Swapped Millers for Maldives this week. Not a bad trade. Kiff weather, a coupla lil waves, wandering about deserted islands. Life might be tough in Africa, but it's even tougher north of the equator!

Not too much surf wise back home apparently. Coupla waves popped up on the weekend to save everyone's sanity.

The town's without it's resident shaper for a bit - Dennis Ellis from the Boardroom has gone to do a bit of R&D in Indo together with Mervyn Goddard. 

Surf Centre played host to record holder Chris Bertish (solo SUP across the Atlantic). The leather couch in store got used for something other than lounging about - group shot time!

Changing of the guard for EP Longboarding  - thanks to Andy Radford for doing such a great job, seen here handing over the reigns to Lyell Watson.

Always cool to see drone shots of our coastline, and Chris Allen shot this lekker one of Sardinia Bay. Can you spot your footprints in the sand....?

The drought might still have us in it's grip, but it seems the seaweed trees are doing pretty well nonetheless.

Anyone missing their pop-out board? Gordon Schutz picked this up on the beach, so if you're the owner drop me a message for his contact details.

Gabe Medina won the Quiksilver Pro France - JJF's semi-final placing coupled with Jordy's early exit meant the John John displaces Jordy at the top of the leaderboard.

Hope some good surf pulls through PE - cos then it winds it's way up to us in about 5 days!

Coupla fun days to be had. Weather continues to improve as summer approaches and the waters warming up. Earlier sunrises and later sunsets mean those stuck in the 9-5 grind can stand getting a few waves during the week. Life is good!

Plenty of wildlife action again this week. Lots of dolphins about, and a good number of whales as well. Spring has well and truly sprung.

Unfortunately a few dead whales about as well. Big guy on the beach at Cape Recife means better to give surfing at Cobbles a skip for the time being. That whale juice will be leaking out into the sea and all the finned locals will be pulling in as if MacDonald's were offering free burgers.

​Also a dead whale off Seal Point during the week, which was towed out to sea, and a few Great Whites tagged along for the ride, so warnings were issued to rather give dipping your toes in the water a miss.

SAMREC hosted an African Penguin Awareness Day on Saturday with a Penguin Waddle between their possie at Cape Recife all along the beach to Something Good. A bunch of the tuxedo'd dudes got released back into the sea at Pollock after completing their stint of rehab.

New addition to The Boardroom sees a table tennis table enter the mix. Perfect way to spend the flat days. Turns out CarPark John is a bit of a dark horse on the table - rumour has it he used to play league table tennis back in the day. So careful if he challenges you to a game....

When Deno is playing table tennis he is busy creating some new flying machines. Literally. R&D phase for a foil board. Watch this space.

Well done to Ed Hallam for spotting a forlorn looking GoPro lying in the rock pools at Black Bottoms. After giving it a clean he managed to get it powered up and found a selfie of the owner. Thanks to Facebook he was quickly identified and will be reunited with his wandering camera.

Something you hear a lot is "Remember how good Fence was back in the day!" Besides the wave being heaps better back then, it was also a helluva lot easier to access. Quick drive into the harbour and right to the end of the breakwater. Park your cabbie and wish your radio/tape deck good luck (and pray it was still there on your return) and a short hop straight over the wall, and down the dolosse and you were in the line-up. Too easy.

​ Ever been tempted to cut off the extra thread on your wettie seams? Don't! Those dangly threads are intentional. Here's why. Neoprene stretches, especially when tugging on ya suit to put it on. Those extended loose ends allow for play in the stitching when this happens. Not exactly fashionable know, but very practical. Cut em off - and you could end up with your seam unraveling. So leave em alone. Betcha didn't know that, cos I sure didn't. I just thought their needlework was as kak as mine!

Stoked to be heading north of the equator for a bit this week. Off to Maldives for a spot of sailing and surfing. Hopefully a coupla waves about, as despite being at the tail end of the surf season there's always something fun to ride - with the bonus of not many peeps about. And hard to beat crystal clear warm water!! Yeeeuw  - cheers wettie!

Anyone keen to head over for some fun uncrowded waves in November give me a holler, got a charter available for 8 days from 9th Nov at a good price.

