Eish, the fish farm planned for just off Pipe has been given the go-ahead, albeit in a reduced form. We have one last chance to appeal the decision - this time directly to the Government. The more appeals against the fish farm they receive, the better the chances of getting the decision reviewed. Just remember the appeals have to be a bit more formal than the "F*ck off with your fish farm" variety!

Whether you're worried about a negative effect on water quality at Pollock & other local beaches from the fish food, fish waste, antibiotics & chemicals; or if there could be an increase in shark activity cos of them being attracted to the cages; the effect on the reefs & dive spots out there; or that the cages will be easily visible from land and will spoil the view, or maybe even impact upon the wave quality in the bay - whatever it is that bugs you about the siting of the fish farm - now's you last chance to object formally.

In a nutshell - approval has been granted for a pilot development with a sea-floor footprint of 30ha and a surface envelope of 2.5ha, that is allowed to produce 1000t/year. Any increase to the authorised size of the proposed development will be subject to an environmental impact assessment process. If you'd like to see the full list of approval conditions, click the link to download the file. Short, easy read.

Here's a step-by-step guide of how to appeal. Please take the time to do so, otherwise don't moan when you're sitting at Pipe staring at a bunch of cages and wondering why the water smells funny. 

The appeal process consists of two steps:

STEP ONE

Submit Notice of Intention to Appeal document and Appeal Questionnaire
Deadline 29 August 2004

• Notice of Intention to appeal - download form (single page document), fill in address, and sign. Simple.
• Appeal questionnaire - a six page document that outlines basic point that will be part of the detailed appeal to follow. This is not a detailed document, the questions are set and it should be answered shortly and to the point. There is a sample questionnaire below which will help you fill in the form.

These two forms need to be emailed or faxed to both DEA, DAFF & CapeEAprac before the end of this week (29 August 2014). Here are the email addresses to send them to. (fax numbers on Appeal questionnaire sample form)

1. Appealsdirectorate@environment.gov.za
   
2. AsandaN@daff.gov.za
   
3. mel@cape-eaprac.co.za

STEP TWO

The second phase of the appeal is the detailed appeal (this is were all the nitty gritty stuff should be included) which should not be sent with the document above but should only be send to DEA, DAFF & CapeEAprac after the 1st of September, before the 20th of September. 

Here's where you can go into some more detail as to why you don't want the fish farm just offshore at Pipe. There is an example of an appeal below, and a template for you to write your own appeal.

Caught up with local surfer and cartoon artist Andre Clarke, to find out a bit more about the Grom Reaper:

"Everyone knows you as a bit of a Rincon regular, but probably didn’t know you were such a rad artist until that Grom Reaper comic strip you did that’s just featured on the back page of the latest edition of the Boardtalk magazine.

Is art what you do for a living?

Yep indeed. I have my own little agency - Synergy Solutions; specialising in graphic design (print, multimedia etc), copywriting, digital art and illustration - the works. And a bit of lecturing on the side - in above disciplines.

How did you get into cartooning and graphic art?

As a lightie I was as much into art of the sci fi, horror, fantasy kind as I was into the beach, and being a creative little bastard, I always hoped I'd be doing something along those lines for a living. Although you often spend tons of time behind a computer, you have certain freedoms (ahem... seeing the locals down at Millers during average Joe working hours!) A more regular desk job would've killed me off long ago!

Have you done the graphics on any of your own boards?

Fer sure! Check out my Poseidon art for my current board. As surfers our boards are our tools/paintbrushes - customising them is a way of making them personal!

How long does it take to put something like that comic strip together? Take us through the process.

Admittedly, my pesky perfectionist streak slows the process down often! But in a nutshell, Grom Reaper started off like this:

1. After a very basic brief; I started brainstorming: story ideas and concept; what each character should look like; the look of the town, scenery and the environment - all based on the kind of tale I wanted to tell. Everything was just in my head at this stage.

