 © Chris Scott Some waves about. Which meant plenty of happy faces in the surf community.  © Maarten van de Velfe You didn't even have to drive out west to score. You just had to pitch up at your local spot and you'd be happy as Larry.  © James Jones  © Marcus Ducker You'd be smiling even more if you did use a few litres of fuel and headde out west. Unless you were Lippie who drove out to Bruces, got there too late, then went to Seals, wasn't happening and ended up back at the Point in Jbay for a few. Sometimes the moral of the story is if you see a wave surf it, don't go looking for something better as you may get skunked.  © © Maarten van de Velde  © Chris Scott Despite being waves it wasn't cranking all week, so some down time flat-water time was on offer if you were into a bit of hard work. The Kings Beach LIfesaving crew were spotted getting some boat-time in.  © Dirk Erasmus  © Kings Beach Lifesaving  © Kings Beach Lifesaving Foggy mornings always give rise to some cool photo ops. Might be hard to see what the sea is doing, but is neat to get the whole misty vibe going.  © Clive Wright  © Bluewater Cafe Local logger Alfonso Peters doesn't mind if it's ankle high - he froths on anything that moves  Alfonso Peters© Jenny Wehofen  © Chris Scott The small days are so much fun to mind-surf. Chris SCott is getting us right into the mini-kegs so we can get barreled whilst being stuck behind a desk!  © Robbie Irlam Sunrises vs sunsets - what's your best?  © Maarten van de Velde  © Luc Hosten Not in the bay at the moment so the Week that Was will be a collection of stories and shots that I glean off the wonderful world of social media in the absence of actually living over the road from the beach. Surf barometer (otherwise known as David Lipschitz) didn't seem to post too many sessions so am guessing the week was nothing special.  © Barcroft TV A pretty crazy story last week with local diver Rainer Schimpf being almost swallowed whole by a whale! Guessing that doesn't happen to you every day! Rainer was diving the sardine run when a Bryde’s whale got a little too close for comfort. The giant mammal was feeding on fish when it suddenly picked up Rainer by mistake. The whale, realising it had something that wasn't on the menu in his mouth spat him out and now Rainer has a pretty epic tale to tell. And the whole world knows about PE and it's sardine run. Double bonus!  Noordhoek © Luc Hosten There is always a silver lining to every dark cloud. Like this rainbow that Luc caught falling right onto the pot of gold at Noordhoek this week. Always a wave if you go looking for one.  It was a sad week for PE surfing, with the passing of 2 Millers Local's. Clive van der Riet left us after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. I remember many sessions sitting out there in the line-up chatting about the challenges the disease had thrown him, yet he remained philosophical about it all. He was a familiar figure in the line-up with his home-made board with the distinctive dolphin tail. It seemed to hold him perfectly whilst he glided along doing his trademark cheater 5. He'd always hoot people in to waves and then congratulate them on a good ride. Clive's memorial will be held Thursday 14th March at Walmer Methodist Church at 3pm,.  Phil Kolbe also passed away this week after a long battle with illness. Up until a few years ago he was a regular in the line-up at Millers. Phil was part of the Millers morning gang and we all used to sit out in the line-up chatting about nothing in particular whilst waiting for waves. Fishing tips, travel stories, how to get a Panamaian passport. Everything and anything. A big man with a big smile and a big heart. For at least a year I thought his name was Paul and called him such, and he was too polite to correct me! Will miss you Phil. I still owe you some sets for all those you gave me.  Sards © Luc Hosten The inclement weather gave rise to some cool photo opps.  © Luc Hosten  St Francis storm brewing © Clive Wright Happy 60th birthday to Surf Centre manager Gavin Rother. A frothing grom despite being a big six oh now. Good motivation for everyone to keep to the philosophy of a surf a day keeps the doctor away.  Comp for the groms coming up soon so pen it into your diary lighties. There is always the chance that the waves at Pipe might actually be good.  