Yeeuw, finally everyone's patience paid off. Three weeks of bogger-all was quickly forgotten on Wednesday when the ocean roared to life. In typical PE fashion the wind roared atthe same time, but finally switched at midday and the lunchtime sesh in the Bay was about as good as it gets. Size dropped off really quickly though and not much left by the arvo, but still enough to keep everyone happy.

Definitely that time of year where the wind pomps one way and then switches and pomps the other way immediately. Which makes it a good time of year to bear in mind traveling a bit extra west than the usual west to a not-so-secret right point that rather likes that kinda stuff.

Maldives was also quite kiff this week!

Wasn't only the surf that roared to life on Wednesday - the Ferrari Club was in town so a whole slew of these throaty cabbies came cruising down the beachfront from the Boardwalk.

With summer time approaching and the probable increase in crowds out in the line-up thanks to longer days and warmer water just a reminder to watch your manners out there. It is called a line-up for a reason - which means once you've caught your wave join the back of the queue and wait your turn. Think of it like going to the Spar - you don't just walk in grab your bread n milk and then shove yourself to the front of the queue and not expect the ou's who've been waiting in the queue to tune you. 

So just like the TShirt says - Don't be a Doos, be lekker.
​(and if someone can sponsor Deno a pair of shades please - looks like he's struggling a bit looking into that sun!)

Always fun to check for surf in the background of shots of our coastline, cos sometimes you can spot some really good looking set-ups. Like these dudes who posted shots of their 4x4 Nambian mission and happened to coincidentally snap some kiff looking surf spots at the same time. Looks like it would be worth packing a board for their next safari.

The Billabong Junior Series Presented by All Aboard Travel went down in fun surf at Seal Point over the weekend. Local lighties did well, with Kai Woolf winner of the u16 & u 18 girls, Angelo Faulkner 4th u16 boys and winner of the Series u16 boys, Tayla de Coning 4th u16 girls and winner of the Series u16 girls and C-Jay 2nd the Series u12 boys. #localislekker

Beach weather is here - and if you feeling lank lazy you can rent a lil electric scooter for a cruise along the boardwalk. Soon be available from Ocean Side surf shop next to McArthur Baths. Chris doing a test drive.

PE's blessed with some amazing beaches. Just a quick drive round the corner and there's a whole untouched coastline to explore. Never moan there's nothing to do in PE - there's plenty if you make the effort.

We're also blessed with some really talented peeps. Local surfer and film maker Jean du Toit put together this classic version of Game of Thrones, aptly named Bay of Thrones. Take a look - it's pretty damn brilliant. CarPark John getting a leading roll too.

​Shout out to Billabong for some good customer service. My wettie seam had a teeny blow out and after returning it to the Bong store they sent me a brand new suit. #happycustomer #billabong #warrantyworks

Finishing off the week with a bit of humour - these ou's in Oz are convinced that sticking a pair of eye's on the bottom of your stick is gonna stop Mr Great White from having a chomp on you - apyly named Shark Eye's. Guess it's worth the try just in case on the off chance it actually may work. Add it to your seasnake leash. Which follows the same theory. 

The waves stay in hiding for yet another week. A few small one's here and there, but still no real proper pulse of groundswell. Wondering if it's Greg Heasley's connections upstairs cos his ear is still not lekker after the surf ear op, so reckon he's been praying he doesn't miss any swell whilst he can't get in the water! And seems to be having his prayers answered!

Avo's did have one fun lil day, and same for our west in JBay. But nothing to write home about. C'mon winter - don't desert us just quite yet.

Blast from the past with a great shot of Brownie Moulang on a lekker looking wall about 15 years ago - and not where you think it is. A few hundred clicks west of JBay. Henry Thomas found some old prints in a shoe box and this was one of the keepers.

Keeping vintage - Greg Smith found this cool shot of the Humewood slipway way back when. Just in case you weren't sure what that big rusty metal thing was for, now you know.

Cobbles Classic went down this weekend - still waiting for all the results n shots to drop in. Some lekker waves to start with before the onshore set in, but at least the last day went west again.

