Amazing what cool sh*t you can learn just hanging at the beach...

Surfers are first class lurkers. We make hanging out at the beach an art-form! Still, there's nothing better to do on a warm summers day than just parking off, watching the waves and talking rubbish.

The water out this way has been freezing, a head numbing 14C to be precise. So despite being totally wave starved,  sessions are still fairly short, meaning plenty of beach hang time. You'll be amazed at what sort of interesting stuff you can learn whilst watching the surf. Take yesterday for example:

I was sitting up at the point snapping a few shots after my surf, and in the space of an hour learnt about how to wrestle & kill a monster fish when you're spear-fishing (grab it in the gills, bring it to the top, then stick a knife into the back of it's head through it's brain - easier said than done I'm sure!); how to solve the problem we've been having with our river boats transom and who the best person was to fix it (Rob in 7th Ave Walmer does a great job with aluminium apparently); how to stop the motor's on our ski-boat moored in the harbour from corroding (you need zinc plates and brass washers); how to line-up at Mavericks and why the wave is ideally suited to paddle in not tow surfing (there's 2 outer pinnacles on the reef that focus the swells onto the take-off zone, giving you a bit of a feather before it lurches, and behaving more like a huge point-break than a ledge - all neatly explained by Duncan with the aid of 3 pebbles, a twig, a bit of bush and some drawing in the sand), and split my sides laughing at a helluva funny tale about one of PE's baalies.

The story goes that as a youngester the baalie was quite a hottie, so got asked to be one of the surfers to model for a fashion show hosted at the old Elizabeth Hotel (now Garden Court) by Stellenbosch Farmers Wineries and a well-known clothing chain. The organiser had decided that surfers would make cool models, so roped in some of the more presentable locals, showed them a coupla runway tips and let them loose.

Now the baalie in question quite fancied the idea of strutting his stuff on the runway and having the chicks ogle at him, so was making the most of the opportunity and giving it all he had. However, he hadn't twigged that cos the runway was raised up off the ground that meant that the doorway he had to exit through as he left the ramp would be a bit lower than normal. He was so preoccupied with sussing out the chicks he didn't realise he'd have to duck as he walked off and proceeded to walk face first into the doorframe! Hero to zero in 0.3 seconds! What's that saying about "pride comes before the fall"?

So there were go, one flipping funny story and some interesting titbits of information, all gleaned by doing nothing other than sitting shooting the surf for an hour! Might not beat being in the water, but it comes a close second.