Ever wondering how fast you were going when you were flying down the line? Turns out you don't have to wonder no more. All you need is one of those GPS watches, and set it to record your session.

Local surfer Anthony Adler tried it out during last Thursdays big swell at Jbay. Pity he didn't wear his heart rate monitor too, cos would be interesting to see how that spikes up during a big drop or a looming set!

He recorded a 400 metre ride, which lasted 53 seconds, with an average speed of 27.7km and max speed 40.3km. Pretty neat! You can even go download your stats on a website like Strava, and then others can see how they stack up against your stats for that same section you surfed.

Turns out professional surfing dabbled into GPS tracking for a brief moment back in 2011, but it quickly slipped back into obscurity. Competitors during the 2011 Quik Pro at Snapper were fitted with rash vests with embedded GPS trackers.

There were a coupla interesting observations. The distances being covered by the surfers were pretty huge. Joel Parkinson covered nearly 4km in 25 minutes. I barely run 4k's in 25 minutes, let alone paddle that far in that time!
So to all those lighties training for competitive surfing - certainly proves that you need some serious paddling fitness - cos you paddle your mielie off in a heat.

Speed was the big question everyone had - how fast do these guys go? The top speed achieved by Slater and Fanning actually happened mid turn. At Snapper Rocks, Mick Fanning was the fastest surfer. The Aussie recorded a maximum speed of 39,1 km/h. In second place, Joel Parkinson clocked 34,6 km/h, Bede Durbidge third  at 33,6 km/h and 10-time world champion Kelly Slater places in fourth (32 km/h).

Remember the guys were monitored during competition surfing - which means plenty of turns and pivots - not flat out speedlining - as would be the case at big JBay for example.

Would be interesting to see what they'd clock if they were on a race-track like Jbay on a good day and they were purely surfing for speed.

So for all those surfers out there who normally use their GPS watches for running or cycling, maybe take it out with you on your next surf just for fun and see what sort of speed you can clock.

Some really decent surf poured into the bay on Thursday. And as always is the case with solid days, there's often as much action on the sidelines as there is in the surf. You know it's gonna be a good day when a giraffe washes up on the beach!

Shooting Clubhouse mid-morning after an early Millers sesh (good size, but waaay too much chop). Next thing this ballie walks down towards the edge of the Avo's rock with his goggles & snorkel on. For a terrifying minute I thought he was gonna wade in next to the rock - and then get sucked out in a second. Sent John down to tune him, but turns out the ou was just gonna get into the rock pool. There he lay for a coupla minutes getting washed about by the surge that flushed into it from the gap between the rocks.

Done with getting sand into every orifice he owned, he then parked off in the shorey doing some karate. So lekker to see ballies still stoked on life. Loving it!

The early morning sessions were plagued by heavy cross chop. Such a pity cos reckon the swell was at it's biggest then. Rincon was breaking halfway to the horizon. Back of Pipe had some good one's. Specially if you went left, away from the wind.

Glad to see some guy read the paddling article! Here he is busting out some push-ups on the beach! Don;t wanna paddle like a poepal? Check out the blog post then.

Big surf always means you get to collect a few on the head for your troubles. Think this is Andre about to wear one square on the pip. It was one of those days for him. Every single one he took off on he got axed. He got so gatvol of his board in the end that he jumped off after the take-off and decided to do some barefoot surfing instead! Credit to him he still walked up the beach smiling!

When the surfs pumping it's so easy to over-froth. Like these 2 lighties below. They were so amped to get out there that they sprinted off the beach and into the water at full tilt - either not knowing, or not remembering, that there was some lovely sharp reef hidden below the surface. They went from 100km/h to a dead halt as those feet suddenly went from soft sand to sharp rock. Too funny to watch.

PE doesn't get surf all to often, so there were plenty peeps in the line-up. Thick crowds meant a few near misses, a couple classic T-bones (no-one got injured amazingly, in the one's that I saw), and lots of family waves. 

The surf was so hectic it even pulled Barry's bootie off! Well, not quite. Barry's just a one-bootie man.

"Don't leave til you have a good shot of me!" Gregg jokingly called out as he jogged past on his way out to the surf. This was his first wave....I think it was a good shot!

Long time Millers local JP Degoumois is testimony to the fact that when you're good, you stay good, even when you hit middle age. He pulled off some ridiculously critical turns out there. Just bummed I didn't get any good shots of them. Easily still one of the top surfers in PE.