Sad news of the drowning of 2 learner surfers in Spain. The guys went out to try learn to surf in absolute storm surf conditions, so not sure why on earth the surf school would have rented them boards to start with. Crazy.

Big news of the week was the comp held at Kelly's wave pool. All the big names were there giving the pool a try. Kiff looking lik waves, but not sure how interesting holding comps in one would be. Same wave every time for each guy, and there has to be a limit with how creative you can get if on the same canvas each time? Personally prefer the variability and unpredictability of the ocean for comps.

The Pipe crew are just waiting on beach management to give them the go-ahead to implement some upgrades of the facilities. So go buy some Pipe stickers and support your local surf club in their efforts to make things better.

Here's something you don't see every day - Lippie in a wetsuit that's too big for him!

Denno on a roll at the moment and plenty of lekker looking sticks coming from the Boardroom. This one's got a cool Apocalypse Now kinda vibe going. 

Shot to Bruce Campbell on taking the win in the Over 30 division at the Vic Bay Quad held this weekend. Britney Linder got a 2nd in the Ladies event. Special mention to Pieter-Ben Van Rhijn for just missing out on the finals.

Staying with comps, JBay's Dillen Hendriks did well to get through his first round heat at the ISA World Junior Champs being held in Japan. Conditions in the background there look a bit like Pipe, so reckon his EC roots may help out here!

Stuck in Joeys? No worries - good news is there's a surf shop "just" down the road at Sun City. VZ just opened a signature store at the Valley o fthe Waves. Actually is a fun lil wave that - if you can get em to switch off the Vaalie-boogi-board mode and throw out a few peaks instead.

The regular stunning winter sunrises and sunsets are slowly disappearing, but still the odd one to keep us going "wow". Bit of swell around this week, but the winds looking like they could mess things up a bit.

Another quiet week surf-wise. But the wild life was unfortunately not so quiet. Instead of finned friends it was a not-so-friendly scaly guy that grabbed the headlines this week. An English surfer had just grabbed a few slides at Elephant Point in Sri Lanka when he needed a bathroom break and headed back into the jungle. Whilst washing his hands in the back beach lagoon he got take by a large croc. Hectic. 

PE might not have had waves locally, but at least PE locals are still getting waves. Marc Jucker scoring in Indo. Just to make sure PE keeps up it's wave count the Rothers have ducked over to the Banyaks this week. Expect to see some shots of sheet glass barrels soon.

Another  local testing the warm water equatorial breaks is Grant Beck from Seals, currently surf guiding in Indo at Nihiwatu - otherwise known as Occy's Lefts. Turns out there are some Occy sized rocks there as well....

Not a completely dud week - there were a few slides around if you didn't mind knee high perfection. Don't forget the annual Cobbles Classic this coming weekend - gt those entries in. All the info you nee to know here. ​http://www.millerslocal.co.za/comp-news/2017-cobbles-classic

The annual Jam Jar rally kicked off at Something Good, and there were plenty of strange looking cabbies lurking about. Certainly made the morning commute a bit more interesting than usual.

There might not have been any swell this week but local lensman Luc Hosten has a way of finding the nuggets. Hows this mini Teahupoo look-alike - perfect for the ant sized chargers.

The 8th stop on the World Tour went down at Trestles, with Toledo taking the win. Jordy snuck a second spot, and retains his lead in the World rankings. Hope he can hang in there for the title!

Get those orders in for your summer sticks. Bump up the volume, thicken up your rail game and next thing you know you'll be having a jol in gutless summer surf.

There is a long story behind why CarPark John's looking all pimped out. But we can't tell you just yet....it does however involve zombies. Like I said. A long story....

The odd lump for the week ahead, but in between winds to-ing and fro'ing, so grab the weather window when it's there.

One of those very slow weeks as far as surf goes. You had to mission to find some get-wet opportunities. Thankfully some lekker waves towards the end of the week with Friday and Saturday offering up the chance for some salt water.

Even JBay had slim pickings during the week. Wonder if Neptune is storing all it's energy for another big storm? Let's hope so! Everyone still needs to get a few more good sessions in before the summer doldrums descend on us.

