Victory at Vic Bay for the NMMU Madibaz team in the SA Varsity Champs. Our guys n gals surfed like champs to bring home the trophy. By the sounds of it the ou's won the after-party as well!

Bit of a ying yan week in the bay, some days felt like summer, the others were decidedly wintery. Bits of surf around if you weren't too fussy. As usual our westerly neighbour had the best of it, with some lekker line's from Supers to the Point. The joys of home school mean you can bail for JBay if the surf's up, like Kelly Fenton below. Lil grom is charging!

A UFO was spotted off Millers. The Unidentified Floating Object was a weird looking thing - about a metre across in diameter. Closer investigation using binoc's didn't help, other than confirming it had a rather "hairy" appearance, and might have been a buoy with lots of algae growth. Speculation was rife whether it coulda been a sea mine, or maybe even Lippie!

Wasn't the only one wondering what it was, as someone got hold of the NSRI and they went off to check it out. Dirk Erasmus reported back saying they found out it was a tumbleweed! We might be a hick town but I never thought we got tumbleweed's here! Who woulda thought!?

Robbie caught a great shot of the locals dropping in at Supers. Always amazing to see them surf the waves, but can turn from amazing to slightly daunting when they happen to be doing it right in front of you. Having 400kg's of fish barreling towards you at speed does make you hope their internal GPS's are in good working order so you don't have a head-on collision.

The weird mix of weather include a really misty morning, where one's imagination could conjure up 4-6ft sets reeling off behind the impenetrable curtain of micro-droplets. But then again, it's PE, so the chances of that were slim. 

In saying that, every dog has it's day, and we do on occasion get some mind-bendingly good surf. Like the wildside sesh captured by Kody McGregor of ET, Dylan, Martin, Clint and crew getting some firing barrels a coupla weeks ago. Check out the gallery on the Zag site here, and then remind yourself this is PE.

http://www.zigzag.co.za/multimedia/weekend-special-port-elizabeth/

Lotsa talk about the monster swell that was gonna pummel Indo this past weekend, and by the looks of it it definitely delivered. Bad timing Pete & Jono - woulda like to have seen shots of you groms tearing up Ulu's at 3x overhead! The Coffey's are off to Bali for a surf trip this week - pretty sure there'll still be some good waves around even though they missed the monster.

Shout out to Mervyn, Andre, Shirley, Mickey and their crew for hosting the inaugural Something Good Surf Classic on Saturday. The fun event was to raise funds for the NMBS Masters to go to SA Champs in Richards Bay. Great turnout with nearly 100 entrants. Awesome day on the beach, good surfing, and a phat jol afterwards. 10/10 guys - do it again next year!

The full comp wrap, all the results and pics are here: http://www.millerslocal.co.za/comp-news/shots-from-the-something-good-surf-classic

Simon Strydom found out the hard way that the Wild Side can be wild sometimes. He was surfing in the Reserve and when coming in over the front rocks there was a wash and his blackfoot slipped off and got shredded. Nothing that a set of 12 and then 5 stitches can't fix, although he reckons the 8 injections he got poked with was the the real sore part! That's why I love my booties!

Walking back down the beach this week noted how many urchins had washed up. The dichotomy of nature is such that something as eina as an urchin moves through it's "I'm gonna poke ya foot and make ya miserable" phase to becoming a really pretty pumpkin shell that most people enjoy picking up off the sand and taking home with them. There does appear to be a hellva lot more urchins on the reef at Millers than normal though, with at least 1 or 2 surfers a week getting some spikes through their foot.

Rather only have carnivorous rocks and prickly urchins as the worst of our worries. The Garden Route was the scene of 2 shark encounters this weekend. Late Friday arvo saw 19 yr old Dylan Reddering get badly bitten on the butt and leg whilst surfing Lookout. 

On Saturday a lightie had the lower half of his leg bitten off whilst surfing Murphy's, the beach break at Buffels Bay near Knysna.