On good days - there're just as many good wipeouts as good waves. Think that this one captured by Dirk Erasmus at Pipe takes the cake. That expression says it all!

And if PE cooked, you know JBay fired. The day dawned with a spectacular sunrise, and some pretty darn spectacular lines pouring down the point. Early birds definitely got some worms. 

There was so much surf on offer that Luc took a break from shooting the surfing action and got some arty shots of the pipe at Pipe.

Rincon delivered. Although you had to have had a few Red Bulls to make it out to the back. It was solid. Never too many shots from there cos it breaks so far out and the ou's look like ants. Dave got a lil clip on his phone which shows just how solid it was. Free bonus segment of random sky shots as Dave has a shaky moment....

Check out all Thursday's photo galleries from PE & JBay in Latest Shots.

Throw away the iPhone. Who needs internet forecasts to predict when surfs on the way? All you gotto do is check the loo, bru!

Next time the wind is pomping as a cold front is smashing us, go check the water level in your toilet bowl. You'll notice it will have dropped a bit lower than normal. Say hello to the "Toilet barometer". So every morning instead of logging onto your phone to check the forecast, just pop your head over the loo and see what the water level's doing. Gone down? Good - low pressure system is around and there's a chance of waves.

It sounds kinda crazy, but it actually does work. Learnt it way back in the day from Seals legend and weather guru extraordinaire, Eric Stedman. 

Here's the low down on the weird loo levels. Basically the water in your loo is in an s-shaped combination of curved tubes. If the far side of the tube develops under-pressure, some of the water will be pulled over into the far side, and water level in your toilet bowl will sink. Where your loo pipe comes out the wall it has a lil chimney pipe coming off of it vertically with a small vent at the top (which gets rid of the pong). 

On windy days, this chimney can act like a pump. The wind blowing over it creates a low pressure in the pipe, which then sucks some water out of the toilet and into the pipe. Which is why you see the loo bowl level drop.

There's actually a scientific principle that explains the scenario: Bernoulli’s principle. It's all about fluid dynamics.

Because fluids like air and water tend to move towards area of decreased pressure, lower air pressure results in a suctioning effect throughout the plumbing system, which ultimately lowers the water level in your toilet bowl as the winds start to howl as a cold front moves through. Conversely, calmer weather conditions result in increased air pressure in the toilet and higher water levels as a result.

So go check ya loo during the next cold front. Betcha you'll notice the water level will have dropped a bit.

We paddle out to the backline, we paddle against rips, we paddle down the beach to the next peak, we paddle back up the point, we paddle to make it over a clean-up set, we paddle past other surfers, we paddle to catch waves, and some people even paddle in.

Surfers are paddlers. Full stop.

If you paddle like a poepal you’ll get less waves. Less waves means less surfing. So you’d be more “floater” than “surfer”. Here’s a quick look at to how to up your paddling game. Cos getting dragged over the falls backwards cos you haven't quite made it over the set - that sucks coconuts.

So you spot that lump on the horizon that has your name on it, don't paddle after it like a wind-up toy on acid. Relax. Form is function. You gain more from doing less properly than expending a bucket-load of energy karate chopping the water.

Learn from the master. Kelly will out-paddle pretty much anyone. Including guys who are 2 ft taller than him with arms that have wingspans like condors. Kelly will smoke them. All whilst looking cool as a cucumber.

Let's start at the beginning - be in the sweet spot on your board. It's easy to spot a kook from a mile off as they tend to lie too far back as they paddle, lifting the boards nose out the water. Pretty impossible to get any momentum like that, and forget catching a wave. Lie too far forward, and nose-diving will be your friend. And keep those feet together.

Don't go hyper-arching your back like a scorpion in attack mode. You'll often see the groms doing this weird paddling stroke. Maybe cos they're just so damn elastic and their backs bend that much, I dunno. But it isn't all that effective in the long run. They get away with it whilst they're still in the energiser bunny phase, but as you get older it's a bad habit to have developed. 

A highly arched back means you end up with a shorter reach on your paddling stroke and less of your arm in the water during the catch phase of the pull, so definitely not the best bang for your buck approach.

If you check out Kelly, Parko & Mick - they all stay fairly low and centred on their boards. This allows you to reach further forward on your stroke, giving you a longer stroke overall, and hence a wider pulling arc during the catch phase of your stroke. Bigger pulling arc means more power, which means you go faster.

Ok, so you're in the right spot on your board, and you aren't arching up like crazy. Now what? Keep that head still! Wiggle it about from side to side and your body"ll wiggle right along with it, using up valuable energy and slowly you down in the process.

