Histórico do blog

The week that was...

7/30/2017

Coupla waves about here and there - Wednesday was the standout day of the week, with some really fun lines wrapping round Cape Recife into the bay. In typical PE fashion the wave-thief stole them overnight and the next day was flat - so bang ya head against the wall a coupla times if you missed it.

Out west was bigger n better. Brownie Moulang happy to spend the petrol © Robbie Irlam

Things improved again at the end of the week, so not all was lost. Least the water is starting to warm up a little bit after a few weeks of chilly-ness. You can check out Johann's shots of Pipe and Avo's here: http://www.millerslocal.co.za/blog/avos-pipe-27-july-17

Wayne Barnes © Johann Stassen

The guys at Avo's got a bit of a shock when a dead body floated into the line-up. It was thought to be that of the student that went missing at Hobie a week prior. Always so sad when the ocean claims a life, but a good reminder to treat the sea with the utmost respect at all times.

There were some real beaut days, almost like summer is trying to sneak it's head back out from behind the chilly winter curtain. Still a way to go yet - but we'll happily take any sunny windless day we get!

Still plenty of sealife about. Sean Thompson got a peach of a shot of one doing a belly roll just outside the Vic Bay line-up. Guys looking remarkably calm for having something that size a stone's throw away.

Not to be outdone - Algoa Bay had it's own orca sightings too. Plus a few whales about as well - although they tend to be camera shy - watch em for ages in awe, then when grab the camera they disappear!

JBay © Robbie Irlam

Awesome to see JBay local Emma Smith gracing the cover of the latest Zag. Great surfer and all round super young lady from Supers. Well done!

Paradise was going off it's pip this week - all that swell we had last week made it's way to Maldives and Indo and it was coooooking.

A lone taker at Lance's Lefts

Maldives looking peachy

By default watched a shark flick The hallows this week. It was TERRIFYING! Terrifyingly bad. It's a must-watch for it's sheer badness. Promise you won't get scared. You will however laugh. And maybe even fall asleep. Main protagonists were a chick, a seagull a rock and a shark. The rock was probably the best actor. Jaws made you scared to even swim in the pool. The Shallows will make you scared to channel surf - as it's the kinda kak you might end up watching by default

Nothing too exciting on the charts for the week ahead, so time to get up to date with work/schoolwork/mowing the lawn etc. Hopefully winter will still throw us a few more bones before she is done.

Here's a couple more shots from the week that was....

Avo's & Pipe 27 July '17

7/28/2017

Some swell around, and a few fun waves to get wet for. Check out the shots from JOhann snapped at Pipe and Avo's on Thursday.
All images Johann Stassen

Pipe 18 July '17

7/26/2017

Shot from Pipe on Tuesday 18th July.
All images © Johann Stassen

The week that was...

7/24/2017

What a week. Shew. A blow-your-mind smorgasbord of all things surf. JBay turned on for the Corona Open, with a heady mix of insane surfing, sheer craziness and random happenings. Best ever comp wave surfed? The King gets konged. Toothy locals. Nutso boat drivers. It just kept coming. And once the dust settled...Toledo took the win.

King Kelly looking like King Kong stepped on his foot

Find the Youtube video. Watch it. Go Aaaaah!

Plenty of waves in the bay as well during the week - and hardly anyone in the water as all the ou's were out at JBay. Were some wind issues on a few of the days, but generally a good size and plenty of rides. Just that you needed quads like Bruce Campbell's on a few of the sesh's. Bumpidy bumpidy bump. Hands up for who hates a howling straight west....

Unknown at Millers © Christiaan Moller

Things did calm down towards the end of the week and some cleaner surfs could be had.

Those who traveled further west than the comp site got rewarded with some lil nuggets too.

But in actual fact you didn't need to test the petrol card at all this week - staying right in the bay scored you plenty to fill the tanks. Jakes scoring a drainer at Clubhouse (video by Chris Taljaard)

Some PE locals also scoring a bit further afield. Body boarder Jot de Lauwere found an awesome left and right wedge tucked away in a remote corner of Indo. Am guessing you wouldn't be able to wipe the smile off his face for days...

Still so much sea life out there at the moment. Great to see. Dolphins been cruising by regularly. Always wanna see that second fin pop up when you catch the first one out the corner of your eye as you sitting out in the line-up, cos spotting two usually means shew, it's just some dolphins. Versus if you just see that one - well, it makes you start wondering....

EL locals © Pierre de Villiers

One of the places you can definitely feel a bit more part of the food chain compared to inside the bay on the wildside. Not called the wildside for nothing - has claimed plenty of ships in it's time.

