A good day

I not sure why, but I haven't been in the water nearly as much as I should have been.  I could blame it on a series of skunkings and equipment failures, but I don't know... I just haven't been feeling the stoke that much recently.  My waistline shows it too.

But, I can remember watching a cricket match a while back and the commentators were discussing a particular batsmen who hadn't performed to well recently.  Various reasons were thrown around, before one pointed out that 'You're only one good innings away from finding form.'  And that's what happened to me yesterday.

Sure, I had some pretty good waves on friday.  But, my rustiness was detracting from my experience.  Then, I spent the most of the rest of the weekend socialising.  It was one of those weekends. I had 3 birthday parties to attend, as well as an engagement party, a rugby match and a boozy lunch were thrown in there as well.  It's not because I'm popular, it's just how the dice was rolled this weekend.

So, I woke groggily on a brilliant winter's sunday and shrugged off my hangover.  I threw the required toys into the car and pointed it to the beach.  I peeled on my wetsuit, and felt the moist sand under my feet.  The last remnants of my hangover sloughed off me as hit the chilly atlantic water.

It wasn't big.  Maybe head high.  Almost glassy and perfect little bowly peaks coming through.  It was perfect for my fish.  Most of the rest of the crew were on longbords, or some other funky and unconventional craft.  There were good times all round.

Two whales floated just beyond the backline.  They were close enough to see the sun glinting off their barnacles.  I surfed for about 2 hours just getting the feeling back.  It was great steering the twinny down the line.

I cruised back to the parking lot and swapped my little 5'9" for an 11'6" monster.  A SUP.  That's right.  Apologies to all those who hate SUPs, but I reckon I did it right.

There's a lagoon that forms on the back of this beach during the winter as the water table rises.  I paddled down it for about 3kms and felt quite alone for almost all of it.  It was just me and the waders.  Stilts, avocets, sandpipers, gulls and terns.  A lone kestrel sat on a dune waiting for a opportunity to take out a careless bird.  On one side are the dunes with more marshland behind it.  On the other side, the white sands of the beach and the electric blue of the ocean.  I stroked to the end of it where some dunes cut across the beach.  I climbed them to check the waves and take in my surroundings.  A warm breeze on the skin of my back and the lowering sun shimmering on the sea.  Just the sound of the crashing waves, the clicking frogs in the reeds, the wind in the dune grass and the birds all around.  Although there are houses on both ends of the beach, when you're in the middle, you feel quite isolated and remote.  It's far enough from everything to feel wild. 

There was a peak at bit further on with a couple guys on it.  The surf had actually improved, being caressed by the gentle cross-offshore.  In front of me was decent unsurfed peak with an ideal channel next to it.  I carried the board over the beach and into the sea.  Now it was just me and the waves.

I surfed that peak for a while, and then moved on up to the next one.  I followed this pattern the whole way back up the beach.  The wind helped me in travelling the distance, but was a pain when trying to catch a wave.  Still, it was the day I had, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I took me about an hour before I got to a peak that I had to share with one other surfer.  Although I'm far from adept on the lumbering board there was space enough for both of us.  I picked up a few before moving on to the next peak, also with it's sole occupant.  By the time I reached a peak with a small crowd - like 5 guys - I was pretty poked, so I just cruised in and crossed the sand to the lagoon and stroked back up to the parking lot.  I'm a beginner SUPer and I got to surf choice waves pretty much ace out.  No hogging, no bad vibes, only being a kook in front of myself.

With burning arms I dropped the board back onto the bakkie, took off my boardies and wrapped a towel around me and fell exhausted into the driver's seat.  It was a weekend.  It was beautiful weather and fun waves.  It was in a city.  But I managed to surf, and then SUP virtually alone for most of the afternoon.  It just takes a bit of imagination, and few extra clicks on the car.

It was a good day.

Adjectives.

Here's a picture.

via

And here are some words that could describe it. 