Waves might not be constant - but beachfront crime certainly is. Another cabbie stolen from Millers last weekend. Chap took his lightie for a surf and came back to find an empty parking spot where his car had once been. Please be vigilant if you in the car park and give any suspicious characters a good hairy eyeball.

Plenty of whales still about. They tend to be camera shy - but luckily Robbie got a shot of one at JBay. They'll probably be around for another few weeks before disappearing until next year again. Rather see whales than finned friends....

Speaking of which - think the 2 longboarders out at Chomp Rock on Thursday evening may have spotted a fin. Both exited the water in haste and then stood on the beach pointing out to sea for quite a while, and periodically looking down to us at Millers - probably wondering whether they should come warn us or not. Which they didn't, so maybe nothing after all!

​Happy to see the murky water has finally dissipated and the blue is back.

Those that don't wanna leave things to fate have got themselves the sea-snake leash. These are meant to deter sharks, who don;' like sea-snakes. However, I don't think a Great White has any idea what a sea-snake is, which may somewhat limit the efficacy of the anti-shark leash. Nonetheless, worth a try on the off chance it works, and have a funky looking leash too.

One of life's great mysteries got solved this weekend. Ever wondered why Dave Lippie wears gloves? And you thought it was to paddle faster. Nup. Turns out it makes it easier to get a grip on his super-sized sticks so they don't slip outta his grip as he walks down the beach. (Just in case you think that's an "ordinary" mini-mal - it's about 4.5 inches thick and 25 inches wide)

The Shaka Surf Camp and Skate Ramp opening in Port Alfred this weekend. Dave MacGregor has put plenty hours in bringing it all to fruition. Lekker possie right on the edge of the ancient dune forest, all made from recycled materials, and easy walk to the surf. Article coming up soon...

The annual Something Good Classic was held at Pipe on Saturday in some fun waves. Really great vibe down at the beach with plenty going on. The Pipe Surf Club raised some much needed funds and they will look to upgrade the facilities at the spot.

Thanks to Mervyn Goddard and Andre Venter for all their hard work in putting the event together and making it a lekker day in the bay for all the locals to enjoy.

The Wild Side isn't called the wild side for nothing. Seas can be heavy round the corner and it means that all sorts of lil dudes often wash up. If you do spot a stranded or injured looking sea bird or animal, give SAMREC a buzz:
041 583 1830 (During business hours)
​064 019 8936 (After business hours)

It's International Coastal Clean-Up day this coming Saturday. There are organised beach cleans at most major beaches so please get involved. But don;t let it be a once-off thing. Get into the habit of picking up rubbish every time you're at the beach. We all pick up a few pieces and collectively it will make a big difference overall. 

Sadly the spring tide rip currents claimed a victim at the Pier during the week. A young man from Joburg went for a swim with friends but got into difficulties. Bystanders did attempt a rescue but without success and he disappeared from view. The body was found later in the week. RIP.

A few lumps and bumps on the charts for the week ahead so hopefully everyone gets a chance to get wet.

Fairly quiet week wave-wise, with a bit of a pop in the swell for the weekend. Certainly a few lumps about to have a bit of fun on. Water still chilly though. Roll on summer.

Well, before summer comes spring - which was on Friday last week. Plenty of crazy peeps decided to celebrate by doing an early morning Spring Day swim.

Unfortunately there still seem to be quite a few finned ou's around at the moment. On Sunday at lunchtime a 4 m plus grey-suited chap chowed a seal right next to the kids at Point and then swam up to Supers. That'll get ya blood pumping!

Way back in 1968 there was a massive flood in PE. It created a swathe of devastation, including ripping apart the Humewood beach area. Check this shot of the Herald from this day (4 Sept)  - look closely and you'll also see a cooking lil wave at Baked Beans...

The north Indian Ocean just keeps delivering. For those who'd like to score some warm water waves before it's over give me a shout. Some good deals on Sail Shantaram if you quick.

Plus you get to snorkel with these cool critters. Gotto love manta rays! Our crew had a swim with these guys yesterday.

Other PE peeps who are in warmer climates right now is local Marc Jucker - making the most of the Padang Padang wave machine.

Eina - look after your ears! Greg Heasley had the infamous surfers ear op last week. No fun in that. Best way of ensuring you don;t need your ears drilled is to keep em warm and toasty and the water out. Squid lids and ear plugs for the win.