2. After that, it was pencil to paper; lots and lots of roughs, trying to draw the guys I saw in my head before trying to get the character models correct.

3. Then - character model time. These are basically unique to comics - you gotta draw your characters from varying angles and with different expressions, so when you draw the comics for real you have reference for consistency and accuracy. Notice, at this point, I haven't even started on the comics proper yet!

4. Which leads into step 4 - the actual comics! There are basically two aspects here - the story - and the illustrations. Most important is the story - that needs to be sorted before you start drawing (some ou's are really pedantic here and have planned it out to the last detail, other guys shoot from the hip and are more loose with their planning - I fall somewhere in the middle I guess). So assuming story is sorted - rough layouts of each comic panel first.

5. After your roughs - time to draw the final panels. For Grom Reaper; I drew in soft pencil first, then finished off and polished with a harder drafts-pencil :). No ink for me this time!

6. Then, scan them in - (groms, for those thinking about doing graphic design, photography etc - scan at 300dpi and actual current size!) in grayscale.

7. Then - take out a bank loan for Photoshop! Yes, PS is the best - for a reason! Open your scans in Photoshop, create new layers for your airbrushing; make sure you have converted the file to colour - and start painting away! (Hint: I use pencil/airbrush, and layer transparency to create the clouds/water effects.) Use special filters sparingly with actual art.

8. Tear hair out and swear constantly because it's taking so long and you have other work to do.

9. Finish off, flatten each panel, and place them in sequence in InDesign. (Bank loan required again haha!) Smile because you're almost done! Frown because you're beginning to agonise over font, legibility and fitting everything in.

10. Tear hair out and swear constantly because it's taking so long and you have other work to do.

11. Finally finish, and send off to printers with a big grin!

12. Tear hair out and swear constantly because printers require another format.

13. Reformat, then send off to printers again. Rejoice because they are happy with the technical aspects, great success!

14. Go for a celebratory surf!

15. Tear hair out and swear constantly because it's PE and it's pretty damn flat and gutless for your celebratory surf...

What will we be seeing the Grom Reaper get up to in future?

Hell yeah - time permitting haha! If the name "Grom Reaper" wasn't hint enough, Ben's nickname "Bones" should also hint at what's to come! Basically, our young grom will be getting his dark powers properly soon, all because of an accidental Faustian pact he signs up for! (google Faustian kids, it ain't a happy ending kinda story)"

Anyone need some kiff design or artwork done? Give Andre a holler on andre.synergy@gmail.com

Make sure you buy the next copy of Boardtalk magazine to see what the Grom Reaper gets up to.

We got waves, finally. A decent SE swell pulled through on Sunday and saw Clubhouse absolutely crank on the low, and Millers and Hummies get some good 'un's. Even Avo's had a few. 

The Bell Bouy broke all day - but no takers. Other than a crazy and/or lost chokka boat captain who decided to take his boat right through the line-up - scratched over a set, which luckily wasn't one of the big one's. Else it woulda have been "over-the-falls-backwards" time. Which I'm not sure has ever been attempted on a chokka boat!? Wish I'd had my camera handy.

Helluva rip out at Millers which resulted in most peeps opting for the run-around if they had a long one. There were some nuggets out there in amongst the fat mushburgers, you just had to find 'em. And then hope there weren't 10 ou's on your inside!

Did a quick count early arvo and stopped when I got to 78 - that was the Hobie Beach to Chomp Rock stretch. Eina. You can check the arvo's shots here. Plus check out Latest shots for some more pic's from Sunday.

JBay and St Francis were obviously firing. There were a coupla big sets that closed out across the bay at Bruce's - from Killers down to Hulett's. That's pretty gnarly stuff. No doubt a few peeps got washed off the jump rock. Been there, done that. Waves were smashing into the harbour wall, and a coupla guys decided to go feel the thumps up close.

Check out Richard Arderne's video below the pic's.

Well done to the EP team that took the trophy at the Vic Bay Quad - second year running. Local is mos lekker!! Thanks to Billabong for sponsoring the team again. Great to have their continued support for all our EP teams.