On Sunday a skiboat about 800m off the backline at Noordhoek got bumped by an aggressive shark, which the skipper reckoned was bigger than his boat. So why all the shark activity at the moment? Apparently the sardines are off shore, and the cold water is coming a bit closer to shore than normal - meaning the sards are closer to shore - and so are their predators.

After last Sunday's sewerage spill at the pump station at Avo's everyone's hyper-aware of foul smells and dodgy looking floating stuff out in the line-up. Had a bit of a brown stinky slick come through where we were surfing, and concluded that the surf was literally sh*t. However, loadshedding that evening showed that it was actually a bit of red tide - as the waves glowed in the dark as the plankton partied. Maybe a combo of the nutrient loading from the sewerage spill, combined with light winds and warm weather? At least there is a bright side to Eskom's ineptitude. 

Timelapse captured by Jared Cassidy.

These ou's at Huntington Beach set a new world record for the most number of peeps on a board. Sixty two of them crammed aboard the monster board to give new meaning to the term party-wave. Guess it's better to have 62 dudes on one board pitching up for a surf, than 62 on their own boards!

Beach buggy's have to be the raddest lil cars about. And definitely a perfect surf-mobile. Here's the Berry's in their buggy, about to head down the road on a wave hunt. They must have been the ideal surf exploration tool back in the day's when you were allowed to drive on the beach. 

For those who enjoy the tuxedo-clad critters, SAMREC is happy to announce that of their patients have been declared fit and fat enough to go home. The penguin release will happen on Sunday 5 July at 9 am. Bring the lighties and follow them to the beach at Cape Recife to wish them well and an abundance of pilchards and sardines. Adults R25 and Children/Pensioners R15. Refreshments will be on sale at the Flying Penguin Cafe. All proceeds go towards helping SAMREC rehabilitate our injured seabirds and wildlife.

Turning 50 is a milestone worth celebrating, and ex-PE local Chappy decided the best way to do it was on a boat trip to Indo with some mate's. Despite age creeping up on the boys they still charge hard - as is evidenced by the board carnage below.

Not many charge harder than Dane Reynolds. Thanks to his good showing at the Fiji Pro, where he advanced to the 5th round and scalped world no 1 Adriano de Souza en route, he scored himself a wildcard to the JBay Pro. Gonna be epic to watch him rip the world's best right to pieces. Anyone who saw his Moroccan section in the Kai Neville surf flick Cluster, will know that Dane is deadly in right point breaks. Guys gonna be nipping to have him in their half of the draw....

And so another week draws to a close, and the beautiful winter sunsets continue to treat us with their blaze of glory on a regular basis. Not a helluva lot on the charts for the bay this week, other than maybe Sunday.

A week of lekker weather (other than the Public holiday) and some small surf here and there. Kiff clean conditions over the weekend. Super clear water too. Pity that it had a bit of a stench to it on Sunday thanks to the pump station near Avo's that's poked. Good news is they are fixing it. Soon. Hopefully. 

Still lots of sand around (and still in all the wrong places at Millers). The shorey at Pipe is kinda mean at the moment thanks to the banks, and Rusty Venter got taught a maths lesson - finding out about division the hard way. Never nice to get 2 shortboards for the price of one. Credit to the kid for managing a grin.

Youth Day on Tuesday saw the weather go from "lekker calm, bright, sunny day on the beach" to "blown in your moer with hailstones and rain" in the blink of an eye. Some unhappy looking ou's turning their walk along the boardwalk into a sprint back to the car.

Nothing get's the heart beating quite like spotting a fin. And no doubt this one captured by Robbie Irlam would be enough to make it pump custard. Luckily it was the friendly variety, and belonged to a whale. 

Which is probably what the ou's in the shark cage below wished was poking it's head in as opposed to Mr White. Rule #1, never turn your back on these boys, they aren't apex predators for nothing. Gotto love how the ou reckon's it's a good idea to try give it a lil nudge out with his bootie. How to lose a foot real quick!

