Just another week in the 'hood. Some waves, some sunsets, sticky hot days and kiff rain. What more do you want? Other than cranking 6ft lines groomed by a light offshore!?

Not a lot made it round Cape Recife into the bay, But what there was was enough for a few fun sessions and a salt water rinse.

The annual Bell Bouy swim took place on Tuesday with the guys doing a total of 8 km. Personally would never manage that without the Jaws theme music playing the whole time in my head! Not sure why a thin piece of fibreglass (otherwise known as a surfboard) imparts such a sense of security. Feel so exposed when am in the sea without it.

Robbie Irlam, the JBay local shutterbug, sometimes has to contend with seagulls and drones getting into his shots. And sometimes something bigger....

Another week of some awesome sunsets. Just something about an African sunsets & sunrises that can't be beat anywhere else in the world.

Actually, PE can look pretty in the middle of the day too!

CT eye-in-the-sky photag Jean Trefson popped by the bay this week and got some lekker shots.

The misty days saw a few aliens sneaking in....

The latter half of the week saw a few fun runners coming through. More fun the further west you went. 

The first Billabong Junior Series comp of the year kicked off at Pipe on Saturday, but the swell dropped so the ou's had to do a wild side mission on Sunday. Shot to Zia Hendricks of JBay who won the u12 section.

Nothing much expected for the bay next week but still enough to get wet on, But nothing beats sitting looking out over the sea wondering, "what if...."

Johann Stassen got some cool shots of the east swell last week at Pier and Millers.
Photo credits: Johann Stassen

Ysss, we on a bit of a run here. Another week with plenty of waves in the bay. Monday was a cracker with some solid east swell pulling through. Good size at Humewood and Pier, and even some decent sets at Millers. Lotsa peeps bunking work.

Here's hoping this run of good surf is a positive omen for a cracker winter, cos El Nino has diddled us the past 2 years, so we owed a good one.

The cyclone swell pummeled the Durbs coastline for days. ou's getting shacked off their pips. Stand up hands free barrels were the order of the day. St Francis local Richy Basnett did a duck back to his old home town and scored some booooombs.

Besides getting good waves we had good days too. Sure, Cape Town has it's mountain, but we ain't half bad either.

Tuesday Thunderstorms! Was a cracker literally and figuratively. Normally PE storms can only muster up the odd growl and one bolt and it's done. Tuesday's sky show saw Schoenies looking like Armageddon and the poor chokka boats kakking off as bolts were hitting the sea all over the show.

After a bit of a breather midweek the swell returned, water temps had dropped a bit, enough to realise that summer is nearing it's end of days..

Early birds generally get the worms, specially true in PE. Where early morning winds behave themselves and stay pretty clean til about 8-ish - when the land breeze comes up and goes all NW wonky.

You can only imagine how decent the surf out west has been if the bay's been getting fun waves. Usual story - spend the petrol money and score the goods.

The groms kicked off the 2017 Billabong Grom Games at the Pipe on Saturday in some good surf for the lighties - clean and overhead for most of the gremlins. The comp finishes on Monday.

Stoked with the custom cap I ordered from local artist Ryan Allen. Long story short is that partner-in-crimes nickname is Spongebob. So gotto have a Bob cap. Tune Ryan here if you'd like to get a custom design, cos #localislekker #supportlocals 

Friday had some really good waves. It also had some crazy crowds. probably amplified cos was the start of a long weekend. Still some waves to be had early Saturday morning before the wind got on it.

Owen Wright pulled off a miracle return to competition by winning the Quik Pro at Snapper, taking out fellow goofy Wilko. Owen suffered a serious head injury at Pipe back in Dec 2015 and had a long, slow recovery to full health - literally having to learn to surf again. Seems he did a pretty good job of it!

Jordy is looking pretty sharp which bodes well for the season, and Slater also seems to have got some froth back. Judging was a bit odd at times with the panel seemingly preferring the 10 windscreen wiper turns to the beach by the goofy's vs the inventiveness of the regular footers. 