In other comp news, both Saffa's got their marching orders at Chopes unfortunately. After seeing Jordy only managed a 5.33 heat total I was wondering what was happening with the big guys heat strategy - but it turns out he had the worst wipeout of his life the day before and was properly rattled. Gotto to hard to get your subconscious to forget that the last time you threw yourself over the ledge it didn't turn out so well.....

Here's hoping he shakes it off and has a late charge in the remaining events of the year.

The nice peeps at Stance South Africa gave us 5 kiff pairs of Stance socks to give away. Plenty peeps are keen to get themselves these funky feet - and the lucky toes that will now be rocking some seriously trendy cotton belong to Chad Gilbert, who wins the lucky draw.

If you'd like to grab some yourself, just pop past your closest RVCA store and get some (that's Walmer Park if you live in PE). Cos life's too short to wear boring socks.

And life's also too short to be lived without adventure. If you keen for one, then get hold of John Davies and join him on his 66ft schooner, the Spirit of the Millennium, when they mission from PE to Madagascar and back. Surf, fish and dive yourself miff. More deets here.

Wanna go on a surfing, fishing, diving & sailing adventure? 'Course ya do! Local surfer & sailor John Davies has finished renovating his beautiful 66ft gaff rigged schooner and will be taking her on a Madagascan adventure at the end of the month. 

You've probably seen her sailing in the bay recently, that big beaut 2 masted yacht.

He's keen to get a few hands on deck to share the adventure with. Peeps can do the whole trip (about 12 weeks) or any portion thereof. There's scuba and fishing gear on board, and 2 tenders. Bring your surfboard of course!

Plan is to leave PE end August/early Sept and then sail up through the Mozambique channel - past the legendary fishing spot of Bassas da India (a small uninhabited atoll in the south channel, which also has epic diving), and then up the west coast of Madagascar to the northern tip. Hang about there for a bit and then the reverse route home.

Plenty of fishing, surfing and diving opportunities en route. Not to mention awesome beaches, spectacular scenery, rainforests and all that sorta stuff.

Costs are ~R250-350 per day, just to cover food and fuel. Meals & all soft drinks included. Obviously getting yourself to and from your jump on/off points is for your own account.

If you keen, give John Davies a holler on davies@isat.co.za

Massive swell klapped Indo this week. And tragedy came with it. A young Aussie surfer died whilst surfing Scar Reef, a heavy spot on Sumbawa, when he got smashed by a huge set. Friends hired a boat after he went missing and found his body washed up on the reef. RIP fellow wave rider.

Just to give you an idea of how big Indo was here's a shot of the pontoon at Lacerations getting taken out by a clean up set. It sits in a deep channel between the break and never see's as much as a ripple pass under it - and here it get's smoked by a monster. Reckon the ou's sitting chilling on it must have gone from chill mode to OMG mode fairly quickly!!

Not only is the Indian Ocean swell machine on maximum volume, the Pacific isn't far behind. Chopes is the centre of the action that side of the pond, with it claiming first blood of the season. Michel Bourez's bro Kevin did a over the falls face plant into the reef and got a few skull fractures and some reef tattoo's for his efforts.

The CT guys are all over there now as the Billabong Pro Tahiti is gonna start soon. Tiago Pires doing some equipment testing....looks like it's back to the drawing board....

Surf coach and local legend Hynsie had a knee op this week - wishing him well for a speedy recovering, and back on the beach coaching all our lighties again.

Work has started on the Boardwalk revamp. The old plastic walkway had become seriously crapped out and presented a danger to users. Injured my pride a while ago whilst going for a run - so busy checking out the surf at Pipe as I ran past failed to see the raised plank and went flying as I tripped over it. Fail.

