Life's all about perspective. So instead of getting pissed at the PE name change, let's take the piss instead. Gonna be running a tongue-in-cheek competition where you'll have the chance to "rename" PE's iconic surf spots. Best name (and reason for it) wins. Follow the Facebook page for details.

If you don't have Facebook and still wanna enter just comment below. Spots up for renaming are gonna be Fence, Humewood, Millers, Avo's, Pipe and Rincon (just write the name of the spot you are renaming, followed by your new name for it, and if you like add in a reason for your choice).

CarPark John will be Judge John and make the call as to who comes up with the best name for each spot. Winner scores a R100 voucher from Surf Centre and a 4 pack of mixed beers from Richmond Hill Brewing Co.

Will update the results for each spot on this page as we go along.

Comp 1:
Fence. Now known as Qdolos (Julian Bray)
Honourable mentions: iFenci (Daryl Garner), Draad (JP Mulder), Stressles (Peter Lawrence - cos you worry about your car in the car park!)

Comp 2:
Humewood - now known as ​Gdbsaxprietha, or something like that! Kent Catterall's entry was chosen as the winner by Dennis Ellis, cos he felt it was a good reflection of the unpronouncable name given to PE recently.

James Ruthven-Smith got an honourable mention with his name of "Gogos" - Xhosa for "grandmothers". Cos James reckons even if the weather is miserable, there will be one around to tune you that you shouldn't be surfing there. And if you squint really hard with salt crusted eyes the old pillars could look like grannies

Comp 3: Rename Avalanche and win R100 Surf Centre Voucher and a mixed 4 pack from RHBC. Get those entries in by 12pm midday on this Thursday.
Remember, anyone can enter, but if you don't live in PE (or somewhere close by), you'll need to donate your prize to your mate or the ou in 2nd place. Cos we can't ship prizes.

One of the original PE surfers, Rick Field, commented on a recent post about the renaming of PE, and the chirp about they can't rename our surf spots:

"I grew up at No 1 Seventh Avenue Summerstrand and was born in 1951. I was the first person to surf Avalanche when I was 15 so 1966. Chomps was called Robin Els Rock after the bait the fishermen found there.

My brother, Stan Field, and I were probably the first surfers when I was 15, so 1967 to surf the Lighthouse. It was about 10 foot. In 1964 I came 2nd to Mush in the first competition ever at Millers.

I broke my nose 3 weeks before my Barmitzvah at Fence end of 1963. Mush and Car Park John can verify all this is true.

In 1967 I surfed Pipe with my dog Simba and there was a pic of us in the EP newspaper The Herald.

Millers was a great right but Rob McCaskill surfed straight into my face 1967 and broke my nose for the 2nd time !

The 3rd time I broke it was 2005 surfing at Puerto Vallarta in Mexico with my nephews 
Jess Field and  Ari Melmed.

We always thought Pollock beach was named after the great cricketers from my school Grey High around 1969.

My brother Stan, now 77, and a World renowned Architect lives near Mavericks just South of San Francisco and still surfs weekly. I live in Denver and go to surf with him when I can.

Please would you put this comment on your Website as I'm now officially a Baalie and am kak on computers tho I'm still racing Vintage Motocross all over the USA.

Best regards and God Bless to all you surfers,

Ricky Field now just Rick Field"

Lekker to hear that an old PE surfer is still in the water after his 3 score years and 10. Nice one Rick!

Typical feast or famine PE surf missions. The week before cooooked. This past week? Not so much. Still some scraps to get wet on. It did mean ou's were frothing on the dawnies to avoid the onshore breezes. When last you see 20 ou's in the water at Pipe before sunrise!?

The light onshores did mean there was some air time to be had. Lighties just have to work on spotting their landings a bit better as one of the Pipe regular morning crew collected a grom on the head.

William Vietch has been doing lots of swimming lately and been hooking some lekker shots. Try not to ride over Williams head. Remember the golden rule of surfing - where you look - you go. So don't eyeball the poor photag as you bearing down on him. He'll get out the way - his pip depends on it!

There were actually enough waves to get CarPark John in the water. Happy to report he is finding his mojo again and caught some!

That's one of the cool things being back home. Back to my daily chats with John. For the last 20 years this is how it goes:
Ring ring ring
John: "Keeeeeerrrrrrryyyyyyyy"
Me: "Howzeeeeet! What's happening!?"
John: " As you can see, nothing!" (sometimes alternating with "As you can see, it's kak!")

Pretty much the exact same opening to our daily phone call every day for 20 years. I can probably count the number of times he's said "It's cooking" on one hand! But then again, John doesn't throw out the "it's cooking" description too often. He has pretty high standards!

