Yay, after months of refurb work the Shark Rock Pier will be open to the public again this arvo (Tuesday). The iconic PE landmark had been seriously in need of some TLC for a number of years and finally the budget became available to give her a facelift.

The ou's from Newport Plant Hire and Techni Civils got her looking spic 'n span again. They replaced all the timber on the pier, as well as repairing/replacing the galvanised steel stanchions. The middle timbers were upgraded to a polymer concrete insert and all the lighting got fixed up.

So basically she's as good as new now, lekker!

​Head down, buy a soft serve, and take a walk to the end of the pier. Cos that's what piers are for!

Another slow week for waves in the bay. The weekend had a few onshore bowls, followed by some super windy lil lines early on Sunday. If you put some gas in your tank and went for a drive the pickings were a bit better. As they generally are...

If you went really far west, and then a bit north - you got even better waves!

News of the week was the public participation meetings held about Thyspunt in St Francis and JBay. Things got a bit heated in SF, where some ou's heckled the panel of experts stukkend. One muppet even had a swing at the nuclear physicist. The police got called to babysit the hecklers for the rest of the meeting. Besides that bit of entertainment, nothing much new was raised or answered. Both sides just sticking to their stories. Nuke peeps say it's wonderful, residents think it's a kak idea. 

Another shark incident along our coast - this time at Stillbaai. Local Stuart Anderson was bitten on the leg whilst surfing the point. He was helped in to shore by fellow surfers and the NSRI was on hand with the emergency shark medical kits which are set up along the beach there. He was later airlifted to George in stable condition. Get better quick mate.

Not sure if it's the El Nino that's sparked the spike in shark activity this year - but there have been lots of incidents all over the world - with many in Aus and Hawaii recently. So surf safe - keep your eye's peeled.

Anyone wondering why there were so many fishermen lurking around in all their flash fishing kit on the beaches at St Francis - it was the annual Free State Sea Fishing Champs. Yes. Free State. Seafishing. Any excuse for a brandy 'n coke mos.

If you see a bright orange truck hanging about the beach front pull in for some lekker chow. Run by local surfer Dewald Hurter they park at various possies around town dishing up super tasting chow. Dewald used to run a restaurant but got gatvol of the mission that involved and decided to go mobile instead. Probably helps that it makes it easier to grab a quick surf whilst at work!

You may have noticed that Deno from the Boardroom has a kiff new cabbie to replace the rust bucket he used to cruise in. Local ballie (and ex EP surfer back in the day) Vince Barnes hooked him up with it. So if you looking for a decent used car - give Vince a yell and he'll sort you out. Cos local is lekker, and buying from a surfer-run business is as lekker local as you get!
https://www.facebook.com/Vince-Barnes-Vehicle-Sales-783593968415194

Came across a great community project run by Bluewater Bay surfer Luc van der Walt, Called True Colours - Art to Uplift. Luc works with local communities to brighten up their homes with colourful murals which he helps them paint. He recently did a project with the lighties at Aleph, in Jbay - and they did some rad surfboard designs. He looks to couple the painting projects with some surf lessons whenever he can. Giving the kids a double whammy of stoke.

Actually met Luc in the surf for the first time last week, and is so inspiring to hear what he does. If anyone can assist with paints or materials for Luc's projects that would be great - drop him a line via his FB site (linked above).

Props to EP Masters surfer Andre Venter, who owns Decor Pro, who has donated a whole lot of paint to Luc. Nice one Andre! Also to Dave Lippie - who's offered his rental boards & wetties to Luc for when he does his community surf lessons. Lekker to see surfers helping surfers!

Looking at the charts for the week - there's some good swell about, but unfortunately it's gonna get blasted to pieces by the stupid easterly. Which is Ok I guess if you love onshore bowls. I don't. Cos I seem to get drilled every time I try! Will stay safely behind the lens if the bowls start to fire....

Summer means beach. Beach means sand. You either love it or hate it. It gets in your hair, your clothes, your eye's, your chow and pretty much everywhere else when you spend the day on the beach, so besides being annoying, what the hang is it anyway?

​The dictionary will tell you it's a loose granular substance, typically pale yellowish brown, resulting from the erosion of siliceous and other rocks and forming a major constituent of beaches, river beds, the seabed, and deserts.

Depending on what beach you're at it can be either weathered quartz or chewed up reef. Our coastal beaches are mainly silicon dioxide, which is what you get when weathering processes, such as wind & rain, break down rocks and minerals into smaller grains. Cos quartz is lank hard it's pretty weather resistent and will finally make it's way to the beach after getting washed down by streams or rivers and or blown by the wind.