          Smooth                     Casual                              Progressive                                  Controlled                              Sketchy                                                        Backward
                         Frictionless                                                Measured
Transcendent                                                       Slippy                                     Cool
Fucked-up                                                                        Collected
                              Calm                            Hunched                                   Retro
Free                                                                                                     Unemcumbered
                 Irie                                           Stylish                                  Unweighted
Soulful

Add your own.  Derek would have some of his own, if he bothered.

Gratuitous Gallery of Girls Surfing Up the Nose

While everyone else is getting the jones for Maya Gabiera taking her kit off, we're a little more sophisticated here.  Not much, just a little bit.  We appreciate a bit of nudity as much as the next guy... actually the next guy probably appreciates it a bit too much and that makes it a little uncomfortable...

But, anyway, we think there's enough skin out there on the web, so we're going to focus on something else.  A move that was the ultimate back in the day.  Before thrusters gave way to boosting.  Before less board meant more action.  Before when turning a turn was the measure of your weight as a surfer. 

Going to an age when it was all about getting your toes up of the front, but also celebrating the grace of the female form.

Enjoy.

Thanks to Daize Goodwin, Kassia Meador, Belinda Baggs and Crystal Dzigas for being so awesome.

chasing clouds

I had a good start to this morning.  I've occuppied my mom's house in Noordhoek as she's away for a month or so.  The bad news is taken her good camera with her, so photos of this time period will be a bit min.

Anyway... I found myself running down the beach this early cold morning to favourite little beachy in the middle of a long stretch of sand.  It's a wave that typically works in summer with the prevailing South Easters.  Usually when we're down there it's a high sun in a cloudless sky. The beach is sugar white...white sugar white and the water is glacial blue.

This morning was different and the wave was working in a whole new light - or lights.  It was changing constantly as clouds low and high charged over the peninsula, blocking the sun, offering diffuse light, or glare.  Every time you looked a new direction it was different.  You'd gaze back to shore to get your bearings against backlit dunes and an incoming squall, and then turn to see olive lines approaching against the gun metal sky.  By the time you turned to stroke in, the sun was gone leaving everything leaden in a dull shaded world.  By the time you kicked out, it was full sun again and the sea wore her emerald jewels and mountains glistened in the wet. 

That and every combination of it, just rolling constantly.  Like being in the viewfinder of God's kaleidoscope.

My only regret is not having a camera with me.  That, and not making it clean out of that barrel.

Not pictured: God, or his kaleidoscope.

Western Australia bans cage diving - my take if you're interested

There's been some activity from Australia on the great cage diving debate. 

A scientific paper was released (Bruce and Bradford, 2011) noting behavioural changes in Great Whites of cage diving sites in South Australia.  Despite not actually bothering to read it, this now very dog-eared paper has been waved about by the anti-chumming lobby as vindication of their argument and have carried on howling about the ignorance of our scientists and the surely corrupted industry bribing our authorities.  If they had bothered to read it, they would have found nothing in it to either support or refute their claims. 

The study did make some recommendations about limiting the amount of diving/chumming going on, but this was aimed at the sharks well-being as it relates to cage-diving distracting from their feeding opportunities.  It makes no mention of how these findings may change sharks behaviour towards humans, and does not mention human water user safety once.  The closest it gets is mentioning increased aggression in fed animals in other sudies - towards the end of the paper, as part of a list of affects, with a string of references citing where they get it from.  I've commented before on it being strange that the archetypical nanny state (apologies to you ozzies reading this, but it's true) would have no recommendation regarding safety if it were an issue.

This week, Western Australia has decided to make it an issue and ban cage diving.  Pre-emptively, because no one does it that continent sized state.  Again, there's an air of mis-informed vindication.  If you took the time to read the article, you would see that it's a political decision.  From the Telegraph, Norman Moore, Western Australia's fisheries minister who made the call said he would not allow anything that “may raise even greater public fears than already exist”.  So, the call was made because of public perception, not actual risk. Politics...

He does go to say that there are differences between the South Australian study site - where sharks are known to congregate - and Western Australia, where no such sites are known of.  He infers that if cage diving were to be allowed, it may result in congregating, which could then lead to attacks.  This could well be true - I'm not sure if anyone is qualified to agree or disagree - but Norm just isn't prepared to take the risk.  That's fine.  He's a politician doing his job.

