|
Heard you just got picked up by Billabong, awesome stuff! So what’s the deal with the sponsorship – what all does it entail? I’m super stoked to be sponsored by Billabong now and its going to be super cool to be surfing for them .They gonna look after me for 4 years. Stacks of kit and gear! Head to toe in and out of the water. When I saw the contract for the first I couldn’t believe it. Andy Irons! Parko! Taj! How did it all come about? Did they just like call you up and go “Hey, we’d dig you on the team?” Josh phoned my dad on Monday and asked to speak to me. Josh asked me if I would like to be on the Billabong Team. Didn’t know what to say so said something like “that would be sick”. I can’t remember much more You mention there’s some travel allowance in there – does it mean you’ll have Bong helping get you to comps around the country? The PE gang, (My bro and the Coffey boys) are going to try to get to all contests. So I will travel with them, but I can go with the rest of the team. When I get to the contests, Billabong will take over. I’ll be staying at the “Billabong House” and they sort me out with food and stuff. I hope they know how much I eat!! 
Now that you’ll be travelling all over for comp’s, what does that mean as far as schooling goes? You gonna stick to the program or do home schooling? Your dad says you do pretty good in school? Yeah schools pretty fun and I don’t wanna do home schooling. I just hope Pearson will understand that that I will miss some days before contests. My dad has made an appointment to talk to them about it. Do get to do any surf trips with the Billabong crew now? I hope so. I have not heard of any yet. That would be so sick So what are you plans for this year – set any goals yet? I want to do well at school and make the EP Junior Team, The EP Longboarding team, and do well at the SA Champs if I make the team. I am also going to start working much harder on aerial moves 
And long term? Where does Alex wanna be with his surfing in 2 years time? 2 years ago, I had not surfed a contest, and was scared of Pipe! I would never have thought that I would be where I am now. I was surprised and stoked to win the SA Grom U14 title and that gave me a lekker boost. Making the EP Team was a highlight and the SA Longboarding Champs was so much fun. I got a 2nd and am amped to practise more this time and do better! My plan originally was to make the EP Team before Matric. Now I’m not so sure anymore. I would really like to make the SA Team, but the ou’s are so good. I know I’ll be having as much fun as I am now. I want to make my sponsors happy! 
K, so give us a quick run-down of your other sponsors. Dennis the Menace (aka the Boardroom) still gonna be doing your boards? Dennis will still make my boards. He has been so good to me. He surfs with me a lot and it’s always fun. He takes me to surf some gnarly stuff on the wildside and always helps out and keeps an eye out for Paul and I. A few months ago I got such a sweet deal with VonZipper, Dakine and Kustom. I get to keep them as sponsors and add Billabong. I still can’t believe it! 
We’re super stoked for you kid – go big or go home, but have the biggest jol doing it. Any shout outs?
It's like Christmas in February. After a long haul of trying to track down vintage PE surf shots, and managing to find a couple here and there, I got given the name of Jonty Hansford. A big-time Avo's & Fence local from back in the day. Turns out he got bit hard by the photography bug, and had a bunch of killer shots from PE & Seals from the 70's and 80's, including loads of water shots. Thanks to Jonty Millerslocal now has a kiff collection of vintage shots from all the local spots. Will be launching a Vintage page for each PE surf spot over the next coupla weeks. But here's some just to wet your appetite....  Funneling Fence  Splitting the peak at Fence  Leofwyn Erasmus - Smacking the Miller's lip  Weekends = camping in the kombi and scoring uncrowded Seals  Peter May buried at Seals.  Seals beachy just as good then as now  Keith Daniels - Ducking into a Seals barrel  The end of the road...  Yes, it was good. Very, very good.  Avo's. You were one of the manne if you took off from behind the rock. Jonty Hansford was one of the manne!  Secret's. Still a secret. These are just a fraction of the epic shots Jonty has. In the process of revamping the Vintage section so that each PE surf spot has it's own page, as well as Seals and Jbay. As each spot is finished I'll pop the link up on the home page so you can go check it out.
JBay Boardriders competed against the best clubs from around the country - and came out tops. Dealing with small conditions, rain, fog, freezing water the ou's from up the road took it all in their stride and took out the title. Not only do they claim bragging rights for the year, they get to host the interclub nationals next year. Congrats to Etienne and his team of Emma Smith, Kelvin Zehmke, Shannon Ainslie, Dominique Abersalie and Dylan Lightfoot, and judge Gina Smith. This is what Etienne had to say on the event: "Woke up to dead flat Melkbos so drove 50kms to Ysterfontein where there were fun and contestable conditions. Despite the pouring rain, wind and 8degree water the team pulled through. Advanced from the first round to semi's then through to the Finals. The team built momentum throughout the event peaking in the finals. Got behind in time in the finals but the team kept their calm and we won by 500points. The entire team contributed towards the win with each individual surfing well and coming together- so much so that we won the Best Team Spirit award. Thanks to Billabong for the awesome prizes and Dakine for kitting out the team and Surfing South Africa and West Coast boardriders for hosting the event." Wave Wizards from Durbs came second, 3rd were hosts West Coast A and 4th was Llundudno Boardriders. Shot to our PE clubs, CYOH and Sunset, for giving the other clubs a run for their money. 