When the winds go bad for the bay you gotto get behind the wheel and go searching. Luc Hosten grabbed this cool shot of local logger Dean Simpson heading through Schoenies on a wave hunting mission.

Pretty damn good week all in all. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like our luck will hold for 4 weeks in a row of good surf - as the coming week looks pretty small and mostly onshore. Time to catch up on some work again everyone!

The good run of swell continued, with the week opening up with a bang. Hard to argue with cooking surf on a Monday. And more on Tuesday. And by Wednesday everyone was boggered and lil lines rolled in by late arvo with no-one to ride 'em.

​Bryan Moulang and his single fin reaping the benefits of great manners. Bryan's lady is learning to surf and she had just caught a wave, so he paddled in to check on her and paddle her back out - and this lil peeler swung wide and he was in the perfect spot to hook it.
​#MannersMakethMan (also helps him score waves!)

Out west definitely had some peach days during the week, and those that put the k's on their cabbie were rewarded with some bombs. But for once you didn;t actually even have to leave the bay to get some good one's.

International women's day midweek meant you had to be nice to the ladies and hand over a few set waves. Pretty much every day of the week every week of the year is some or other International Day. Eish. We been commercialized to the point of no return. Even surfing has it's own day.

Some surf spots have pretty obtuse names. Others don't entail too much deduction as to why they're called what they're called. Pipe would be one of the spots which fits in the latter category. Here's why...

Some tourists got value for money this week when their boat trip out past Cape Recife  saw them happen upon an Orca hunting pack that were chasing a pod of dolphins. Always someone bigger than you in the food chain...

Some serious easterlies during the week meant that the blue bottle army showed up on our shores again. A lot smaller than a killer whale but will hurt you all the same! Remember the best way to treat a sting is to use hot water - as hot as you can bear, as this breaks down the protein of the stuff that's stinging you.

At least the east isn't wasted. The kiters get out there and make the most of the onshore washing machine conditions.

Props to Chris Bertish who completed his SUP across the Atlantic in 93 days. Crazy gnarly conditions and totally unsupported during the trip, Chris is a legend!

Slummies surf photag Pierre de Villiers was in PE for the weekend. Unfortunately the waves didn't co-operate, but Pierre still managed to hook some lekker shots of our hood.

After a slight lull the surf got back to being fun on Friday, Lyell Watson getting some nose time at Pipe, 

Despite the homping pomping winds of Saturday there were still some nooks and crannies that could deal with the conditions. Throw in a lekker full moon to complete the picture.

Greg Christy's new toy got some nice aerial shots showing how the sand spit at the Kromme river mouth is still solid enough to keep the spring tide swells out. Been long standing concerns that the sea will finally break through the spit and cause all sorts of kak for the canal system.

The week wouldn't be complete without a sunrise or sunset shot from Schoenies local Luc Hosten.

​Bit of easterly groundswell due to hit the bay first thing this week. Just hoping the winds hold off long enough for everyone to sneak a ride or two in.

Some decent waves book-ended the week - started with a bang on Monday with some solid swell filling into the bay, despite the light SSE. Things went quiet for the rest of the week until Sunday saw a good 15 second swell period let everyone finish off the week with a smile.

If PE had good waves you can only imagine how lekker the spots just to the west were. Cooking lines at JBay and further afield. Those who didn't make the trek down the road made do with the next best thing - firing Rincon.

The internet is still awash with talk of Mick Fanning's secret right sand point. Turns out it's been right in front of our eye's all along! OK. Maybe not. But we PE surfers are nothing if not unfailingly optimistic. 

Mid week saw the usual flat spell, but the lack of surf didn't stop Gideon from coming up with a cool shot of the beach at Pollock. Even if you don't manage to hook a surf even being at the beach and getting your toes in the sand can put a smile on your dial.

The Madibaz kicked off the competitive year with their first comp on Friday, and went wildside hunting to find some decent waves. Gregory Cuthbert took the win with Daniel Rumbelow in @nd possie. After finishing 3rd at SA's last year the team are back on a mission to regain the trophy they won in 2015.