Where it was cooking this week was Maldives. Wish I was still locked down there. Certainly wouldn't be out there in this size, but know enough hidey holes where it bends round the reef and becomes friendly size. 

It was also cooking in Gauteng. Actually it can cook there pretty much every day of the week. You somme just have to flick the switch. Ex-Millerslocal and Sun City GM, Brett Hoppe, just loving the fact that he doesn't have to worry about crowds or tides or onshores or sharks (or SUP's! Brett "loves" SUP's...)

​The only variable is the water temp, and it can get frigging cold up there - I remember surfing the pool eons ago and just as we were packing our stuff  for the trip I thought "hey, maybe I should throw in a suit" Just as well we did, was about 14C!

If you looking for some super funky tables, chairs or cushions, pop into the Locally Yours Market at Moffet Retail Park. Surfer-girl Margot Saunders has her awesome range of goods there. Or just tune Margot direct. Like whilst waiting for sets at the back of Pipe, you can buy a cushion!
​#buylocal #Supportsurfers

Haibo. Skollie alert. Fence locals  - keep your eyes peeled for this vehicle, as the driver is suspected of breaking into Craig's car this weekend. Whilst he was changing into his suit this car pulled up and parked in front of him, the guy then lay down acting as if he was gonna take a nap.

After walking a lil way down the beach Craig decided the ou was too suspicious and came back to find him snooping around the cars. So Craig moved his car into the main car park. After his surf he got back to find the lock popped, but thankfully he hadn't left anything worth taking inside.

​Also watch out at Loch Ness, a car was broken into there last week as well.

Not much on the charts for this week. Lekker long period swell on the weekend - but heavy easts. So if you know a spot that can handle that, then you in the money.

Back in the 'hood after a year locked out north of the equator. Lekker to be back to my front yard, although missing my "other" front yards already.

Thankfully lockdown restrictions got amended last week and we could get back into the surf. Everyone and the kitchen sink was out there on their boards. Luckily Neptune decided to give us a break and dished out some really fun swell.

Waves from Rincon down to Fence, and plenty to go round. The photags were also out and about, so plenty of shots to check out - just go over to The Latest Shots page and take a scroll.

Even CarPark John made the transition from car park into the water. Did entail some nagging from all his mates to get him motivated, but he had a few good sessions. Not too shabby when you the other side of 70.

The ou's are only to happy that the "Closed" sign has been removed from the beach. Although based on the crazy behavior witnessed on the first weekend of open beaches, for a brief moment everyone was like, hmmm, maybe they should close them again! Was a bit like watching a live reality TV show.

Somewhat ironic that a lone surfer the week before would have attracted 5 cop vans, a police boat and a helicopter and an arrest, yet blatant disregard for the bylaws of No Drinking etc barely a few days later and not a cop to be seen. Go figure.

Speaking of arrests. Big Dave - currently known as Medium Dave (thanks to a successful diet plan), had his summons dropped thanks to some sharp work by surfer-lawyer and SA Surfing prez Johnny Bakker. Dave was arrested at Seals during lockdown for having a surf, but thanks to Johnny's hard work and some common sense on behalf of the prosecutor it got chucked out.

Pipe PE generally only bears similarity to the real Pipe in name alone. But William Veitch decided to do a Clarke Little impersonation and got a whole heap of sand in holes he didn't know he had whilst capturing some cool shoredumps - and making Pipe look more like Pipe than normal.

The crazy hot weather saw some interesting cloud formations - Andrew captured this one out at Schoenies.

Blast from the past - nice old shot of Humewood surfaced during the week. Just the slipway in place, and hardly anything built in Summerstrand. Nice wedges visible at Fence of course. 

The big oil tanker permanently anchored near Koega harbour has some locals of it's own. The seals have taken to climbing up the bulb on the nose and hanging out. 

Plenty of gorgeous sunrises and sunsets to enjoy during the week. Summer never disappoints in that department.

Surfer and funny-man, Gino Fabbri, started doing a Saturday evening show during lockdown and has kept it going ever since. This weekend he interviewed Dennis Ellis from the Boardroom.

Check out the show here.

The good swell during the week saw a lucky rider score a wave from Chomp all the way through to Hobie, a ride of approx 500m. He had to negotiate a drop in from Big Dave en route, but managed to round him successfully (an achievement in itself!) and wind up all the way down near the beach. 

After a good run of swell, the ocean is taking a break for a while until it wakes up later in the week again. Gives everyone's arms a chance to rest up.