Owen Wright was in sublime form at the Fiji Pro, all his stars aligned and he was making unmake-able pits. He got a perfect heat score in the final, as well as earlier on in the event. Not to be outdone, WSL commentator Strider (whose surname no-one can pronounce) Wasilewski decided to get a quick surf in whilst on the job, and must be the first dude to ever commentate from inside the barrel!?

A 13-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy each lost an arm within 90 minutes of each other in separate shark attacks at the same North Carolina beach last week. A teenage girl was attacked first, and as medical responders were still tending to her, the boy was attacked. Shew, heavy.

St Francis local Richard Arderne found this beaut in an old photo album. Musta been epic to surf Bruce's back in the day when there was ton's of sand there thanks to the big dunes at Santareme. Pity nowadays there's just houses there instead. 

Anyone who's surfs JBay regularly will be familiar with resident photag Robbie Irlam (Supertubes Surf Photography). Robbie's out there most days snapping away, and pretty cool to see a great shot of his of Dylan Lightfoot in the latest Zigzag. Also getting into the mag was Kody McGregor, with his first centre-spread pullout poster, of JBay local Joshe Faulker. Nice one!

Another reminder about the Something Good Surf Classic coming up this weekend (27 June). Get those entries in asap -you can find all the deets here:
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/comp-news/something-good-surf-classic
And check out the kiff line-up to keep you entertained after dark!

Scored an invite to the opening night of the new Imax at Baywest Mall. It does lekker and loud in a big way! The seri-ass screen is 3 storeys high, imagine how epic it's gonna be to watch a surf flick on that thing!? I did a quick google and it seems like the remake of Point Break will be released in an Imax format - so hope we get it in PE. The trailer looks flipping schweet, with tons of extreme sport action including massive Chopes.

It is always better on the big screen! #IMAXPE

The sun set on Sunday on the shortest day of the year. Summer is officially on the way. Your chances of scoring a quick after work sesh have now officially started to improve thanks to the day's getting longer.

Some kiff shots from James Jones of the big swell we got spoilt with on Thursday a few weeks ago. Here's hoping winter throws out a few more of these kinda days before it's done.
All images James Jones

A few surfable days during the week, and some fun surf over the weekend. So far, winter hasn't exactly gone off it's pip in terms of consistency, but at least it's keeping us wet. The effects of the big Thursday swell are still being felt, as sand's moved into strange places. Avo's is breaking super-wide, but has been throwing up some seriously good peaks - some make-able, some not. Millers, she be broken at the moment. Sand in all the wrong places is making the point more fat & funky than normal. Clubs is making the boogers happy as can be - not hard to see why!

A pod of dolphins turned Millers local for about 4 hours on Thursday. Just cruised between Chomp and Millers, back and forth for over 4 hours. Lot more friendly than normal - had 'em circling and going under me for over 5 minutes, so close could reach out an pat 'em on the head! Not sure what they were up to, as there didn't appear to be any bait fish about. The pod normally cruises past in the morning, heads out to the islands, and then back in the arvo. Reckon maybe this was a bunch of groms that were too lazy to mission all the way across the bay and decided to just come bunk at Millers til it was time to head home!

JBay was comp-central this weekend, with both the JBU Supertrial and the RVCA Junior Series going down. The Supertrial got won by Slade Prestwich, who scores himself a wildcard into the JBay Pro. He beat Mikey February in the final, with the Payne bro's taking 3rd n 4th possie.

The RVCA Junior Challenge had good waves and all the groms were on froth over-drive. Plenty of the local kids made it through to the business end of the comp, which draws to a close on Monday arvo. RVCA does a great job of keeping the micro's entertained, as there's ping-pong, board-art pens and all sorts of stuff to keep 'em out of mischief.

Heard some humming in a line-up near you? Check out Gavin Rother's interesting fin set-up. The weird-looking front fin's are from Aus and designed to create extra lift, and the back fins are a bit of DIY modification! Always good to experiment with different fin set-ups, as fins can make or break how your board rides. Think you have a dog, don't write it off til you've fiddled with the fins a bit. Boards can feel totally different with another set if fins.