The plan is to yank up the section of the walkway in the Pipe area and let the sand dunes recover. In about a year or so the municipality will look at replacing it. (Pic Mike Holmes EP Herald)

Plenty of wandering locals at the moment. Jaryd Mason ticked off a serious bucket list spot when he got to surf Pipe in Hawaii this week. A step up from the Pipe he'd been used to up til now. Slightly overhead and he reckoned he still got smashed by a few, just such a powerful wave.

JBay's Remi Peterson has been in France less than a week and has already collected enough travel stories to fill a book. Being on a Saffa budget meant he had to sleep rough in the sand-dunes, which was probably quite fun right up until the storm from hell broke out on top of him! Lightening struck within metres of him a few times and he got so drenched he had to get into his wetsuit to sit out the night as it was the driest thing he had! Here's a pre-storm shot.

Brad and Hannah still have to pinch themselves regularly to make sure they really are living the dream instead of just, well, dreaming it. One of the best season's in year's mean that most days at the office are filled with cooking waves. Get to meet a few interesting peeps along the way too - like Rasta, Sunny Garcia and Taylor Knox, who were all guests of Tropicsurf last week for the annual legends surf comp hosted off the Four Seasons Explorer.

The Hulett family from St Francis have made the trek halfway round the world to surf Fiji for the next month. They don't travel light - 2 surf-boards, 2 kite boards, 3 Stand up Paddleboards, three paddles, one boogie board and 2 airush kites! Try getting that through 45 hours of travel....

Looks like it's been worth the effort! Here's EP Junior surfer Crystal Hullet smashing a Swimming Pool's wall.

Local windsurfer, surfer and photographer Greg Betts (Action Exposed) landed himself a sweet gig as the official photag of a bunch of international windsurfing events in Mauritius. Not a shabby office for a week or two!

Bit of a purple blob forming off to the SW of Cape Town that had the big waves guys getting excited for a possible start of the Dungeons ASP Big Wave event. But it ended up being called off when the swell did a disappearing act. There is however still a chance of the event running right at the end of August, charts looking promising.

Pipe & Millers local Mauro Poggi had a bit of a scar with some serious skin cancer that he found he had just by sheer chance (full story here). Go get those moles and mossies checked regularly. 

Local SUP rider and docter Michael Klos sent me a clever lil mnemonic to remember to know what moles/freckles to worry about. It's as simple as ABCDE:

A- Asymmetry: Normal moles or freckles are completely symmetrical. If you were to draw a line through a normal spot, you would have two symmetrical halves. In cases of skin cancer, spots will not look the same on both sides.
B- Border: A mole or spot with blurry and/or jagged edges.
C- Color: A mole that is more than one hue is suspicious and needs to be evaluated by a doctor. Normal spots are usually one color. This can include lightening or darkening of the mole.
D- Diameter: If it is larger than a pencil eraser (about 5mm), it needs to be examined by a doctor. This is includes areas that do not have any other abnormalities (color, border, asymmetry).
E- Elevation: Elevation means the mole is raised above the surface and has an uneven surface.

So get someone to check out ya out and if anything looks suspicious rather be safe than sorry and head to the doc for a check. Remember to lather on that sunscreen, cos if world champs can wear it, so can you....

Been really flat this week so the guys have been doing plenty of slacklining. So impressed with what they're able to do on a thin bit of webbing strung out between 2 tree's. Must be awesome balance training for surfing.

Local photag Luc Hosten is having to shoot other things that move in the absence of any decent surf. Here he is with some of the local wildlife. He decided the penguin looked more interesting upside down.....

In the absence of much surf there's been plenty skate action in town. The Boogaloo's Skateboarding Tour of Hope went down at the King's Beach skatepark on Saturday; then Sunday saw a Sector 9 Poker Run cruising down the beachfront in some seriously summer weather. Josh Saunders was stoked to win the Sector 9 skateboard with his set of four 5's.

Keep those wheels greased cos not a helluva lot on the charts for this week either - so going to have to get your glide on the tar not in the water.

As surfers we put ourselves at risk of getting skin cancer every time we head out for a wave. Sitting out there in the line-up day after day, year after year, with those UV rays just beating down on us. Accident waiting to happen really.