Batten down the hatches if you live on the east coast. A frothing monster headed you way - hopefully some of the huge east swell generated by that makes it's way down the coast to us!

Jean Tresfon is a CT local who regularly takes to the air to get some amazing shots of our beautiful coastline. Last week he spotted a massive school of tuna lurking about just off overberg. Can imagine the frenzy all the fishermen got into after seeing that!

Did an article this week about why colour on your stick is the next best thing to sliced bread. Ask any surf photag and they'll tell you having some brightness on your board makes a shot pop. Find out more here...(and what your colour choice says about you)
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/blog/bright-is-better

Samsung have pulled the plug on their sponsorship of the WSL effective immediately. Things looking a bit ragged around the edges with first the CEO resigning (no doubt saw the writing on the wall) and no the main sponno doing a runner. The elusive billionaire Dirk Ziff who already bankrolls the WSL might just be digging deeper into his pocket.

Any peeps in PE keen for a Swim Free Confidence Underwater course on the 18th or 19th of March hosted by John McCarthy? The course costs R750pp, takes 5 hrs and by the end of it you should be ready to handle any beating the ocean decides to throw at you. Pop down a comment if you game.

Check out the link to find out more info
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/blog/swim-free-confidence-course

Was heading down a wormhole looking for an old shot of Kelly during his board babe days for the "Bright is Better" article, which was like trying to find a 4 leaf clover cos it was in the pre-internet era. Came across a classic shot of big wave legend Laird Hamilton as a lightie with none other than Brooke shields on the back of his bike. He was cool from the get-go.

Bruce Weber takes some amazing portraits of surfers, you can check some of his work out here:
https://www.saturdaysnyc.com/magazine/bruce-weber-fashion-pioneer

That's it for the week peeps. Looks like this week might offer up a few opportunities to get wet, so don't miss out.

Durbs local John McCarthy is running a Swim Free course which is essentially aimed at surfers wanting to improve their breathe hold capacity in real-life surfing situations. Better breathe hold means you can get out there into bigger surf. John talks us through the course:

So what goes into the Swim Free Confidence Underwater Workshop?

I developed this course purely because I wanted to be comfortable surfing bigger waves and know that I could handle the hold downs. 

The increased capacity did lead to me becoming interested in free diving, which I now also love, but the two activities are very different when it comes to managing your breath hold.

In free diving your breath is rarely adrenalised or hypoxic and depth is usually a primary objective. In surfing you are both hypoxic and adrenalised and depth is is not so much an objective as is surviving the beating. 

Lets face it in surfing you are only holding your breath when something has gone wrong. It doesn’t matter if your comfort zone is 2ft or 20ft this course will help you relax in the surf because it will make you more confident in what you are able to handle. 

In this course I teach people to approach and manage their breath hold so that they can vastly increase their capacity in and under the water. 

You DO NOT have to be a big wave surfer or extreme athlete to benefit from this.  The average increase in just 5 hrs is around 100%.

The course has four fundamental pillars and takes approximately 5 hours to run. The cost is R750pp.

It covers:

1. Discovering your mammalian dive reflex and learning how to use it. 

2. Conscious breathing. Breath up, the breath and recovery breath. Remember a lot of this in surfing is hypoxic and adrenalised, which is very different to free diving. 

3. Efficiency underwater. We speak a different language down there and the smallest things underwater can make a massive difference. Slow is Pro! When transitioning from above to below the surface we have to learn to press the ‘reset’ button. I run several drills that deal specifically with wipeout and caught inside scenarios as well as how to behave underwater when this happens. 

5. Safety. We always do waterwork with a buddy, be conservative, understand contractions and C02, never hyperventilate, understand the difference between blackout (your mammalian dive reflex preventing you from drowning) and drowning by breathing in water. Understand and share deepwater resuscitation , it could save your life!

John is thinking about coming to PE on either the 18th or 19th of March to run the course - is anyone keen? Drop a note in the comments or choon ML via FB

Face it. A plain white board is as boring as a rice cake. What starts as a vanilla canvas lends itself to a myriad of colourful opportunities, so don't miss the chance to give your board some personality. Bright is better bru. 