Whilst we have been getting the odd wave at home, a couple of well-traveled locals are scoring in their adopted homelands. Seals local Stanley Badger is the surf guide on a boat in the Ment's, and spends his days in the "office". If you wanna swap your office for Stan's office, give him a holler at Surging Waters to book a trip. 

Another bunch of Seals locals are still lurking in the Maldives. Brad and Hannah are living the dream, surf guiding at a resort over there. Which isn't too shabby when you have a cruisey lil right out front and a bunch of fun spots a quick boat ride away. Wanna visit 'em? Check out www.tropicsurf.net

Always cool to check out old surf pics - specially one's of surf teams. Like this one of the Nahoon locals back in the day. 1984 was the year that saw the release of hit TV series Miami Vice, Brit & Irish muso's joined forces to release the "Do They Know It's Christmas" single as BandAid, the Russki's boycott the LA Olympics, Virgin airlines launched, as did the first space shuttle....and these fine surfers took to the waves to represent their province. Good to see that quite a few ou's in this snap are still in the water.

Sussed out the new food truck in town when it was parked at King's Beach for the day last week. The Makoy is the brain-child of local chef Dewald Hurter. He was over the schlep of managing restuarant kitchens which saw him doing more admin than cooking, so decided to go mobile instead. Flipping lekker home-made chow, with a kiff cheese n bacon burger, venison slider with brie and strawberry chutney or a chicken slider with provolone cheese as some of your options. Follow them on Facebook to find out where they're parked each day. 

The newly formed Nelson Mandela Bay Surfriders (ex Eastern Province) needs a new logo to go with their new name. So if you know which end of a pencil to use, then get drawing and send your creations to Mervyn on [email protected]

The new NMBS logo should use predominantly red and black colouring and of course somehow represent surfing in PE. If yours is chosen as the winning design (by the EP....I mean NMBS....committee) then you score R2000. Sponsored by Surf Centre and DecoPro. Comp closes 27 June.

Speaking of comps - remember to get your entries in for the Something Good Surf Classic. Plenty of prizes and a lekker days jol on the beach, followed by an equally lekker jol at Something Good that evening - which includes the footstomping hilly billy rockers The Cottonfields, as well as DJ's Skullmonkey and Munro. Entry form online here, or at Surf Centre.

Another trip down memory lane. Remember Simple Shoes? If you're over the age of 35 you no doubt owned a pair of these -and probably still do - cos they were that amazing. Best takkies ever. Like seriously. And the original surf takkie. Good news is that Simple is being resurrected, so if you're keen to get your toes into the first pairs - hook up on their Kickstarter campaign, which is to go live later this month.

Rumour has it that CarPark John has got his mojo back, and is now catching (and ripping) plenty of good waves. Now someone just has to remind him that if he's wearing a T-Short that Says "Fun", he should at least have a smile on his dial! Seriously tho - good to have the ballie back in his groove.

And just to round off a fun weekend of waves, the sunset decided to play ball to and be a good 'un. More of the same this week we hope....

THE NITTY GRITTY STUFF...

The Surfing South Africa restructure plan was submitted to SASCOC on December 5th 2014 after a NATCOM Meeting in Cape Town on December 3rd. It entails a step by step approach to making the required changes.

First step was to appoint Interim Committees to head up the four provinces that would fall directly under SSA. These are:

• Western Cape Surfriders Association (WCSA), represented by Bruce Anderson, Johan Laubscher & Bruce Johnston
• Eastern Cape Surfriders Association (ECSA),represented by Johnny Bakker, Brian Abrahams & Vaughan Meecham
• Kwazulu-Natal Surfriders Association (KZNSA), represented by Ann Wright, Bongani Xulu & Paul Izzard
• Gauteng Surfriders Association (GSA), represented by Mike Van Huyssteen.

Second step was to amend the SSA Constitution to fall in line with SASCOC’s directive. This was completed at a Special General Meeting held in Cape Town on January 21st, 2015.