For anyone who enjoys a really well written piece of surf journalism, then go check out Chas Smith's account of his surf trip to Yemen. Yes. Yemen. When he isn't writing clickbait drivel for his Beachgrit website, Chas can pen an exquisitely written tale.  Just start with the prologue and go from there - a really good read.
http://beachgrit.com/2017/09/yemen-forget-that-youre-young/

Every wondered what else you could do with your boogie board leash. Turns out it's an effective way of keeping the mini-groms attached! Some o's are now selling these online!

Lekker weather on Sunday - and a bunch of Hobie Cats took to the water. Some decided it'd be a good idea to sail through the line-up at Millers. Ridden over by a SUP is one thing, but rate getting a Hobie on the head would take it to a whole nother level! So kiff to see these guys back in the water.
Hobie Beach is called Hobie Beach for nothing!

Still some cool sunrises and sunsets about, although as summer approaches expect them to get a lil less spectacular. More on that soon....

Winter ain't done with us just yet. Called her out last week for being in hiding and she came back with a proverbial bang this week. More like a "Boom" actually. Massive 5m swell with a 20 second period delivered monster waves all along the SA coastline.

You know if the bay is 8ft plus then it must be chaos outside. Rincon didn't even have a backline - just rolling whitewash as far as the eye could see. It turned the normally lackadaisical longshore drift current into a raging river - at one stage the back of Millers looked like the Zambezi rapids.

Things started on Thursday - Monday to Wednesday was just the usual knee-high-and-not-much-happening typical PE scenario, but then it all went ballistic. By midday Thursday it was huge, and continued to build into the evening. The high tide help settle things down a bit.

Check out all the shots and stories from the Storm Surf here:
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/blog/storm-surf-stories

Peaked overnight so Friday was fun sized and manageable, with some less than fun-sized crowds. Ou's were frothing like a cappuccino. Head over to the Latest Shots page to check all the galleries from Friday.

Gnarly timing for the SA Champs held in East London. The conditions were off the charts. The comp had to move to Nahoon Corner. Couple of heats the ou's just got washed right down the beach and meant they had to restart heats. 

Nelson Mandela Bay Surfriders (NMBS) for a 3rd possie overall, with the Masters coming 2nd and the Open 5th. Check out all the results and shots here:
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/comp-news/final-results-sa-champs

Andre Venter had picked up his new stick from Dennis Ellis at the Boardroom just before heading off to SA's - seems to have done the job cos Andre got a 3rd in the Over 55 division. Apparently new sticks now come with a free matching dog.

Musta been kak to have been sailing big container ships around the coast last week - but seems to help if you have a kiff name!

Classic old shot of the lifesaving tower at Kings Beach cropped up during the week. Reckon these retro one's are way cooler than the new plastic spaceship's currently on the beaches.

Earlier in the week before the swell went haywire Raggy Charters was out on one of their regular trips and spotted a some big whales right off the back of McArthur baths. Good to see these big mammals still frequenting our bay. Unfortunately one was found washed up just up from Sundays River during the week.

By the weekend the swell was pretty much done and dusted - just a few lil dribbles left over for everyone to get wet on and for those who's missed out on the main swell to not feel completely left out.

So much surf action almost forget that we still had our usual dose of awesome sunrises and sunsets during the week.

So this is what 5m 18 second swell looks like. Lekker to finally have a swell deliver and not be one of those phantom one's where the charts call it and it ends up being knee-high. 

But gotto be careful what you wish for. Most spots in the bay were totally maxed out and was a crazy current sweeping along. The wind got a bit better late arvo and the high tide helped even things out a bit. But still quite a mission out there.

The low tide saw Clubhouse doing it's thing.

And the Bell Bouy and Avo's.

iThose who tried both soon realised that they hadn't eaten enough Pronutro for brekkie to overcome the crazy river like current. Once you'd caught a wave at Avo's it was impossible to get back to the take-off spot. Saw 2 guys trying for over 20 minutes to paddle back and literally getting nowehere.