Surfboards have gone through various cycles. During the 70’s and 80’s pretty much all boards were coloured. Cos hey - if the decade was all about lumo you sure as hang weren't gonna have ice white boards now were ya? Solid colours were the go, with some rail contrasts and inserts thrown in. The 80's were all about geometric and abstract designs.

The 90's tried to swing back to minimal colour but everyone soon realised that boards that were as bland as Swiss furniture weren't cutting it. Thankfully in recent years there's been a resurgence in the use of colour.

Turn the clock back even further and the bright and bold crew were spearheaded by the likes of Gerry Lopez with his famous Lightening Bolt and Mark Richards with his Superman boards.

Thankfully the current crop of surfers aren't scared of some colour either. Julian Wilson loves his pink, Ozzie Wright is all rainbows and unicorns and Jordy celebrated Madiba's 95th Birthday with a classic spray.

Filipe flips out for a bit of colour and don't reckon he's ever been seen on a plain white board. Owen Wright made the monster claw famous. Italo Ferreria might not be the best known surfer on the CT - but he sure has the brightest quiver. All in all there's not that many boring boards on tour. Which is a good thing. Cos sometimes the waves on tour are boring. But the boards. Never.

Trends in board spray goes out of fashion quite quick, cos surfing is all about individuality. No one really wants to be walking down the beach with a replica of someone else’s exact board.

​Getting your board inked is a way of getting your message out there. Gatvol with the world? Give it the middle finger. Got something to say about politics, stick it on that bottom deck. Like prawns? Show 'em some love. Punk rock roots? Throw in a skull or two. 

Nothing makes a rad surf shot better than having some colour thrown into the mix. One way to get better surf shots of yourself is to brighten your board up. Speaking from personal experience as someone who's turns are more 9 'o clock than 12 o'clock that bit of colour helps to save an otherwise boring pic.

If you're not into garish sprays you can still get your groove on with some smooth lines or just a plain solid colour. Anything is better than white. Really.

It doesn't have to break the bank either - a bit of home-made liveliness from the 'ol Posca pen or spray can is just as good.

​JBay's Stephen van der Watt is a local who's absolutely wicked with a set of Posca's, and'll whip you up everything from a pineapple to a skelli to a JBay line-up.

​Solid colour sprays are pretty big these days, so does the colour you choose say anything about you? Turns out there is such a thing as the psychology of color, and is all about how colors play a hand in our personalities and behavioral traits. Probably about as scientific as star signs. but let's see what they say anyhow just for a laugh.

Blue seems to be a popular colour these days, so let's kick off with that. According to the colour expert peeps if you dig blue you're "calm, cool, and reliable, with a deep need to find inner peace and truth, to live their life according to their ideals and beliefs without having to change their inflexible viewpoint of life to satisfy others.​"

Red board? Those who love red live life to the fullest and are tenacious and determined in their endeavors. If your favorite color is red, you are action oriented with a deep need for physical fulfillment and to experience life through the five senses. ​

​Orange board? You are friendly and easy going. You have a great need to be with people, to socialize with them, and be accepted and respected as part of a group. You also have a need for challenges in your life, whether it is physical or social challenges.

Green board? You are affectionate, practical, loyal and frank. Green lovers are also aware of what others think of them and consider their reputation very important and as such are refined, civilized and reputable.

​Yellow board? You enjoy learning and sharing your knowledge with others.  Finding happiness comes easy to you. You have a deep need for logical order in your everyday life and to be able to express your individuality by using your logical mind to inspire and create new ideas.

Purple board?  You are artistic and unique.  You have a great respect for people​. You are very intuitive and often interested in spirituality and the deeper meaning of life.  You are compassionate and active, you are a free spirit looking for the secrets of life

Black board? You are strong-willed and determined. You want power and prestige and you are not afraid of going after what you want. You are enigmatic and charming but can often appear intimidating to even your closest colleagues and friends. 

There's just something so aesthetically pleasing about a lekker surfboard spray. So ditch the white and embrace the bold. Just like life's too short to waste time with white socks - same goes for that boring white stick.