Third step in the process is for the previous “surfing provinces” to take up the names of the districts that they now represent. This requires a new constitution, a new name and updated logos and colours. Some of the “old” provinces have already completed this process and going forward there will be no Southern KZN at any national events. There will be an Ugu team though. There is no more Zululand as they are now uThungulu and KZN Central is eThekweni. Western Province will attend future national events as Cape Town.

Once all the Districts have formed, all “surfriders” will be required to become members of their Districts which means that at all disciplines of the sport will fall under one District within a Province that forms part of SSA.

All the “stand alone” disciplines such as SALSA (SA Longboarding), SABA (SA Bodyboarding), USSA (University Surfing) and SUP (Stand up paddleboard) were given the choice to go it alone or remain as members of SSA. Everyone agreed to be part of Surfing South Africa.

This means that they will fall into the general mix and their committee members will all be eligible to be voted onto District, Provincial or National Committees in terms of the District, Provincial and National constitutions.

It is important to note that proper constitutionally accepted democratic voting practice should be followed when voting for Committee or Board members at each level.

Thanks to Johhny Bakker, Andre Venter & Mervyn Goddard for the info & background

Bugger Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The only day that mattered last week was Thursday. Cos Thursday was big. Some serious south swell marched into the bay by midday, making most spots unplayable, and the remainder challenging - thanks to a longshore current that could take you from Rincon to Fence quicker than you could say the alphabet.

You can check out all the line-up shots from the big day in the Big Thursday blogpost here or check out the Latest Shots page for the surfing pix.
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/millerslocals-blog/big-thursday

JBay was closing out right across the point, with massive rogue sets breaking out in the middle of the bay. The guys had all come to town cos the call had been made to run the JBU Supertrial, but it was called off cos no ways could anyone get decent waves out there. Joshe, Remi and a few other brave souls took the plunge into the abyss, but mostly just got a free freight train down to Point.

Friday saw conditions "moderate" a bit, with sheltered spots out west managing to make sense of the swell. Killers woke up for the first time in ages, and if you were able to vaporise the harbour, 69's woulda been off it's pip. 

The surf dished out it's fair share of beatings, with Jason Kalo taking the prize for his "pit-to-wipeout-to-bust board-to-trip through the pier" - and back! And still had a smile on his dial.Check out his story here.
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/millerslocals-blog/pier-pitstop

Storm surges coupled with the spring hide tide saw water running up the beach to places it shouldn't - like the Bluewater Bay Lifesaving Clubhouse. An unfortunate side effect of a solid days surf is that it tends to cause some major erosion along the coast, often stripping away tons of sand. Thankfully it looks like Avo's sandbank survived the onslaught, but Hummies looks more like Brighton Beach in the UK (that one that's just full of pebbles) than a Blue Flag beach at the moment.

Earlier in the week the surf had klapped Slaapstad, with False Bay getting some solid size - like this shot of Kalk Bay Harbour. Not sure if the Brass Bell - the pub right next to it, has any windows left after this?

Plenty of guys made the trek up the Skeleton Coast to Donkey Bay. Including quite few PE locals, like Grant Beck and Etienne Potgieter. Grant reckons he got the wave of his life up there. Easy to see why from this framegrab of his!

Granville West, ex-PE ripper and now CT resident, showed the ou's that PE breeds 'em tough. He fell onto his board and cracked his ribs in the early morning sesh - but just gritted his teeth and kept surfing for the rest of the day. Pain is just weakness leaving the body, Granny!

So next time you see a synoptic chart that looks like the one below (from Tuesday), and you see that nice lil 964 low pressure cell, you make plans to pull a sickie, or bunk, or whatever you need to do to make sure you at the beach and not behind the desk. 

But if you like your charts in pretty colours and not the boring black n white synoptics, then make sure you check out the Forecast page to play with the kiff new animated forecasting tool I've added. Pick whether you wanna see winds, pressure, clouds or whatever, zoom in where you wanna go, and see it all unfold before you. Real-time and forecasting options. Too much fun.