I got reminded what a real threat it was after chatting to Mauro Poggi out in the surf this week. Hadn't seen him for a while, and he said "Hey, did you hear what happened to me?!" No, I didn't, so tell me the story.....

"I'd gone for a swim at Humewood with my son a few weeks back, and as we were getting out the water he said to me "Dad, what's that on your back", prodding at a mole on my back. I said it was just a mossie, nothing to worry about. Anyway, he wasn't so easily dismissed - luckily for me it turns out. After some googling him and my wife decided I had to go see the Doc about the mole. The Doc didn't seem to perturbed about it either, but sent it off for some tests nonetheless.

Came back as stage 2 malignant melonoma! So back off to the doc to get a 6cm x 3cm piece cut out of my shoulder. They then cut out the lymph-glands under my arm as well. It was that that nearly killed me! Ended up going septic - I felt like I was going to die it was so sore. They had to stick a drain in it to release all the gunk.

So yah, I'm really lucky to have caught it before it spread even more - as apparently once it does start to spread you're pretty much tickets"

Just as the famous surf saying goes "You never know if you don't go" - well, let that apply to looking after your skin as well! All surfers should do an annual visit to their Dermatologist just to make sure all those lil mossies and moles are behaving themselves and the sun hasn't switched on any misbehaving cells. Cos rather be safe than sorry. And that includes lathering on that sunscreen and maybe chucking on a shirt and a cap or hat when you hit the surf.

Go make that appointment now.....

A word on sunscreens - go for a high factor SPF and make sure it's water resistant (duh!) Good stuff available locally is Bronzinc (SPF 30+, skin colour zinc, get at Surf Centre or the Boardroom), Swox (SPF 30+, clear zinc, goes on white then dissolves -made by surfers for surfers - I did a review on it here) , Solrx (SPF 40+, clear zinc goes on white and dissolves, lasts 8 hours - my regular sunscreen. Made in Knysna. Get it at RVCA stores or order online) and Island Tribe (various SPF's, made in Durbs, available everywhere)

Put it ON!!!!!!! EVERY time you surf. UV rays are still out there even when it's cloudy!

Pretty boring week really. Not much surf, not much of anything really. Winter - you aren't over yet - so how about delivering some waves? Charts not looking much better for this week either. Sigh.

In the absence of surf, some of the locals have taken up slack-lining. Join in only if you have ankles of steel!

Lots of the lighties made the trek west to go surf in the Billabong Junior Series presented by Bos, held at Long Beach over the weekend. Pint size waves for the groms, but looks like they all had a fat jol anyway. Great results for the EP kids, with JBay's Kirsty McGillivray winning the u14 girls, Sebastian Williams the u14 boys, and Emma Smith the u20 girls. You can check the full wrap and all the pics here.

Local surfers Bruce Campbell and Tracey Admiral did really well in their first international Xtrerra event over in Czechoslovakia recently. Bruce got 7th in his age group and Tracey got a 3rd. Xtrerra events are off-road triathlons. Here's Bruce enjoying the scenery on a training ride over there...

Richard Swanson went on an Indo mission in June - reckoned he timed it perfectly cos all the Brazzo's were home for the world cup so the line-up's were manageable. He hooked into some absolutely smoking Nias - see for yourself...

Another local on an Indo mission is Jbay's Trevor Hansen, who's getting slotted as we speak in the southern Mentawaii's. Based at Kingfisher Lodge - homebreaks of Lance's left and HT's. They've been getting some cooking surf, with more on the way. So far he's been dinged in the eye and broken a board. Means he's charging! Look forward to seeing the shots when he gets back....

Kinda ironic that what was once called a "kook cord" is now an integral part of our surfing equipment. Unless you're old school logging you're most likely to have a bit of velcro around your ankle. Here's who you have to thank for saving you the "wipeout equals swim to the beach" scenario...