Keep that elbow up when you paddle - a higher elbow helps your arm clear the water properly and allows you a nice long reach forward. Keeping the elbow high also means your hand enters the water at a bit more of a downward angle and give you some more power during the catch phase of the stroke. 

Make sure you get a full arm extension with every stroke. You'll often see ou's, specially lighties, doing this weird chicken-wing paddle where their arms enter and exit the water prematurely. Your hand should be entering the water at the full extension of the elbow and not before then, says Mick Fanning. 

Now that your hands in the water keep it loosely cupped - most the pro's reckon this more relaxed approach is better than tightly gluing your fingers together. As you pull through your stroke, get that arm as deep as possible. Don't just tickle the surface of the water! Kelly's an advocate of the "S" stroke. Drawing a gentle S shape in the water whilst you'll pulling through it, which gets your arm slightly under your board.

Long, powerful strokes, bring those lat's into the game - they're the biggest shoulder muscles you have so let 'em do the work. Concentrate on long pulls that use your whole body and create a constant speed.

Pull through your stroke in one continuous motion until your arm is fully extended behind you. Yank it out the water too early and you lose power and your stroke, and look like a chicken. Double bad.

If you're pretty jacked up you can even engage your core during the whole paddling process. Nice stable base from which to paddle more effectively. If you're over 30 your core has probably gone into retirement, so don't worry about this one. It's a nice theory though!

The dudes who've studied paddling technique also speak about using a very subtle roll in your paddle as well. Imagine a rod drilled into the top of your pip and coming out your butt - very slightly rotate on this axis during the final phase of your stroke just before your hand enters the water. So if your right arms extended out front and about to enter the water add in a very subtle rotation to the left - which rotates your body ever so slightly and allows your right arm to get that little bit of an extra reach.

Your waves arrived. Don't miss it! Cos firstly you'll be super annoyed with yourself for blowing the wave you've been waiting for wave AND (public service announcement) you have now lost your first place spot in the line-up, and the next wave most definitely ain't yours! Snooze you lose. Back in the queue buddy.

So how to get that extra bit of vooma to make sure you catch that wave? The Great Bald One talks about bending your elbow a bit so that your forearm paddles right under your board, almost compressing water against the bottom of your board to create lift. 

Do NOT lift your head too far up at the last minute. So many guys do this - and all it does is shift your centre of gravity backwards at exactly the wrong instant, and acts like a handbrake, stopping your momentum dead and meaning you miss the wave. Quite the opposite is what you need. 

Luke Egan was one of the first ou's to popularize chin paddling. And if you check out Laird Hamilton's chin - yeah, looks like that thing has pushed down on a few boards in it's time!

Think the waves about to slide by under you? Stick that chin of yours down onto the deck of your board and give it a push! This keeps more momentum and speed going and helps keep your centre of gravity forward - hopefully giving you that extra lil oomph to get over the lip.

Putting this extra weight forward and consequently shifting your center of gravity forward helps to keep you and the board ahead of the wave as the push comes. Your board has its own center of buoyancy. When paddling your centre of gravity is near the board's centre of buoyancy. When the wave comes you gotto shift your centre of gravity forward to in front of the board's centre of buoyancy. This helps create the downward angle of the board to stay in front of the moving swell and catch the wave and give you crucial acceleration you need. Simple physics.

Happy to say every single one of my boards has a lil pressure dent on the top deck from multiple chin paddles! It does work for sure.

Most of us are guilty of doing the old butterfly stroke at the last minute, thinking it'll help us get that wave that's running away from us. The double armed paddle is unfortunately in most instances not the right thing to be doing. Normal paddling keeps our forward momentum smooth and consistent, the minute you start butterflying it's creating a stop/start effect on your motion which actually slows you down. Try hard to break the habit.

What about kicking? Does it help? Seems so, according to a recent study at Griffith University, Australia. Researchers assessed maximal-paddling performance in surfers, and found that kicking while paddling gives the surfer a 9.2% increase in paddling speed over paddling with arms alone over a 5-10 second period.

The study and physics suggest that if a surfer can kick hard while paddling he will gain an advantage however small it may be. Of course if the kicking destabilizes the surfer on the board or disturbs their arm paddling rhythm then it may in fact reduce paddling speed and make it hard to catch the wave. 

Last but not least - always take that extra paddle before standing up. When it's small, that last stroke might mean the difference between catching the wave or missing it. In big surf, failing to take an extra paddle may get pitched over the falls. 