The beaches get stipped during big storms - like the big one in July that chowed away about 7 years worth of sand at Avo's (just when it had started to come back to life, arg!) The easterlies tend to churn up sand offshore and bring it back to the beaches. So the big swells/east wind cycle is what dominates our sand flow.

But we really need the dune fields to be reactivated so that we can get some consistent feeder sand back. Plans are afoot to hopefully allow the reactivation of the Noordhoek dunefield which runs through Cape Recife - and is currently held back to protect the water treatment plant there. (​http://www.millerslocal.co.za/getting-our-beaches-back.html)

Sand can speak. Well, squeak, Which is close. Anyone who's been to Clifton knows how it makes a cool noise as you walk on it. Apparently for sand to squeak it needs pretty specific conditions - the grains all have to be very well-rounded and highly spherical, they must be of similar size, and be free of pollution.

​The squeaky sound is believed to be produced by shear as each layer of sand grains slides over the layer beneath it. The similarity in size, the uniformity, and the cleanness mean that grains move up and down in unison over the layer of grains below them. Even small amounts of pollution on the sand grains reduces the friction enough to silence the sand. Neat, huh.

Here's hoping you can now look at sand in a new light, instead of it just being that irritating stuff that gets all over your car after a surf!

'Nother week of small summer surf in the bay, although the early birds (those that didn't go too big after the Bokke's nail-biting win) got a few juicy worms early Sunday morning. Plenty of pits if you looked outside the bay as well. 

The EP Open Longboard comp went down in small, but clean, waves at Blackbottoms. Such a lekker day no-one was too fazed by the teeny surf. Gave the groms a chance to whip their shirts off to show off their lekker surfer tans. Kiff neck and glove tans are a dead giveaway. If you don't have one of those you don't surf enough.

Friday evening was a beaut. Plenty peeps out on the beach for a walk. But unfortunately the weather was lekker, but some muppets most definitely weren't. A gang of 5 skollies attacked a French tourist on the boardwalk past Rincon, tied her up and robbed her. Luckily she managed to escape. Couple of surfers wanted to go find the perpetrators and teach 'em some manners, but Jurassic Park (the "picnic" area just after the beacon), was packed with unruly revellers, and it wouldn't have been a wise idea.

No issues with having a public picnic area, but there has to be some control around alcohol consumption and anti-social behaviour. Ou's were even gooi'ing stones at cars that evening as well. Kak when you can't walk safely along the beachfront anymore. Be careful out there...

How's this lekker shot of JBay back in the day. The Carpark section has been doing it's thing long before surfers even arrived. Looked pretty darn epic back in the 60's. That's for sure.

Reckon if you asked any surfer if they could have anything in the world they'd all say "A time machine". Imagine travelling back in time to surf all the world's best breaks long before anyone else had surfboards or wetties. Although probably find the prehistoric finned friends were even more gnarly than the are today!

The curse of coastal pollution is ongoing. Luc Hosten took a clever shot to illustrate this. Pretty piece of seaweed, not so pretty piece of fishing line and hook wrapped up in it. At least the hook will rust away to nothing in a while, but that fishing line's gonna be lurking about for the next 600 years. That plastic bag you spor blowing into the sea - that's gonna be there for about 20 years. Plastic bottles - about 450 years. Even more reason to pick up some trash when you on the beach. Look after your hood.

Robbie Irlam is one of the resident shutterbugs at Supers, but is just as adept with a paintbrush as he is with a camera. He has some cool canvases of the iconic wave, so if you're looking at that blank space on your wall wondering what to put there, well, know you know. Another local JBay artist doing some great stuff is Stephen van der Watt. The kneelo is laying down some rad modern wave work.

Eish, El Nino is looking pretty heavy for this year. Ou's are talking about it maybe even eclipsing the worst El Nino on record - the one back in '98 that bleached about 20% of the world's coral reefs cos it raised sea temps so much. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but either way it's gonna be one of the top 3 worst El Nino's of all time. 

​Hard to say what influence the Pacific weather system has on our local wave climate - but would be easy to correlate a big El Nino with a crap winter surf season - cos by most people's standards this winter wasn't up to scratch. Coupla good days here and there but not the consistent swell we'd expect.

J.O.B is not well in the head. Which is a wonderful thing cos he does all sorts of crazy sh*t that no-one else dreams of and keeps us entertained. He's fully into the Catch Surf foam boards at the moment, and has been riding them at big Pipe, whilst also chasing down all sorts of shorepounds to play on. 

Drones are great. Drones are not great when they show you you're about to get snacked on by a local. Nah - he's just cruising about checking out what's happening in the line-up. However, there've been a whole lotta shots coming outta Aus lately showing sharks in the line-ups. Gotto be tough to be a surfer there right now, when you know there's other locals out there with you.