It's an accepted fact that Pat O'Neill, son of famous wetsuit mogul Jack O'Neill, is credited for inventing the modern surf leash back in 1971. Pat used a surgical cord and attached it to his board with a suction cup. He introduced his new invention to the surfing world at the 1971 Malibu international surfing competition.... but he disqualified from the event for wearing it! 

The general lack of enthusiasm for his new idea was further compounded when an early edition of the leash being used by his dad Jack resulted in his board getting snapped back at him and taking out his eye....and the famous eye-patch wearing image of Jack O'Neill was born.

An early version of the leash was invented in the mid-1930s. Tom Blake, an American surfboard designer, attached a 10-foot length of cotton rope from a belt on his waist to his board. No guessing why that didn't catch on! Remember boards back then were 10-12ft monsters that weighed a ton - being attached to it was probably more a hindrance than a benefit!

Other homemade rope-constructed surf leashes were occasionally tried in the '50s and '60s. A French surfer named George Hennebutte invented a double-velcro-strapped "footline,"  with elastic line and a double-velcro ankle strap, in 1958, but it didn't catch on.

Joey Cabell tried out his version of a leash while surfing in Tahiti in the 1960's. Back then most of the spots were considered unsurfable due to the dangerous reefs. So Joey decided to copy how the Tahitians tethered their pigs. They tied a rope to a post and the other end to a T-shirt that they would wrap around the pig's leg. That way, the pig could run around, but not get away, and the rope didn't hurt their legs because the T-shirt took the shock from being pulled.

Joey used the cloth around the ankle tied to a cord concept and attached the line he used to the fin on his board. He said he took that idea back to Hawaii because "nobody in Hawaii had invented the leash yet." But again - it failed to catch on.

Pat O'Neil's version was a questionable contraption of surgical tubing wrapped around the wrist, attached to the board by a suction cup. Despite being far from ideal, it was the start of the movement to become attached to our boards.

Surfboard were becoming smaller and faster. Guys were tired of swimming in to fetch their boards and were keen to make their life easier and simply prolong their surfing time. Maybe it's no surprise that the original leashes came from Santa Cruz. Losing your board there meant a long swim to the beach through the maze of sharp rocks and currents.

"To Leash or Not to Leash, That is the Question" was the title of a 1972 Surfing magazine article, and for two or three years the debate raged on. Purists reckoned leashes encouraged less-skilled riders to try spots they would have otherwise avoided and that lineups were now more crowded than ever. "Leashes are for dogs" was the unofficial motto of the no-leash group, and leashes were known as "kook cords". By 1975 the pro-leash group had won the debate, and by 1980 it was rare to find a surfer not using a leash.

Despite increasing in usage, it wasn't love at first site. Leashes may have saved you the swim in, but they had a habit of turning your board into a guided missile too. Ask Jack about his eye. The surgical tubing would stretch like crazy and then cause the board to recoil at a rate of knots. 

The bungee cord leashes weren't much better. At least they recoiled less, but would still pull tight around your ankle and cut off blood flow. Plus they had a nasty habit of digging deep into the fibreglass of a surfboard, usually near the tail. The suction cup was thrown out as a kak idea, and guys started drilling holes in their fins through which to attach their leashes.

The next innovation was leather or webbing strap for attaching the leash to your ankle (in South Africa it was a rugby sock!), a definite improvement on the bungee loops. Others who didn’t like poking holes in their fins began experimenting with resin and fibreglass “bridges” on the decks of their boards.

Space-age materials in the 80’s such as Velcro soon replaced the leather and webbing ankle straps while urethane replaced bungee cord. The first urethane surf leashes were made by Cadillac Surf Company, the same company that pioneered urethane in skateboard wheels.


The modern surf leash is now made of urethane in various colours, thicknesses, with the ankle strap, usually made of Velcro, attached to the urethane with metal swivels. Leashes are attached to the board by a leash cup, which is laminated into the deck of the tail part of the board. New innovations continue: quick-release leashes, rail-savers, single and double-swivel attachments, single and double-wrap ankle straps. Personal fave is a double swivel with built-in leash string.

