Clean waves and offshore winds persisted throughout the opening day of the Billabong Pro Junior at Seal Point, Cape St Francis, giving the competitors a perfect, high performance canvas to showcase all their moves. Some surfers went for speed and powerful carves, while others attempted big aerial maneuvers in a bid to impress the judges.

Mikey February from Cape Town was one surfer who mixed it up, performing high speed rail turns, floaters and big re-entries to make an impression on the judges with his repertoire of moves. February is currently ranked third in the ASP Africa Pro Junior Series men's rankings. "It was really fun out there," said February. "The best waves were further down the point, and I managed to get a few nice ones."

Another surfer to stand out was Mikey Venter (DBN) who found some great waves towards the end of his heat to advance behind Max Armstrong (CPT). "It was a bit inconsistent out there for my heat," said Venter, "Eventually I got a couple and found a bit of a rhythm out there."

The conditions continued to pulse all day, with the late afternoon heats getting the best waves of the day. "We're stoked with the conditions today," said Billabong South Africa marketing manager Chad D'Arcy. "It looks like a bit of a wild day tomorrow with some strong wind predicted, but we're hoping for a great finish on Sunday, with some good waves on the forecast." 

The Billabong Pro Junior will decide which of the country’s top junior surfers will qualify for the ASP World Junior Surfing Championships to be held in Bali in October.

You can follow all the action here:
Event site: Billabong Pro Junior
Facebook: Billabong South Africa
Twitter: @BillabongSA 

Shot to the following surfers on being selected for the 2012 EP Junior team. They will represent EPSC and compete at the SA Junior Surfing Championships to be held in Jeffreys Bay at Lower Point  from the  3rd  - 7th October 2012. (opening function 2nd October). Go big kids! Bring home the bacon. 

Gerard Edinberry, an ex-PE local, dropped us a mail from Rio recently:

Border took out the win in this weekend's Vic Bay Quad - held in stomping surf. 8-10ft Vic keeps you on your toes for sure! Ou's made sure they kept a keen eye out for their spotters on the rocks - who'd let 'em know when to paddle for their lives!

EP managed a 4th, and there were some good personal performances:

Steve Sawyer - 4th Open Men's
Emma Smith - 3rd Open Womens
Shane Pittard - 3rd Over 30's
Mike Hill - 4th Over 30's (Mike...you over 30!!!!? Balliedom is coming your way!)
Andre Venter - 3rd Vets

Well done to the team.

It's the 25th annual Shark Week this year - a quarter century of celebrating our worst fear! No matter how much I know about these ou's - and I've spent plenty time researching em for the Bomb Surf article I wrote on Whites - they still scare the shite outta me. 

I  most certainly do not ever want to bump into one whilst out having a surf - despite knowing that it isn't meant to want to eat me, and I'm not on it's menu blah blah blah. You try telling that to my amygdala (the fear centre in your brain). Cos it's going "Shit in your suit bru - you're about to be #chompdown"

Fear aside - yes, they are magnificent creatures, and they are important - no vital - to a healthy oceanic ecosystem, but I am happy appreciating them from afar. I'll give em a thumbs up from my armchair rather than my surfboard!

Stab Magazine in Aus posted some cool facts about sharks to celebrate Shark Week. Check em out.... 

1. Sharks have existed almost unchanged for 400 million years, since long before the dinosaur.

2. It’s impossible to sneak up on a shark, because their eyes are on the sides of their heads and most can see almost as well behind them as they can in front. But they do have two blind spots: one in the front of their snouts and one directly behind their heads.

3. You can tell how old a shark is by counting the rings on its vertebrae, much like a tree.

4. A great white shark can lose 1,000 teeth in a year. It takes most humans seven years to lose their 20 baby teeth.

5. A shark may lose and grow up to 30,000 teeth in its lifetime — hardly an issue when it can take as few as three days to grow a replacement.

6. Developing pups of the sand tiger shark would give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money. They practice intrauterine cannibalism. (As they grow, they begin to eat their brothers and sisters until, eventually, only two sharks are born — one from each of the mother’s two uteruses.)