Besides trying out the techniques described, another thing which can really help your paddle power is to get those arms a bit stronger. To be honest, surfing is just about the only thing that keeps your paddling fitness up. But in PE, where you can go for almost a whole week and not have been able to get in the water once, helps to have a Plan P. Push-up's are your friend. Whack a few of these guys every morning when you wake up, and you'll be good to go when the next swell pulls in.

Have fun catching more waves now that you know how to paddle like a pro!

Pretty rad weather weekend. No wind - unusual. No swell - usual. But still awesome to be hanging at the beach. Despite much of the coast looking like a Vaal dam impersonation, there were still a few ripples to be had if you hunted about. Donovan Zoetmulder used a bit of petrol-assist to reach for the sun at Seals. 

The kiff weather extended as far as Cape Town, where the windless conditions resulted in a rather icky aerial shot of a daily phenomenon that affects all our cities. Jean Tresfon captured this image of sewerage getting pumped into the ocean about 1km offshore Greenpoint. Happens in Algoa Bay too. Basically where do you put this stuff unless you stick it into the sea? Certainly not an ideal situation, but currently is how we deal with our waste. Might have made sense yonks ago, but am guessing with the exponential increase in population it is a method of disposal that maybe needs to be reconsidered?

Some new colour getting added to the already rad looking skatepark, with Nathan Sanan getting quirky with his spraycans. Much as we malign our local municipality for being pretty slack, this is one thing they did get right!

The dolphins are back en masse. Last week saw huge pods cruising the beachfront daily. Usually the crew pull past in the morning, and then head back in the arvo. But they were in full-on jol mode, maybe cos the red tide has finally buggered off, and were up and down plenty of times each day. Great to be out in the line-up when they come past. We're so lucky to have these locals.

Boogers showed that they are quite the romantics. Local drop-knee king James Jones did the ultimate DK when he proposed to his lady in style. Not to be outdone, PE's power king Dylan Stone got wed to his good lady. The guest list was a who's who of PE & JBay surfing. Carpark John reckoned there were some interesting threads worn by some of the crew. Surfers don't do suits....

The crew from the SABC environmental documentary program 50/50 were in town to take a look at the proposed fish farm just off Pipe. The CYOH boys met up with them to have their say. John's an avid fan, and was stoked to meet Bonne, the presenter. Teased him afterwards about he shoulda asked for an autograph!

Big drilling rig passed through en route to Singapore. Travelling on these big boys won't exactly blow your hair back if you're a speed freak. They clock only 4km/hr. Local tug-man Ryan Braunschweig pointed out that it can hitch a ride on mother nature and increase it's speed to about 5-6 knots if it can find some favourable currents. So it'll take about 2 months to get where it's going. Long haul that. 

Surfers are pretty innovative at the best of times. Justin Bing came up with a clever way to raise some funds to get himself over to Nicaragua to surf in the ISA World SUP Games. They guys brewed up some local lager - Bing Bru, and are selling 4 packs to raise some cash. Lekker!

Brad & Grant Beck and Merrick Fairall were up in CT to do some judging for the Quik "Takes one to know one" comp and decided the best way to create an impression with the uber-cool Cape crowd was to go out wearing matching T's and drink cocktails!

Can't have been an easy comp to judge given the waves in the Cape were about as non-existent as back home.

Kelly's right on the money. Once you start this gig, you just can't stop. Maybe you take a lil break here and there, get the 2.5 kids and the picket fence, move to Joey's for a job. But the salt water still runs in your veins. Like a faint drum beat that gets louder the closer you get to the ocean. No matter how long it's been since your feet have been in the wax, the minute you're standing on the beach seeing a wave reeling off, you're mind-surfing it, no matter what.

What is it that makes surfing so addictive? Cos I'm betting there isn't one of you that hasn't missed something important cos the waves were cooking! Maybe that's it. It's such a fickle b*tch. Not like tennis when you can just rock up at the court at whatever time, and hey, the court will be there, and you can play.

Scientists love to study rats. Maybe the rats have the answer. Researchers found that when rats were given unpredictable rewards they experienced obsessive behavior. American shrink B.F. Skinner did a study giving rats randomly-timed rewards. The rats were basically frothing the whole waiting period between the unexpected rewards, doing a lil rat drool whilst anticipating the next one. Some of the lil critters even obsessively tapped on a bar in their cage, hoping that this would trigger the reward.