Wonder if the big swells were responsible for this poor dude washing up on the beach near Mossel Bay. Always sad to see these beautiful creatures on the sand instead of in the sea. 

Wasn't just big down our part of the planet, everywhere's been getting smashed by swells it seems. Here's a bit of Portuguese action with Eric Riebere and Benjamin Sanchis testing out the limits of their ski, and their sphincter muscles....going over the falls backwards with your board is one thing. Doing it on a ski is on a whole other level.

Ex-St Francis ripper Dale Staples grabbed a third in the recent Quik compo in Durbs, but not before throwing in a mid-heat collision that looked likely to break a board or leg. Ou's are competitive hey! He reckons he had right of way.

The first WaveGarden is underway in Snowdonia, North Wales. Gonna be interesting to see how the concept delivers at full scale. The test site in Northern Spain produces some fine, fun lil waves, but the full scale version is meant to be able to jack up the size considerably. Rumour has it though that waves might cos ya 25 quid a pop.....

Was kinda funny cos just after seeing the post about the new WaveGarden I spotted this shot on my FB newsfeed from Rhino Group (a PE crew who do plastics and other stuff) - it's a pic of their dam liners. Which looks like it would make a pretty schweet wave pool. C'mon Rhino dudes....give us a WaveGarden in PE! Please!

For all those who spend time out at Sards, take note that there's gonna be an EIA conducted for development of a new parking lot and ablution block after the sand dunes claimed the old one's. If you'd like to have your say, or keep up to speed with the development, then register as an Interested & Affected Party (I&AP). All the details in the blog post here.
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/millerslocals-blog/new-parking-planned-for-sards

A heads up on a lekker compo coming up soon - check out the Something Good Classic on 27 June. Merv's the man behind the kiff idea - and it's to raise funds for the EP Masters going to surf SA Champs in Richards Bay - which is moerse far from PE so the ou's need some cash to get there!

The comp's open to everyone, and all forms of wave-riding. Plenty of rad prizes and lucky draws, and lotsa stuff happening at Something Good - including some kiff live music and some of PE's top DJ's. Will get more info out next week, but pop the date in your diary so long - don't wanna miss it.

A tale of how good sessions can go bad, by Jason Kalogeropoulos. 
(JK was ID'd by his mate Richard von Wildemann as the "mystery dude" mentioned in the Big Thursday blogpost that got dragged through the pier). 

Jason takes us through what happened:

"Paddling out at Millers is a walk in the park. Swimming at Hobie is like swimming in the Caribbean. Not. The ocean always has a way of bringing you back down to size. After awesome sizey waves at Millers, and battling the relentless rip for about an hour, it was time to head in (around sunset). I caught a wave down to Hobie that just walled and then mutated into a monster shorey.

I bailed on the wave and managed to dodge the full weight of the lip, but my board wasn't so lucky. I can't be sure but the top-to-bottom ton of water must have been the culprit that snapped my board clean in half.

After a decent hold-down, I surfaced only to see the carnage that had been left behind........so that's what the inside of my board looks like.

Oh wait, the rip!!!!

The rip was hectic, and IN the water, it's more hectic than ON the water. First thought was: leave the front half of the board, but no chance I am losing my fins and leash too, so I tried to swim in with half a board still leashed to me.

Now that's easier said than done. Half a board doesn't float as well as a whole board so each time a wave worked me over, the board wasn't surfacing, meaning it was like trying to swim out a lifesavers reel in the monster rip.

Before I knew it, I am washing up against the pier, all the while trying to swim a board in that felt more like an anvil.

Next issue: right, I've now come to terms with the fact that I am going to go through the pier (between 3rd and 4th pillar).....now try not to tear the wetsuit. This could turn into a really expensive surf.

Ok, I get through with no real issues (no tears in the suit) and am now in the washing machine on the other side.....mmmm Kentucky smells nice......FOCUS!!! Either I turn this into a really long "drift" down to Humewood or I get rid of the leash and fins and half a board and get back to Hobie. Off with the leash, bye bye board.

