Witsands Beach Clean Up

Hey all

welcome to my blog. I think this is its first big day, a sort 'coming out' party. I haven't promoted it till now - maybe I should have.

Anyway - me or the blog don't deserve your attention now. This does:

 

Sif

 
Very kak

 
Not cool


Some of the heavy waves of winter have been chowing the dunes at Witsands and ate right into the old dump site ('who would put a dump there?' you ask. not sure, but it ranks right up there with worst ideas ever)

So myself and the good folk from Ocean Minded, Kommetjie Surf Shop, Kauai and Kommetjie Environmental Action Group have organised a clean up session for this disaster.

 
Ocean Minded will be dishing out gear to lucky participants and Kauai will be serving their famous killer smoothies to keep energy levels going. and don't let the '12PM' scare you - its just till midday (i've never been sure of the 12 AM/PM thing...)

Please spread the word, bring your friends, family, people you met last night on the jol and anyone else whose psyched to keep our cities beaches beautiful. There's no swell, so you have no excuse for not showing up. But do bring beach toys and maybe a longboard or something. Its set to be a killer beach day, and there can be no greater reward than enjoying the beach we just cleaned.

Looking forward to seeing all of you there on the day.

well, that was easy

so i started playing with photos the other day and was disappointed with the results. so i gave up, sulked a bit, and did nothing. bad. naughty. i was contemplating infant cot death for this blog.

then i was uploading pics on picassa for the first time. i noticed a little 'upload to blog' tab. and the previous post was the very simple, very quick, high res result. awesome. so once again inspired. lekker.

recent news: just got back from a few days in the swartberg. no waves out there but still a rad vibe. and just prior to that I shared an amazing day at the bay of K (koeel, not kalk). more on that soon.

the bad news is i'm staring at a job offer - it's leering at me right next to the computer. it seems it will take me to the karoo...which i, apparently doesn't have too many waves this time of year. well, we will just have to see what happens.

this blog, like life and surfing seems to have its ups and downs. time between waves, hey...

and here's another rad pic because i'm in a good mood:

 

it is paranoia when there's no one else out

 

standing up like a sore thumb

So we went off to muizenberg on friday morning...

Dave hired a board. I took the paddle board out. Conditions could barely have been more different to the day before - see post below. The water was dirty and brown. A light wind made it calm. Swell was about 2 foot and just rolling in softly - like muizenberg is famous for. There were quite a few people out - maybe 40 or so, but well spread out. There were a lot of girls out, which was cool. So, every time is different, which is part of the pleasure of surfing.

So i battled a bit to get the barge out, falling off going out through waves. Standing up with an oar on a board is a completely different approach to waves. Sure, the principles are the same, but everything else is different, and i still have loads to learn. One of things i need to learn is how to fall off gracefully. When paddling out through broken water, the wave just stops and flicks your board to send you flopping into the sea. The paddle means theres no elegant dive. You just look like a tit. Falling off while standing still is even worse. You stand calmly when an unnoticed movement throws you off balance and leads to arms and torso being hurled over to counter, while stiff legs take quick steps towards the end of the board and a splash. Again: tit. And then you get back on and stand up so everyone can see who you are. Not ideal

Anyway, apart from these episodes, I was doing ok. I picked a quiet spot off to the side, and picked off a few waves and cruised for as long as possible. I was also leaving a few that I could've taken. I was joined by another stand-up which meant there were about 5 of us out in total. He got loads of waves. Anything that he could get, he would.

And, such is a bad name created for the stand-ups. You could just sense the bad vibe towards us. Whereas I was being courteous, I was still picking up bad vibes. Maybe not bad vibes, just uncool vibes. One guy who I passed while paddling out looked up and said: 'that's cheating'. No anger or hate in his voice, but just an undertone of disapproval. 'yep' I replied, with similar nuetrality. Anything else I could have said would have come across badly. After a good wave, no one shared the stoke - there was just a sublte peeved atmosphere.

At the end, you are just singled out and any bad vibes are projected at you. You're not seen as another wave rider, but a wave thief. And, in the end, this is probably justified. One of the sharper points on the learning-to-surf curve is lining yourself up for a wave. Whereas the gentle sand slope of the 'berg makes for good learning wave once you're on it, is makes picking the right spot harder, especially for a new, weaker paddler. The paddle board means getting in to a wave is easy, as your altitude, speed and paddle allow for wider area to be covered. All this is much to the chagrin of the floundering start-out.

Dave, who is such a beginner on the other hand, was having a good one on his rented 9 oh epoxy. He got a handful of waves and wobbled to his feet on a few occasions. Nola joined us later and I shared a wave with her - which was probably the highlight of the session. That, and the blue Kombi in the parking lot, registration: HUGE BRU - WP. Gotta love it. So, I will be back at muizies, but not on the SUP. That boat only gets used at quiter places from now on.

back in the water

And then it was quite a long time between waves...

Been out the water for a while now. Was away for the weekend and then its been lank windy here this week. True, i could've been out there, but just didn't.

Anyway, the wind dropped off this afternoon and i was itchy. Yesterday, I'd also checked out a neighbour's longboard. A nine foot greg stokes. it's pretty cool. She said i could borrow it. that's also cool. She's sixty, by the way. that's really cool.

Then at lunch another friend dropped by. She's moving to pretty much the closest house to Dunes, 'the best wave in cape town' according to some and a hard point to argue. I went to have a look at her new digs today. I'm a little jealous actually. The view and the short walk down the sandy dune path is also pretty nice.

So it was pretty much decided that i was going surfing. I had already arranged to meet Dave up on clifton. After arranging it i felt it was a bit impulsuve. After being on the beach here, i knew i was. Not wanting to ditch him, i invited him along. I remember a while ago, he said wanted to start. A phone call later and he was going surfing.