What it boiled down to was that an unexpected reward had much more power than a regular, expected reward in driving behavior. Which pretty much sums up surfing. The holy grail of decent swell, the right wind direction and the right tide are not something that can be made to order. Factor in you have to be able to hit the beach during the perfect time when all the variables align - so work commitments, school, varsity timetables also have to coincide. You gotto be on it. Drop everything and go.

Despite the onshores, the crap waves, the crowds, the flat days, cold water & howling winds, we still keep coming back. Like rats tapping on the bar. Watching. Waiting. Just wanting to jab that salt water injection into our veins.

The average wave last no more than 6 seconds. Yet that's all it takes. As you kick out of that first wave, you smile, and all feels right with the world. The endorphins, adrenalin, dopamine and serotonin are doing their magic. Nature's happy pills. You're no longer worrying about whatever kak is going on in your life, all you're thinking about is the next wave. The next hit. 

The cure for anything is salt water.

But it's not only the chemical cocktail from riding waves that brings on the stoke. 

There're some vitamins in that air you're breathing. The turbulence created by breaking waves alters the physical structure of the air and water, breaking apart water and air molecules and releasing negative ions into the air. So whilst we're out there in your quest for surf you're slap bang in the middle of this altered atmospheric state.

It's not only the surf which generates these negative ions. You get the same effect at waterfalls and after thunderstorms. The overdose of negative ions has a positive effect on your mood by triggering the release of endorphins and serotonin – the same happy hormones that are getting triggered when you're catching a wave. 

So we're getting our surf high whilst we're on the wave and whilst we're sitting out in the line-up. Double whammy. Certified surf junkies.

Only a surfer knows the feeling. 

Coupla waves here and there in the past week. As usual you scored if you had petrol in the tank. Heard of a few good sessions going down west of here with very few peeps in the water. 

There were some other interesting things in the water too - a "baby" killer whale was spotted chilling out near Bird Island by Raggy Charters last week. Nothing much "baby" looking about him. See a fin that size cruise the back of the line-up would see a few guys walking on water I reckon. Even though he doesn't like snacking on humans it would still probably be one to watch from the beach rather.

The EP Grom surfing team which will compete at the annual Billabong Grommet Games at Pipe at the end of the month are desperately short of funds for the event. They need R25k for the 15 person team (about R1.7k per child) to equip and accommodate them through the event.

The team compromises of talented surfers from all backgrounds. Rich and poor, black and white - all stoked on surfing. Although half the team are surfers from "previously disadvantaged" communities they are all there based purely on their surfing ability. No token anything in our team and we stand a good chance of winning the event.

Whether you're able to help sonsoring tracksuits or bags, or are able to help with a cash donation - every little bit helps. Even R100! If you are able to assist please pop your bucks here:
EP Surfing, Standard Bank, Rink Street 050417 a/c no 080298818. Use reference EP gromgames & your name.

Also good to see some guys (including ex EP Grom team members Alex & Jonno) are chucking some of their old kit into the mix for the development lighties - boards, suits, leashes etc. If you have a few surfing items hanging about in the garage gathering dust, these would also be much appreciated. You can drop off at Surf Centre and they'll be collected from there.

CYOH held their first Surf Off of the year round the corner. Some good waves, great surfing and epic vibe as usual. You can check out all the shots from the day on the Comp News page here.

Speaking of comps, finally the Quik Pro at Snapper is back underway today. Round 3 nearly done with. Unfortunately the last Saffa hope, Travis, got done in by Taj. Bit of an upset with Julian Wilson getting blitzed by rookie Mitch Crew....serves him right though, apparently he burned Mitch badly on a few waves in the free surf yesterday - so karma bit him on the butt. Nice!

The stretch of water from Pipe out to the bell bouy looked like a highway of boats with the annual Bell Bouy challenge underway. A few surfers did the long haul out to the bouy and back, with wildside local Gustav Lokotsch winning the wetsuit category, and Dylan Stone in 8th, followed by Donovan Zoetmulder in 11th spot. Nice one guys - that's a flipping far swim. Now no excuses not to paddle out there on the next big swell and catch a few!

King's was cool back in the day. It was the go-to beach in years gone by, Hobie wasn't even on the radar back then...mainly cos there was no pier yet and so bogger all sand!

Ysss, but KB was the spot. Fence was the premier wave back then, way more of a wedge than today due to a ton less sand. Broke consistently and barreled perfectly. But there was more to Kings than just the surf. It was the whole package. 

