the answers. We will be watching the progress of this very talented young lad, hoping he will get his que for the big stage this year.
Our Dream heat of the year - Mason Ho vs Joan Duru. Regular v Goofy at massive Supertubos (Peniche) providing turns, barrels and airs. Lets not forget the interviews afterward. Both of these kids are characters in and out of the water and thats what we want to see. Entertaining surfing by charismatic individuals.
Time to climb of the soapbox again but If you are a WSL boss and can somehow make it happen then we implore you - Joan + Mason = Entertainment on a stick.
joanduru3
Joan's back hand is a weapon to end any heat.