Sadly the bay claimed a life this week, with a Transkei student still missing and assumed dead, after a group of swimmers got into trouble and ripped out to sea whilst at Hobie on one of the bigger days of the week. Thankfully retired lifeguard Peter Brits managed to rescue two of them. Rescue services were down at the beach really quickly, and there were jetski's, rubber ducks, rescue swimmers and a chopper trying to find the missing guy. Unfortunately without any luck.

Peter Brits © Herald

The beachfront is still struggling with crime issues. On the weekend the car guard at Something Good was bliksemed properly whilst skelms broke into a tourists car who had just come from the airport - all their stuff stolen from the vehicle. Maybe we need a car guard like this - spotted at a parking lot in CT.

The Corona Open wasn't the only comp happening. Shot to all those that organised the inaugural JBay Logger's Classic. Well done to local club Loggers Union for winning the Turtle Morris Memorial Trophy for the interclub comp.
Results
Men's Amateur winner: Greg Smith
Ladie's winner: Rachel Tilly
Men's Pro winner: Ludi Du Toit
Women's Noserider Of The Contest: Lucy Small
Men's Noserider Of The Contest: Mike Grendon

Loggers Union © Kody McGregor

The winners

Logging is all about vintage. And you don't get much more vintage than the old roadhouse that used to be at the Red Windmill. Besides having great burgersm awesome toasties and ice creams to die for, it was also well know for it's somewhat ambiguous "Flick your Lights for service" lighting which had the "L" and the "I" of the word "flick" close enough to create doubt. as to whether it was "flick" or "F*ck"

In among all the action of the week there was still time for the usual array of awesome sunsets and sunrises.

Back to earth with a bump for everyone this week - comp's over, the world's best make their way home, swell's over, and holidays are over. Life returns to normal.

The week that was...

7/17/2017

Some waves around, even some very good waves. Some wind, some rain, some cold. Hello winter! Also hello to the Corona JBay Open, which kicked off during the week.

Tuesday morning © Andrew Garai

Koffie and the guys have done an amazing job of constructing what must surely be one of the best WSL venues on the tour. It's like watching surfing in the Super Bowl. Word on the beach from the guys on tour is that it's by far and away the best looking contest site on tour. #localislekker!

Having the whole pro circus in town means you get to share the line-up with the best in the world. Here's Jordy feeling privileged to be surfing with Big Dave.

The comp started with probably 2 of the best lay days ever, plenty of super fun waves racing down the point at Supers, and free surf instead of contest vests.

PE managed to have a few waves as well. Some off the beaten track, and others right middle and centre.

View from the work site © Casey Beveridge

The SA Junior side was in town doing a training campo at Pipe, cos the World Games are going to be held in Japan - so they reckoned the surf there will be pretty much like pap Pipe!

It costs $$ for the lighties to get to Japan, and JBay's Dillen Hendricks could use a bit of help raising funds (R43 000) so he'll be able to go - if you are able to assist in any way with a contribution please get in touch with Petronel Posthumus who is arranging the fund raising.
petronelpos@gmail.com

Luc Hosten has been wandering about the wild side documenting the devastation from the recent fires. Reckons one of the scary things to see is the massive volume of perlemoen shells scattered under the now burnt out bushes.

Last weekend the surf world said goodbye to one of it's legends. Paddle out's were held everywhere for the man who blessed us with the wetsuit. The biggest was in his home town, with an estimated 5000 paddling out at Pleasure Point to say their farewells.

Plenty of good waves over the weekend, not only at JBay. Travel a bit further west and you would have scored almost empty waves.

East London water photag Pierre de Villiers came to town to host a "Swim with Me" workshop, where he took peeps into the water to show them the art of water photography. Some great shots from the session below.

CarPark John is stoked with the arrival of his new stick from Graham Smith. Expect to see the ballie ripping at a break near you.

Super stoked with the arrival of my fresh sled from Greg Smith (the other one got left in Maldives). Even more stoked with the kiff artwork from Stephen van der Watt.

The latest edition of the Boardtalk has hit the shelves, you can grab one at Surf Centre, the Spar or at the JBay comp site.

The contest kicked off at the end of last week with some cooking surf. You know if ou's are throwing away 9.2's then there are some decent waves about.

Also means lots of selfie opportunities!

CarPark John & Sean Thomson

Jordy & Sandy Coffey

Supers really did turn on, and there were some epic waves on offer. Even more stoked when the organisers called the comp off for the day and everyone hit the free surf to score their own lil slice of heaven.

That's the wrap on a pretty good week - here's hoping this week delivers more of the same!