Pick your thickness too. Comp leashes are thinner so as to create less drag, but stick to a normal leash for everyday use if you tend to be out in headhigh surf or bigger on occasion. Off to Indo? - you can grab a thicker one that will survive big waves and big hold downs.

How long? Same length as your board or a wee bit longer.

Even though the leash might save you swims and other peeps getting your board on their pips, there is still a dark side to the cord. A small number of surfers have drowned cos their leashes have became tangled on an underwater rock or reef. This is probably what happened to Mark Foo at Mavericks back in '94. 

Parko had a scare at the beginning of this year when his leash hooked a submerged rock, holding him under. “I only had about ten seconds of air left,” he reckoned. After a lengthy hold down, his leash pulled free, and the former world champion reached the surface. “It scared the absolute ­bejesus out of me,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to get back up.”

Despite the hook-up factor, many big-wave riders claim to have saved their own lives after a long wipeout when they were able to use their leash to "climb" back up to the surface.

For the average Jo Surfer they're just a great tool to save you the swim in after every wipeout. But don't let it get you lazy. Specially on bigger days - if you're about to take a set on the head - before you succumb to the inclination to chuck your board and dive, make sure you check behind you first. Cos if there're some peeps there, best you suck it up, take it on the head, and hang on to that board for dear life. 

Remember to look after your leash if you want it to look after your board. Not such a rad idea to tie it round the tail of your board - cos those sharp fin edges can easily put a lil nick in it. Also, tying it up tends to make it tangle more, as the urethane has some memory in it so tying it round the board puts kinks in it - which then get tangled up round your legs out in the line-up. Just leave the leash free when you store your board.

Got a leash that does nothing but coil around your leg? Attach one end to a doorknob or burglar bar and pull it out taut, stretching the leash, and hang on to it like that for a bit. Then hang it up somewhere for a few days to allow it to straighten it out.

And keep an eye on those swivels - the salt water erodes them after a while, so if they're looking a bit white n crusty expect a snap there sooner rather than later.

A really solid day on a rocky shore? Check your leash for nicks before you paddle out. Rather safe than sorry!

Shew, what a sad week. The PE surf community had to say goodbye to one of it's staunchest locals. Pipe stalwart Vaughan Jones, known as Mr Jones to so many, passed away whilst surfing Rincon. What a way to go, doing what you love.

He will be sorely missed by all. Many attended his funeral and memorial paddle out at Pipe to pay their last respects to this special man. The Grey boys said goodbye in style by beating arch-rivals Grey Bloem 27-20. Condolences to friends and family. RIP Vaughan, we know you'll still be hooking into those sets out at the back of Pipe.

Sandy Coffey took some wonderful shots at the paddle out - you can see the full gallery here.

Cape Town continues it shark problems, with another attack at Muizenberg this week. Thankfully it wasn't fatal, with the victim suffering from lacerations across both legs. Pretty concerning how markely the frequency of shark sightings and encounters have increased there over the years. I learnt to surf at the 'Berg whilst at Varsity and sharks were unheard of back then. 

JBay local Dylan Lightfoot continues his good run of form, finishing 9th in the US Pro Junior held at Huntington Beach. He reckons it was pretty impressive to be able to be out there in what must be surfing's ultimate arena. Packed stadiums on the beach and crowds lining the pier.

Dean Simpson bade farewell to Old Yellow after it unceremoniously flew off his roofracks and became 2 shortboards instead of one log. That meant a new stick was to be born, and here's a sneak peak at what will soon be gracing the logging line-up's of the bay. Stylish looking board for a stylish surfer.

Another edition of Boardtalk will be hitting the shelves near you soon. After a bit of an hiatus, the local board mag is back in action, headed up by Casey Beveridge. Make sure you go grab a copy cos local is lekker, they'll be available at Surf Centre, Coffee's Up and Summerbreeze Spar in Summerstrand. First 100 copies snag a free calendar as well.