Plenty of these lil guys washing up between Schoenies and Blue Horizon Bay. Please do NOT throw them back into the sea as they are exhausted . Get hold of Bay World and go drop em off there so they can recover and be put back once they happy lil critters again.  Classic shot of the Bell Bouy by Dr Peter Schwartz taken about 30 years ago. One can only imagine how many cooking waves went unridden back in the day when the surf community was still really small.  © Peter Schwartz PE local Nic Flood, working in Taiwan at the moment, scored some typhoon swell there last week. The wettie is for reef protection, not cos it's chilly!  Always lekker to see some red on the charts for the week ahead! Enjoy!   © Robbie Irlam Finally a burst of swell last week. JBay had some fun one's, so did further west, and even the bay had a few. The further south you went the better, as it didn't swing right through. But hey, beggars can't be choosers! And a wave is a wave. Sure beats having to go to gym instead.  JBAY © Robbie Irlam  Rincon © Warri Canepa  More south © Dave Lipschitz  Port Alfred © Nick Donaghy Plenty of action out in the bay, as we are so lucky to still have it teeming with life. Cape Town marine photographer Jean Tresfon got some great shots. Hopefully our bay survives the effects of the deep water harbour and all the polluting ships it attracts, and we can successfully bat off the fish farm idea. Cos the more pollution we get, the less marine life the bay will support.  © Jean Tresfon  © Jean Tresfon Waves in the water and wave son land too. JBay is home to some very talented artists, one of them being Stephen Bibb. He does some epic paintings of JBay and her waves. If you have space on a wall at home, this would be a great way to fill it! http://stephenbibbart.co.za  Plenty of learn-to-surf action over the weekend. There was a Community Surf event held at Pollock beach in aid of Animal Welfare and surfing non-profits. Perfect lil teeny waves for the groms to slide about on.  © Dennis Ellis  Lighties were on it from early! © Andrew Garai  © Dennis Ellis Then on Sunday Sunset Surf Club hosted a Learn 2 Surf event at Denvils, that included surf lessons, a tag team contest and flag races. Great fun had by all. Sunset Surf Club is the oldest surf club in PE.  © Fuad Jappie  © Fuad Jappie The Coastal Water crew were out doing some rescue training at Avo's on the weekend. These guys are all volunteers that put plenty of time into keeping well trained for any coastal emergency, and provide a complimentary service to the municipal services. So we're super lucky to have double sea safety support in the bay.  © Dirk Erasmus A sad find on the rocks on the way up to Shark Point - the point between St Francis Bay and Cape St Francis. A marlin washed up. On the subject of Shark Point, apparently is now home to a growing seal population. Which may mean a few more finned friends in the area, seeing as seal rookery's are viewed as the aquatic version of a McDonalds drive-thru.  © Debbie MacCraken Brad and Hannah Beck from Seals continue their globe-trotting. Busy doing a trek through Chile in a van. After some leg bruners at Chicama (the world's longest left), Brad took on pumping Punta Lobos, which has a seriously gnarly jump off between those two big-ass rocks.  © Brad Beck Move night on Wednesday - pull in to see Greg Bertish's documentary at the PE Deep Sea Angling Club. All proceeds to NSRI and children charities.  We so lucky to have a lekker beachfront that is so easily accessible. You can be having a super kak time and all you need to do is take a drive down to enjoy the morning sunrise or evening sunset and it just re-calibrates your system and you'll feel a whole bunch better afterwards. Nature's very own happy pill.  © Allan Bezuidenhout Schoenies photag Luc Hosten has a good eye for all things beautiful, and this week treats us with a cloudy fireball. A drive round the corner towards Schoenies and beyond is so worth while. Very lekker stretch of coastline to explore.  © Luc Hosten Sometimes being a moon can be tiring, and you gotta take a break on the bench!  © Luc Hosten Some good looking cyclone swell later in the week, but a lot depends on the winds. So hold thumbs!  St Francis sunrise © Clive Wright |
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December 2019
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