Where the new skatepark is today was a full-on kid's jol area, with massive splash pool (whose water temp varied based on the number of lighties packed into it - and pissing -  versus actual ambient temperature). Running around that was the famous Smartie Train. Every kid nagged their folks to death to ride that thing.

You could get melt-in-your-hand-and-drip-all-over-you soft serves from the cafe next door. Choc -99's were the hit. Add a coke-float or slush-puppy to that and you were cooking. Enough sugar pulsing through your veins so you could ride the lil blue wall ramp with your skateboard all day long. 

And if you were a main ou, then you could upgrade to the concrete half-pipe. Was a pretty anorexic ramp so you had to keep the turns tight. Enough skating for the day? Then head up the stairs to the big deck above the restaurant and suss out the action from there. Plenty of neon happening in those days so the cool kids were easy to spot. 

Families used to picnic on the grass between the pool and the beach, and could be safe in the knowledge that if you got up off your picnic blanket for 5 seconds it would still be there when you sat down again. Not like today.

Putt Putt was a big thing back then. Situated in pretty much the area where the upgraded car park now is next to the new skatepark, it was home to titanic battles and many a date night. The minute an ou had a putter in his hand it was serious stuff, cos guys don't like losing in front of their girls. It was apparently manly to win at putt-putt.

Serious attention was paid to picking a putter that was the right length, and time spent selecting a lekker ball. Whoever in the group could count to more than 10 got the kak task of scoring (which sometimes turned out to be advantageous, cos you could then cheat like hell). 

Massive self-restraint came into play on the 18th, which had a nice steep ramp which just begged for a ball to be moered at it and launched skywards. Many of which were. Much to the amusement of everyone other than the chick running the place. Yss, kids today dunno what they missed out on. Putt putt was a jol. Seriously.

As you got older you could upgrade from lurking with the minors at putt-putt to hanging with the majors at the regular Kings Beach lifesaving jols. They were legendary. Partly because there wasn't a helluva lot of other options at the time. Neon and kyf's were in. Guys rocked in their big padded Instinct jackets and Gotcha tracksuit pants. Chicks had big frizzy hair. Everyone drank Esprit. 

Yah, Kings Beach saw some action back in the hey-days of the 80's.

Now the only action it sees is dodgy drug dealers, muggers and thieves. Bummer.

Coupla waves about last week, specially if you spent some petrol money to head outta town. Jbay had some nugs, and Seals offered a glimpse of upcoming winter gems in summer conditions. But as the saying goes, gotto pay the piper to play in the band. As usual there was some surf tax to be paid. So everyone say thanks to Mush Hide for kindly donating his longboard so you could all score cooking Seals. 

Mush is never one to turn a good deal down, so jumped at the opportunity to get 3 boards for the price of one. And knowing Mush - he'll probably even manage to rip on the mini-boards he ended up with. Another unlucky soul was spotted getting a dunking at Supers. Supers Sinus Flush Special for you today boet.

As usual the bay didn't quite deliver the same quality as our neighbours to the west, but still some fun surf to be had. Even a few floggings if you rolled the dice at the House. Water went a bit nippy, which caught out the guys thinking that boardies were still the go. Stupid red tide is still about, yawn.

Further west you went the better the surf. Vic Bay had some smokers. Hadn't shown up on the charts as being quite as good as it was, so rule #1 of always drive to the beach to check anyway holds. You rely on the charts and you could miss out.

An old vintage beaut showed up at Garth Robinson's door - it's got a Sunset Surf label - so if any of the ballies out there can share some info about who shaped for the label and where it came from that'd be schweet. Thinking it comes from Cape Town cos Carpark John says his first board was a Sunset Surf and the dude who sold it to him said it came from CT.

Local metal band, The Cake is a Lie, disproved you can only drink beers for sundowners. An early morning sun-rise shoot at Hobie Beach saw the ou's slukking a cold one to wake up. Always rad to have your couch on the beach. Beats having to lie on a stupid sandy towel, that's for sure.

Dig metal - check the band out here: https://www.facebook.com/thecakeisalieyo

Not only did the weekend see 2 local trials go down - the Groms and the longboarders, but also the start of the first event on the ASP WCT for 2014. Snappy rights at Snapper. Stoked to announce that Billabong will be sponsoring some kiff prizes for the ML Fantasy Surfer comps again this year. Lekker Billabong hamper up for grabs if you can guess who'll win at Snapper. Get kitted out in a Billabong cap, TShirt & boardies, and score a deck grip and leash for your board (valued at R1600). Wanna win? Enter here.