Our time in the Maldives has come to an end and we begin the long trek home. Bummed to be leaving behind such perfect waves and weather. Probably one of our best trips there to date. One of the highlights was sharing prefect head high peelers with just us and Rasta and his girlfriend in the line-up. Had to laugh at one stage cos he had his water cam out there for a bit and was taking some shots, of us included - bit skaam to have one of the world's best surfers taking pictures of you whilst you dorking it! Such cool peeps though. Epic day.

Island time is a reality. Once you’ve been floating around the tropics on a boat for a while it’s hard to keep track of what day it is. Life revolves around surf, eat, sleep, repeat. With maybe a bit of fishing and island exploring thrown in just to mix things up a bit.

Into week 2 of our trip and the waves keep delivering. Clocking in 6-8 hours in the water each day, and as a consequence thereof can barely move my arms. Quite a bizarre feeling to actually have to motivate yourself to get back out there cos you just so buggered....but the waves are so good you just have to!

Our little corner of paradise is no longer a secret unfortunately, thanks to a surf guide book to the Maldives letting the cat out the bag. We'd come here for the last 7 years and hardly ever saw anyone else here, but now days it's pretty busy with other surfari boats. Thankfully the surf has just kept pumping through, so despite a few peeps in the water we've still been getting tons of waves. We did get a coupla days to ourselves before the crowds arrived, so happy for that.

Interesting to watch the dynamics of a multi-national line-up. Aussies of course have little respect for the concept of a line-up. And I’m not sure Israeli’s even know what that is. Luckily they’re so busy hassling the hell outta each other that they often end up too deep and plenty of waves come through to those watching the snake-a-thon with amusement.

Turns out that as bad as they are in the line-up, they’re even worse to share a surfari boat with. Coupla Poms were bemoaning the fact that they had 4 of them on board, and that when it came to discussions of where to go surf next there wasn’t much in the way of compromise or negotiation. Israeli way or the high-way. The one guy summed it up perfectly – said now he understands why there’ll never be peace in the Middle East!

Cool to have hooked up with our Maldivian mate again. Ramadan finished so there was the big Eid celebration and all the locals boated across to the island we’re anchored off for a day filled with festivities. Stoked that my 6’1 Des Sawyer I left with them last year is still in good nick and being well-used. Such a cool crew to surf with as they’re so stoked to be in the water and cheer everyone’s waves, and make sure everyone gets a turn. Pity how more established surf nations seem to have lost that aloha.

We brought a body board over for our crew, so they could get into the water with us and see why we spend hours out there all day. Our chef paddled out - pretty solid day, and first time ever out in the surf - and he stroked into this lil nugget. Also provided some entertainment when he got sucked over with the lip in a duckdive gone bad and ended up flying over the head of a guy slotted in the barrel - too funny to watch.

Unfortunately didn't get any shots of the big day - solid double overhead....cos was in the water the whole day. Plenty of time dodging bombs, and some of the time snagging them. 

Cos the charts looked flat the other boats up'ed anchored and left us alone in the anchorage. As luck would have it, after a flat morning the surf picked up on the pushing tide into perfect head high sheet-glass peelers. Just the two of us in the water trading waves. After a few hours a speedboat arrived from a resort further up the atoll - and out paddle Dave Rastovich (Rasta) and his girlfriend. Had a great arvo's surf with them, such super cool people. I struggle to hold my GoPro and surf - but Rasta managed to grab waves whilst holding his big water housing. Sure he musta got some beauts.

Only a few more days left in paradise, then have to swap summer sun for winter chill, boardies for a wettie, and epic waves for very ordinary one's. So thankful to be able to spend time in one of my favourite corners of the world.

No more freshly baked chocolate doughnuts and french pastries for brekkie, no more Maldivian energy drinks (aka coconuts - free from the tree) and no more 2 bite banana's. Gonna miss this place....