Victorious JBay Boardriders
Sunset hiding out from the rain
 CYOH getting ready to rock. The Billabong National Interclub Championships will take place on the West Coast this weekend....and we're stoked to have TWO PE teams in the mix. Both the CYOH & Sunset crews are there flying the Eastern Cape flag. The comp format is a combination of individual surfing as well as a tag team event. Each team also nominates a "power surfer" who can score them additional points. The ou's will be scouring the coast for the best surf each day, with anywhere between Big Bay at Blouberg up to Yzerfontein being in the mix. Luckily for CYOH the Beck bro's have been doing a lil warm-up on that stretch of coast the last week - so hopefully can give the rest of the team a bit of a heads-up. The CYOH team comprises of:
The Sunset Surf team is:Mahier Pandie, Azzie Moodaly, Sebs Clarke, Alex Van Rijswijck, Azraa Abrahams, Fooie Jappie, Fagrie Jappie and Addie Jappie. As the winning team in the Eastern Cape CYOH was meant to be allowed to take 2 teams, but the ou's are so scared of them they changed the rules and now they can only take one. That's OK...it only takes one team to win! And I reckon CYOH is in with a damn fine chance at lifting that trophy! And here's who they're up against.... 1. WEST COAST BOARDRIDERS A 2. WEST COAST BOARDRIDERS B 3. CYOH SURF CLUB 4. WARNER BOYZ SURF CLUB 5. NATURAL ENERGY SURF CLUB 6. STELLENBOSCH SURF CLUB 7. J BAY BOARDRIDERS 8. WAVE WIZARDS SURF CLUB (WILDCARD) 9. LLANDUDNO BOARDRIDERS (WILDCARD) 10. SUNSET SURF CLUB Good luck to our surfers...go big or go home!!  from left Mahier Pandie, Azzie Moodaly, Sebs Clarke, Alex Van Rijswijck, Azraa Abrahams, Fooie Jappie, Fagrie Jappie and Addie Jappie.  Cool, we're unearthing some old PE ballies with all this retro talk lately. Wayne Goschen sent in some kiff old shots from the 80's. Wayne surfed for EP in the Longboard division whilst he studied at UPE, and was the first EP Longboarding Secretary when it was first started by Martin Haines and Steve McKetchnie in about 86/87. He was in the first EP Longboard Team that travelled up to the first SA Longboard Champs held in Durban in 1988. EP went on to win the next SA Champs in 1989. He's currently based in CT, but is hoping to find a post as an oceanographer back here in PE. Let's hope so - we need some surfers who have the credentials to be able to look after our coast. Wayne remembers Steve McKechnie used to shoot a bit back then, so does anyone know where he's got to these days? Last I heard he'd left the country? Used to have very entertaining sessions at Millers with him listening to all his weird n wonderful inventions....from neck rashie scarves to mobile climbing walls. Was never a dull moment with Steve!  The 1st EP Longboard Team to the 1st SA Champs at Durban’s North Beach in 1988. All the legends were there. Bottom row: Turtle Morris, Barry Heasley, Stewart Hickson Mahoney, Wayne Goschen, Martin Haines; top row: Steven McKechnie, (memory’s gone – can’t place that guy), Daron van Greunen.  Wayne hooking a lil barrel just after the comp  Chappy Adshade's newspaper column reporting on the 1989 longboarding year - Greg Smith was termed a rookie...how times have changed!!  EP longboard team 1991. Anyone help with some names?
 The longboard round-up for 1991 - check the description of Greg's winning wave! An ex-PE surfer, Barry White, got in touch and dropped us a coupla great old shots. Barry surfed in PE from the late 60's until about '79 when he moved to Cape Town. Given the article I just did yesterday about how good Fence used to be before the sand built up, it was kinda ironic that the first shot is from there - yet more proof of how good it was back then. He also had a few interesting words about the whole sand management debacle that clogged up Fence: "Have you heard of Joseph Lister? He was the guy that came up with the bright idea of seeding the dunes with Port Jackson to stop the harbor silting up in about 1883. There used to be a memorial to him across the road from the Bird Rock road house (± 7th Ave.) They built a railway line from just past Happy Valley into the dunes and dumped all of PE's rubbish on the dunes and then seeded them for about 10 years. When we were growing up in Summerstrand you could walk through the bush and pick up all kinds of old bottles, dolls heads and clay pipes."  Barry at "average" Fence back in the day  Local ballies - before they became ballies! Mush Hide skates the death drop, watched by Anthony Adler.  The original Red Windmill. Check the nice lil wave in the background!  Pipe crowds.  Peter Ellis at Pipe  Seals  Unknown at Pipe  David "Spider" Watts at JBay  "Spook"...who became a teacher at Woodridge  Checking out the ad plakked onto a kombi for the Five Summer Stories movie - the original surf flick. Parked on the grass at Pipe. |
 AuthorMillerslocal Archives
July 2021
|
RSS Feed