7. A shark can detect the electrical impulse emitted by a standard AA battery one mile away.

8. Two-thirds of a shark’s brain is dedicated to its sense of smell.

9. A lemon shark can smell one drop of blood in an Olympic-size pool.

10. Further proving sharks are the ultimate hunters, they can detect whether a scent is coming from their right or left nostril to better help them track down their prey.

11. Cookie-cutter sharks may be small, but they’re gutsy. They use their sawlike jaws to feed on pieces of whale blubber from living whales.

12. Both the largest and the second-largest sharks in the world, the whale shark and the basking shark, are harmless plankton eaters.

13. The world’s smallest shark, the pygmy shark, is 6 inches long when fully grown.

14. The bull shark can live in fresh water or salt water and has been known to travel as far north as Indiana via the Ohio River and Red Wing, Minn., via the Mississippi.

15. Sharks will sink if they stop swimming.

16. Sharks have no bones. Their skeletons are made up entirely of cartilage. When a shark dies, salt from the ocean completely dissolves its skeleton, leaving only the teeth behind.

17. A large great white shark can go three months between meals.

18. There are no vegetarian sharks.

19. When hatched, zebra sharks are dark black with white vertical stripes, but, as they age, they turn yellow with dark black spots, resembling a leopard.

20. The world’s fastest shark, the salmon shark, can swim up to 55 miles per hour. (Michael Phelps can swim 5 miles per hour).

21. The shortfin mako shark can accelerate faster than a Porsche.

22. Juvenile hammerheads have been known to “suntan” in shallow waters to improve their counter shading before moving into deeper waters.

23. Tiger shark teeth are strong and sharp enough to tear through the shells of sea turtles.

24. The longest migration documented in sharks is a great white that traveled 12,400 miles from South Africa to Australia and back in less than nine months.

25. You are more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than by a shark (this is a kak fact - try finding a coconut tree in  PE!)


Go ahead - go find your local spots resident Johnny and give him a big 'ol smack on the lips, and say "I love you bru!".....or don't.

PS- if you wanna read how Thomas got that shot of the massive White tailing that kayak - check it out here.

Been wanting to try some shots like this for a while, so when I spotted Dylan grabbing a quick dusk sesh over the road I grabbed my GoPro and went for a quick shoot. The waves were actually so tiny that Dyl was already getting out by the time I got down to the beach - but luckily he didn't mind getting wet again to try for some shots. Have to love how the GoPro does a Baywatch on wave-size and makes it look 3x bigger than what it actually is. For those of you who don't know - Baywatch is the sketchy TV series Kelly starred in with Pamela Anderson - where they always filmed the shore break from sand level - to make a 1ft wave look like it was 5ft!

Wednesday saw good swell filter into the bay. Here's some random shots from the day.

Last night saw the successful premiere of the Billabong flick, Daze at Sea. It was a great turn out taking the cold weather and Tuesday night into consideration.

The PE surf community came together and viewed some crazy surfing, laughs and beers. Billabong had some great merchandise that we raffled and there were random lucky draws raising money for the NSRI.

The night was a great success and the cherry on top was that Billabong South Africa and Cyoh Surf Club raised R2200 for the NSRI foundation -  a great cause!

On behalf of Cyoh Surf Club thanks to Billabong South Africa and yourself for making this happen...

Cyoh living......
Josh and Jakes
Create Your Own Happening

A wrap on the recent CYOH Animal Action campaign from Jakes:

"The day started out slow, but thanks to everyone who participated & made their contribution, CYOH SURF CLUB managed to get together over 150 KG worth of food. Needless to say that all the donations were well appreciated from PE's relevant ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS such as the SPCA & SAVE A PET. It was however a sad sight seeing all the helpless animals, as well as the lack of support that SAVE A PET has from the general public. A very big THANK YOU to EVERYONE for participated & made a donation. 

See you all soon & remember with CYOH LIFESTYLE LIVING we can all make a difference :)"

Orcas surf in the wake of a fishing boat off the coast of Loreto, Baja, Mexico. Just goes to show, even 1 ton beasts like to jol in the surf. I'm reckoning the ou's on board this charter were caught between being amazed and kakking off! Lucky for t