The week that was...

7/9/2017

Some waves about and the pro's have arrived. In the week leading up to the start of the JBay Corona Open there's been plenty of of action in the Super's line-up as the ou's fine-tune their game for the upcoming WSL event.

PE wasn't to be left out though, and some fun line's made their way into the top of the bay. Rumour has it that on the odd day Pipe even managed to have better waves than the Point in JBay. That happens about as frequently as finding a four leaf clover. Or a unicorn.

Some wildlife action at Nahoon, where Zoe Steyn had a local come and have a looky-see as to what she was. Slummies lensman JP Veaudry was nearby and responded quickly to the incident and assisted Zoe to safety. Very lucky young lady that her arm wasn't where the bite occurred. Nice work by JP to have assisted where other ou's may have just scuttled for the safety of the beach.

Not all the pro's are restricting their practice surfs to JBay. Mick Fanning was spotted down at the Kowie grabbing a few runners. Waves looked pretty damn fun in PA.

Cuan McGregor © Shayne Minnot

Pipe tried it's best with a few fun lumps, and had the ballies schooling the lighties on how to throw some weight into a turn.

Mervyn Goddard © Petronel Posthumus

Some high-tech creations being brewed in the Boardroom lately. The Hopper II model is proving popular - here's the latest one on it's way to the Seychelles (which happens to have some surprisingly good surf).

The whales have started their annual pilgrimage to the East Cape, and are being spotted everywhere along the coast from Cape St Francis to PA. Keep an eye on the horizon for the tell tale spouts and flukes.

Quite a few hanging about our bay. If ever you want to head out and see what sort of amazing marine life lurks about in Algoa Bay, then give Raggy Charters a holler and take a trip with them - you'll be blown away by all the cool critters in our bay.

Winter still continues to deliver amazing sunsets, and this week was no different. Much as we all look forward to summer, it just doesn't have nearly as awesome sunsets as winter does.

The Surf Centre isn't only home to famous ou's like Car Park John, sometimes another well known face pops in to say hi. Chris Taljaard grabbing a shot with Just Jinger's Ard Matthews, who was in town for a gig over the weekend.

PE is blessed with an amazing coastline - hardly more than 10 minutes from town are amazing beaches like Sards. Despite the recent blazes decimating a large portion of it's coastal brush, it's still a pretty place to hang out.

Some good surf in the Maldives this week. Got to share the line-up with pro freesurfer Asher Pacey. Didn't actually know who he was at first, but just knew he surfed blerrie well. Has the most incredibly languid style in the water, and then still throws in crazy hacks and airs at will. But super super fluid out there. And a totally cool cat too - gave me lots of waves - stoked! All round nice guy.

Gonna be hard to get used to cold water and wetties again after this....
If you gatvol of winter and want some crystal blue warm water waves then grab a trip aboard Shantaram. (www.sailshantaram.com)

Here's holding thumbs that Neptune delivers for the Corona Open JBay which kicks off on Wednesday this week. Good luck to Saffa's Jordy Smith and wildcards Dale Staples and Mikey Feb. Kick some butt boys!

Pipe Sat 1 July 2017

7/4/2017

The week that was...

7/3/2017

Winter continues to deliver despite officially heading towards summer. Waves to be had for sure. JBay is starting to have a few of the pro's filtering in ahead of the Corona Open, so competition for waves has got a lil stiffer. Locals still scoring the bombs though.

PE had some good surf, coupled with some beaut weather. Just what the doctor ordered. Glad my surf sacrifice delivered the goods. Sacrifice relatively speaking, since surfing crystal clear warm water walls isn't exactly missing out...

Not only the waves that delivered, but mother nature has been pretty active as well. Huge pods of dolphins have been cruising the bay lately. Guys are starting to wonder how to interpret dolphin-speak. If you've never heard the racket that these dudes make underwater, do yourself a favour next time they glide by and stick your head below the surface.

Cute lil guy popped his head out the surf at St Francis - the actually ride waves just as well as the dolphins do, and are really inquisitive when it comes to investigating nearby surfers. Once you get over the fright of them popping up next to you they are fun to share the surf with.

The waves delivered and the sunsets and sunrises did as well. Winter certainly is good for something!

From beauty to devastation. The coastline around Sards was decimated by the recent fires, and looks akin to something from a Mad Max movie. Thankfully nature is resilient and it will re-grow soon enough.

Skollies seem to be having a field day again, with plenty of break-in's and skelms scoping out the car parks. Mounted police are on the beat again, so hopefully may have a positive effect in reducing crime, But keep your eye's peeled for scumbags.