Moving a little easier now, I managed to sneak back onto one of the pillars of the pier and hid in the shadow of the waves while King Neptune threw one last set at me.

Once the set was done, it was a quick dive back onto the Hobie Beach side, a max interval swim for 10 or 15 strokes and then safely back onto the beach.

Things started out mediocre, but by lunchtime the swell had jacked up big-time and most of the spots in the bay were unplayable unless you had an inboard motor to deal with the hell-rip.

Watched Avo's for a bit and saw an ou paddle his gat off for 5 minutes - and not move so much as a metre forward. Even Avo's local, Munro, opted for a trip round Bird Rock and then in at Millers after his last cooker of an early sesh.

Chomp Rock had a few before lunchtime, but the guys were struggling to get onto them. The rock got chomped properly on the bigger sets.

Clubhouse had some smokers, but you needed a ski to get out there. Andre Venter decided to have a stab at it, and paddled in from up at the beacon at Rincon. By the time he was level with the lifesaving club he was still in the impact zone and decided to call it quits before he ended up being ripped round Avo's.

Earlier in the day an unsuspecting punter had tried his luck paddling out at Pipe, and quickly caught the express train round the rock, finally managing to get back in at Chomp. Got there faster than if he'd run along the beach.

Rincon was breaking as far out as the eye could see. Definitely no takers there.

Devil's reef - which sits way back out behind Millers had a few slabby slots to pull into if you didn't mind the gnarly mussel beds sitting half a metre under the surface.

As the tide pushed in there were a few big lines right out the back, but to be in the right spot to catch one was pretty much impossible. Guy nabbed an "insider" - using him as reference reckon you could call the back set triple overhead?

Bottom of Millers was manageable, although also shifty as hang. Plenty of water moving there too. Mervyn saw an ou snap his board on the end section, and then him and his board got swept past Hobie and through the onto the pier in the blink of an eye. Dude chucked the board and hid on the concrete wall behind a pylon til he got a break in the waves and jumped back in to swim for the safety of the beach. No fun in that! There were some absolute bombs if you could find them - like this one - coulda just stood there with your arms stretched to the skies.

Pier had a few nugs early on, provided you didn't mind the continual paddling practice just to stay in one spot. Just as well it's closed for renovations cos reckon on the high tide early evening coulda had a few ou's washed off it!

Baked Beans had some bombs. Fairly shifty but if you kept your eye's peeled you could slot into a nug or two. Rumour has it that Andre Venter made up for his failed attempt at getting out to Clubhouse by scoring a man-sized shack at Beans.

Hummies was the pick of the day in terms of the effort reward ratio. Some good 'un's and not as much current as everywhere else. By late arvo the surges were running right up under the bridge, and were stripping the sand off the beach at a rate of knots.

Suicides was suicidal. Denvils had about 1 in 20 that was a beaut. The other 19 closed out on your head. A bank in front of McArthur Baths fired for a while. Dunno if anyone had a go at Fence, but with waves like this smashing into the harbour wall musta been biggish!

JBay was an absolute mess, with monsters breaking way out in the middle of the bay. Those brave enough to try their luck mostly ended up with one-way tickets to the Point. Here's Joshe Faulkner taking it all in before he heads out. And back in. At the Point. Ballsy to have a go at least.

Further west and things were still messy. Even Bruce's couldn't handle the size all that well. But all in all a good day. Despite a few solid beating and a coupla close calls no-one drowned. Rather have the issue of too much swell than none at all!

In response to the moving sand dunes, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality is proposing to establish a new car park and toilet block at Sardinia Bay.


The sand dunes at Sardinia Bay are moving in an east-north-eastward direction at approximately 2 to 5 metres per year. The moving dunes have progressively inundated infrastructure; there is no longer access to the lower car park; the ablution block opposite the upper car park has been completely overrun and the dunes are beginning to overrun the upper car park.