One dude decided to call it quits and turned round and headed behind Bord Rock. Tried to come in between Bird and Chomp but at low tide it's a minefield through there, so he opted to Plan B round Chomp and came in at Millers.

Other chap managed to catch the tail end of a set, but for his efforts ended up in the washing machine section at Avo's. You never want to be there on a big day. Ever. There is no escape plan that doesn;t entail meeting mussels and reef. Which he did. Finally getting spat out through the gap between the reef and Bird Rock on the Millers side.

​Being a glutton for punishment he went out at Hummies's. And broke his board. Eish! When it's not your day it's not your day!

On the low the waves were breaking from behind Chomp. Nice from far. Far from nice.

A few brave souls took on Pier, also not the easiest place to surf when there's so much water moving around. Anyone who's been out there before know's it's a kak idea to try paddle back round the pier and in at Hobie - as you need lat's like Dolph Ludgren. And you definitely go out far and paddle round wide - anywhere near the pier and you're in kak cos of how the current drags there.

But this ou didn't get the memo. He battled for age's trying to make it back round, twice nearly getting dragged into and then through the pier. Did finally make it back to the beach looking very relieved.

Hummies was heavy. Properly heavy. Didn't get any pics. Sorry. Rincon was breaking a million miles out to see - just a backline that stretched to the horizon.

The high tide and big swell means plenty of sand will have gotten chowed away - and end up at Fence. Please Fence - can we have our sand back? You have too much already!

PE lost sand, but St Francis lost a parking lot....

​Of course west of here was off it's proverbial pip. Big. Big. Big. Very big.

Then if you headed a bit further west....

And last but not least. Head east. Moer. It was big. SA Champs got shifted into Nahoon Corner which was firing. But look closely at the ship in this picture - imagine swell big enough that it lifts out the entire back-end of that thing. Yrrr.

Pretty slow darn week out in the surf. Count yourself lucky if you hooked a few. If anyone knows the number for Winter - please give 'em a call and say "Oi, mate, we still want a coupla waves!" (we'll go with the colloquial usage of mate, cos who knows if Winter is a guy or a chick, and Mate is just a perfect apply-to-anyone term.)

Of course Maldives was (and still is) absolutely pumping off it's pip!

PE, on the other hand. Nup, "pumping off it's pip" would not be a phrase we get to use with much regularity. We did win the rugger though. Will settle for what we get at this stage. 

Only ou to score good surf in the bay this week was the Grom Reaper, Andre Clarke's lil doodle man cartoon. Just another of our talented local surfers - need any design work done, Andre's your man.

All together now...Eina!!!! Looks pretty miff hey!? Local booger James Jones is over in Bali scoring some good waves but had a howzit with the reef after a kook dropped in on him at solid Padang Padang.  Gotto pay to play. Looked worth it!

Millers Local Shane Pyke also had a bit of "pay to play" action in Mauritius last week. Tore a rib cartilage and some rib muscles after getting slammed into the reef. To add to the fun n games then took a few 6ft sets to the head whilst standing in thigh deep water on the reef. Always the opposite of fun when that happens. 

​Maybe karma was getting them back for stacking the rental car to the hilt! Shane's hidden in the back of the car somewhere!

Winter was around - just not the waves that should come with it. In the absence of anything exciting happening in the ocean - locals Mark and Chaim Simmons took a trip inland to check out the snow. In typical Stompi-style he-who-feels-no-cold was in shorts. Which kinda explains why you never see him in a wetsuit. 

The whale carcass washed up near Schoenies is still attracting plenty of interest (and flies). Take a set of nose plugs along if you want to go check it out. Wouldn't advise surfing anywhere in the vicinity. Lots of finned friends will be hanging around just off the backline.

Enough sharks on land without having to worry about those in the water. Luc Hosten was shooting at the Wedge in Plett, and just after chatting to some tourists they got mugged about 30m away from him. Apparently negotiations were successful and they retained their passports. So safest place to be at Central Beach is in the barrel!

Despite winter not throwing out any waves this week it didn't disappoint in the sunrise/sunset department.

Looks like some swell this week - just the wind might make it tricky for the bay. Just load up with a tank of fuel though and you sorted. Am tempted to go one step further and load up with a plane ticket and chase it north of the equator...