However, in South Africa, where the debate rages like a pimple on your mate's forehead that you don't tell him about so he embarasses himself more (true story), this holds little weight.  Our cage-diving sites are around known aggregation sites, and so would have more in common with the South Australian sites.  As such, there is still nothing to suggest that cage-diving and its associated chumming is leading to increased aggression.  That it's changing shark movements that then lead to increased interactions also has nothing to support it.

Relax.  Go surfing.

Read the Independant's article here, before they go bust.

Read Justin Othersurfa arguing against himself here, if you're still procrastinating from real work.

Prince William - doing it right

We're not big royal watchers down here.  I remember wandering into a bar last year on some remote stretch of coast during a surf trip and seeing the wedding on the TV.  "Oh, right - this is happening today" was our reaction.  Nice dress, nice bum.  About a beer later, we wondered what else was on a flicked over to some cricket.

We do appreciate our tennis though - much unlike Bobby Martinez.  It's a good game and when Federer or some of the other top seeds are involved, it's really pretty awesome to watch.  Women's tennis, well, I needn't elaborate there.

So, this last rainy Sunday, I crawled under the duvet after an aborted mission for waves and put the Wimbledon Final on.  I was behind Federer.  Not because I've got anything against Murray - I just enjoy watching the British sport viewing public have their soul crushed.  And Federer is awesome.

Between points, they showed shots of the schlebs in the royal box.  The PM was there, Boris Johnson was there.  David Beckam was accompanied by a well dressed skeleton.  The Duchess and her sister were there.  William, apparently, had 'existing commitments'.  Understandable.  The guy is no stranger to furious seas and routinely plucks the stranded from it in his rescue chopper.

Once Roger had regained the trophy, and Murray had regained some composure, pictures began to surface of this 'existing commitment'.  The boytjie went surfing with his boet.  That's pretty awesome in my book.  Laughing off some of the best seats in the house, for what could have been a historic moment for his nation's sporting achievments to catch a few waves.  Good on ya, mate!

"Just tell her to suck it and deal with it.  I'll check her later.  Sorry, what?  No, he's up against Federer. He's going to lose anyway."

Cynics may sneer at his bodyboard and lack of fins, but c'mon - it's better than staying dry.  And you never know - maybe he's stand-up surfing that thing and embracing the finless revolution.  That'll put you  and your quiver of thrusters in your place.  The finless revolution - probably the only revolution a royal can enjoy and keep his head on his shoulders.  One criticism though, looking at the others, he can lose the booties, I reckon.

Harry is also looking pretty dangerous there.  No doubt looking forward to a post-surf spliff in the parking lot followed by some beers and banter whilst scoping out the chicks.  Because: he's Harry and that's how he rolls.

If the lads keep it up, maybe they can swing an entry to next years Tand Invitational.

The Tand Invitational

I used to bodyboard.  It was good fun.  You could rock up at the beach and just throw yourself into dredging pits and not really care about the consequences.  I learned how to handle myself in bigger stuff through bodyboarding.  Of course, getting to my feet on those same square barrelling waves is still an ongoing quest.  I start surfing when I had more time to explore waves further afield than the slabby Boland of my youth.  It was the right move, at the right time in my life.

Still, when I see stuff like this going on, I do slightly miss those prone days.

via Claire Butler Photo

That's a place a short drive up the coast called Tand - it means tooth for those abroad.  It's pretty savage and guys have only started surfing it fairly recently.  It drains out over a solid granite slab thats so shallow, you can see the grain in the rock when you take off.  The lip is so thick it looks like a bent elbow coming down on your headlock pip.  It's not for ants, or any insect, and most vertebrates, including myself. 

They had a comp there this week.  Bodyboarding kind of died off a bit with my generation, but if they continue with stuff like this, it's not going anywhere and may even have a resurgence.  This is as the sport should be.  Well done to the organisers and competitors.

Check out more on their FB page or look at the pics at Claire's