I walked up the road to get the long board and strapped that over the paddle board - yes, you can judge me here. I figured with high tide and small swell the channels would be free of wash and he could handle it.

We pulled into the beach and suited up. The wind was stronger than i'd imagined. The sea was icy blue. After a few days of howling south-easter, the chilled pure deep water had welled up. But, the banks were firing.

So, we trekked across the beach. One of the cool things about the long walk, is you get to check a few sets in the time it takes to cross the broad white sand. One the kak things is having to carry a small boat on your head, in the wind, especially if you're not used to it, like dave. Anyway, we got to the edge, zipped up and vaulted the shorey into the channel. It was a cold as it had looked.

A couple numbing strokes later we're heading out. A few cookers rolled passed us. About shoulder high and just running. It was way better than it had looked.

As we were cruising out, a ballie on a stained yellow longboard kicked out of a beaut, and fell in along side us. He was stoked. I can only hope to be that stoked when i'm his age. Pleasantries were exchanged through broad grins.

The next set pulled through a few mins after we got to the peak, and with only five guys out, there were enough waves for all of us. I got one the first ones - a long right. I kicked off to see a shortboarder rip up the next one. It was impressive - both him and the wave. I'd just had a smoker on the longboard, but seeing the quality on a shortboard made me wonder for a moment if i hadn't made a mistake.

Dave in the meantime was battling a bit. As quick as you can move on the barge, and as stable as standing might be, lining yourself up is still not that easy first time round. So it took him a few goes. I'd picked off an OK one, and miss the section. I swam over my board in the wash, and turned to see a dave falling. Awesome! He'd been on his feet. I missed it, but the fall and the later stoke was evidence enough. Now we were all having good sessions.

A bit later i got on one of the more unreliable lefts. I was paddling back out when one swept wide. And Dave was on it. He was also coming straight at me. I slid of the board so I could push it out of the way. I was actually more concerned with the board than me. I couldn't go back with a huge ding in it from a head on, especially if a mate had done it my own borrowed board. So much shame in that. Dave missed me, but not by much. He hooted as he flew past on his knees. As i recovered on the other side, i turned to him wobble to his feet again. Awesome.

The channel off the left of the peak was also unreliable. Being swept further in, Dave had to battle a few ice-cream head inducing foamies. And that was enough for him. Still, not a bad first session and a fine introduction to the sport.

My session carried on. I got some cookers, from backline to shorebreak. I even got covered on one, and so introduced the new board to the barrel. On another long one, i was about a foot length from getting my toes over the edge. Everyone else was also getting good ones. The paddle back out looked like a tropical reef pass, if you airbrushed the wetsuits out. The vibe was mellow. Big smiles all round. At one point, I asked a guy going out to tell Dave to meet me at the Red Herring, and that's where I met him later. Over a few beers we decided to hit Muizenburg, tomorrow first thing. So much is the stoke. I want to give SUPing a go there, and suss the vibe a bit. Dave will have to hire one, as Nola is taking her longboard out then as well.

Its just so cool to be back in the water and sharing it with friends who are discovering, or rediscovering the stoke.

early morning beach run

I'm trying to get in the habit of running as often as allowable on Noordhoek beach. It only happens when there aren't really waves as is the case at the moment. True, there were a few guys out last night, but it was small windy, and the banks had soft shoulders. It would be good for long-boarding, if you could manage the gusty south-easter.

Anyway, this morning, with even less waves I was down there again. At 6:20 I was surprised to see so many cars in the parking lot. Then may eyes fell on a navy and white split screen kombi, clearly here for a photo shoot. So, I parked and got chatting to the owner. It was a '59 with all the original fittings. So beautiful.

There were also clothing racks coming out of vans and a few colourful shortboards lying around. I went to inspect. They were all quite small and definitely selected for their sprays. Anyway, I liked the way things were going: a beach, my dream car, boards...it was looking like a good vibe.

'So what's the shoot for?' I asked one of the crew.

'Tommy Hilfiger Kids.' came the answer.

Shattered. My worst brand. One that promotes the American ideal with a cultural chauvinism like none other. And here they were - at the beach, with my dream car, and the sport which surely still rebels against the norm? And for kids, too! Get them young, I suppose

'Oh', I said, then quickly finished my stretching and ran away. Yah, I was running away.

I didn't have to run very far. Down next to the ocean, weaving around the shorey as it spilled up the shore and scanning for potential peaks off to the side, I could put that behind me and enjoy the day's early elements.

First Time

Hey

This is a blog about surfing. Its about the stoke of it. Its a journey, like surfing itself. And as we all have dreams about where it may take us, it never does end up there, but somewhere else we never imagined. So, lets see if this leads to far-flung corners of the globe with world class waves, or just a dusty corner in the garage, behind stiff, perished wetsuits and old, brittle boards.

I will write about my own experiences mostly. I will also happliy post others writing if it fits the vibe. I will put up photos, and for this I need your help. Please, send me anything surf related. The visual aspect of this is important. Surfing is a beautiful sport, and words can only do it so much justice, and then, only if they're very good. Pictures, and many thousands of words as they may be, are what really takes us from the office, or lounge, and puts us in the water.

I call it time between waves, because, well, for some us, that's what life is. I wanted to call it the lull: just time between waves, but its already someone elses political blog - dormant pretty much since Obama won the election. I couldn't work out if it was pro/anti the president who grew up in Indo and Hawaii. Not that it matters.

Do you surf? Yes, no, sometimes, used to, tried it once, whatever. Pull in here during those moments when you've got nothing else going on and I'll try send some stoke your way. Hopefully, it will get you in the water. And so then this blog will be what it's called: time between waves.