A Basic Assessment in terms of the National Environmental Management Act (No. 107 of 1998, as Amended) (NEMA) and NEMA EIA 2014 Regulations is required for the proposed development in order to attain Environmental Authorisation from the Eastern Cape Department of Environmental Affairs, Economic Development and Tourism. This will be done in terms of activities listed in Government Notice Regulation (GNR) 983 and 985 of 2014 published in terms of NEMA.

Notice is hereby given in terms of NEMA and EIA Regulations 2014 that the developer, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, will be applying for environmental authorisation.

CEN Integrated Environment Management (IEM) Unit has been appointed by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to carry out the Basic Assessment. A public participation process will be conducted according to Regulation 41 of GN R. 982, 2014. All interested and affected parties (IAPs) are encouraged to participate. 

Contact CEN IEM Unit to register and / or comment as an IAP and request project related information. 
Email: [email protected]
Postal Address: 36 River Road, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, 6070
Phone (041) 581-2983
Fax (086) 504 2549

Registration of IAPs will close 15 July 2015.

The week started where it left off. Plenty of rad sunsets and some fun lil peelers. Always best to check the sunsets from the water instead of the window!

Whilst PE was on the small side in the early part of the week, Jbay seemed to be sucking in every lil lump in the ocean and turning it into a beautiful long blue wall. So for a quarter tank of fuel you coulda left the 1-2ft dribblers in your rearview mirror and gone and got some of this instead....

The fact that the week itself didn't bring much in the way of surf was overlooked due to the froth levels induced by the impending purple blob that was due to hit on the weekend. Red blobs we get, but purple blobs are less common for our stretch of coast. Ou's were amped.

Those that strapped the boards on the roofracks and travelled west were rewarded. Nice warm-up on Saturday followed by cranking surf on Sunday. Some guys had hair-dry paddle outs whilst others got flogged, moered, bliksemed, and whatever else a maxing Supers could dish out. But if you got a good 'un it made it all worthwhile.

Unfortunately PE didn't quite get the full brunt of the purple people eater. Swell direction was OK on it so it shoulda made it into the bay. But someone stole it. Make no mistake, there were certainly waves, and good waves. But not really purple blob sized waves. Maybe just as well, instead of big washy surf we actually had some super fun waves. Those who wanted to test their paddle power headed out at Rincon or back of Pipe. The rest ended up at Millers. Cos the high tide meant you could just walk round instead of having to paddle.

The guys were getting so frothed on the pre-weekend warm-up that they managed to get some gnarly injuries in the small stuff. How often doesn't that happen - end up getting hurt on a stupid lil wave and not the grinding overhead sand sucking beasts. Merv had an altercation with his board at the Pipe shorey. So did Brad Moolman.

Speaking of Merv - he's on a mission to raise some bucks for the EP Masters side that's off to SA Champs at Richards Bay. He's organised a kiff raffle where you can win a Beershack surfboard. So for just R10 you can be the proud owner of a new stick. Grab your tickets at Surf Centre, Coffee's Up or tune Merv.

Billabong South Africa is hiring! They are looking for an experienced graphic artist to join their team in J-Bay. Send portfolios and CV’s to [email protected]. (Only open to South African citizens). Besides working for a cool brand, and your office is only about 200m from the beach, it also helps that sneaking off for a lunchtime surf if the waves are firing is not frowned upon! 

Just be warned though - if you take the job, you gotto know that the dress code is compulsory Crocs. Like Taj Burrow. Cos if team-rider Taj says they cool. They're cool. And you wear 'em. With pride! (OK, so it isn't really, but no-one has quite worked out why Taj is rocking them on a Puerto Rico beach)

Shot to Cheron Kraak and Firewire for donating a brand new stick to lil JBay mini-micro grom Zia Hendricks. Zia won the u9 title at the SA Grom Champs this year, so despite only being two bricks and a ticky high this young charger is already making waves. Onwards and upwards!

The sunsets didn't stop coming. Not that we're complaining!!