Surfing and surfers have long been the favourite of marketing peeps. Whack some smiley happy sun-bleached surfers in your ad and sell bunches of stuff is the theory. Which is cool - unless you use surfing to sell your product but you don't actually make it easy for surfers to use it.

Like Mango. Cheap as chips airline, so far so good. But try take your surfboard with. Ah - here be the problem. Mango let's you pay a set fee for golf clubs and bikes...but not boards. Nup, you get annihilated with excess baggage fee's instead. 

Dropped them an email suggesting they consider a fixed fee for surfboard bags - cos why do the golfers and cyclists get special treatment and not us! But being a budget airline I don't think they have anyone answering emails, so remains to be seen whether I get a reply....

Sunny's the man. He's had his up's and down's but he's got his life solidly back on track now, and has been doing lots of charity work. He finished the Hawaiian Ironman in Kona last weekend - which is a 3.8k swim, 180k bike and 42k run. Not too shabby. The money he raised doing the event was donated to the Smile Train - which is an organisation which repairs cleft palates on lighties. Good to see surfers giving back. 

​Speaking of which - props to Dane Reynolds who donated his prize money from the Quik Pro to the Durban charity Surfer's not Street Children - converting dollars to rands is a bonus!

Another week comes to an end - here's a coupla cool good night shots from some talented local photags.

Bit of a quiet week surf wise in the bay, but things (including the wind) picked up over the weekend. Early birds got the worms on Saturday morning, whilst the late risers just got gale force winds. Luckily things eased up on Sunday and some lekker waves about in the morning.

Saturday saw one of those proper SW busters storming down the coast. From lekker to "blow your mielie off" in the space of about 10 minutes. Drove out to SF in the arvo and about 20 of the wind turbines were dead still - they governed so that they click off if a max wind speed is reached - which is around 90-100kmh. 

Plenty of chokka boats looking for a hidey hole outta the wind as well - with both the bay in PE and SF chock full of them - counted about 82 in St Francis.

The number of 2nd hand fishing kayaks offered for sale spiked on Tuesday last week - thanks to some amazing shots of a lil shark cuddle off Hartenbos near Mossel Bay. A quizzy lil white came for a visit and a back scratch, which no doubt resulted in a bit of high blood pressure and the need to change undies.

Three of PE's beaches got awarded Blue Flag status last week - with Hobie, Humewood and King's getting to fly the flag for the next year. Nice work by the Beach Office to get out bits of sand up to speed.

Things were pretty flat in the bay for most of last week - bringing to mind the term "flat as a lake" when describing the absolute lack of waves. However - you can't apply that to Lake Michigan in the States - as it did a pretty good impression on mini-Jbay during the week. So there you have it - lakes can get better surf than PE...

Watch out for hooks on the reef at Pipe. The sinker divers have been pulling out some serious looking shark hooks off the rocks there, so don't go sticking your feet down into any crevasses unless you're keen to get hooked up. According to the Beachfront Aquatic Safety Zone plan (BASZ) regulations stipulate that ou's aren't meant to shore fish on any of PE's main public beaches (Kings to Rincon), although rock angling from Humewood, Avo's and Flat Rock is permitted from 18h00 to 06h00 (ie after hours). So if an ou is standing there lobbing sinkers at you in the line-up you're entitled to tell him to take a hike before he pins you on the pip.

Chicks used to come off second best when it came to decent surf wear - as in boardies and wetties. But stoked that the major surf manufacturers have finally worked out that chicks actually surf - not just loll about on the beach - and the choices of ladies wetsuits has improved dramatically. Stoked to lay my hands on some of Billabong's new surfing jeans. Kiff denim look-alike wettie leggings just perfect for summer sessions. 

Also happy that the full zip rashies are also now available. Found one when going through Singapore to Indo last year - and absolutely loved surfing in it. Surfing with it unzipped still gives you full sun protection, but without the feeling of being a bit constricted like in a normal tight rashie.

Roll on summer!

PE's globe-trotting surf couple, Brad & Hannah, have just finished up in the Philippines, and scored some cooking surf and good times. Gonna chase em up for a trip report soon as they get back.

Speaking of surf missions - got back from our annual trip to the Maldives last week. Hadn't been able to post pics cos forgot the darn card reader for the camera card. Got some good surf at the start of the trip then things went a bit quiet, although still got surf most days. Weathers a bit inclement in September, so did a bit of storm dodging too - but still had plenty solo sessions, caught some lekker fish, played footie on deserted islands and snorkeled in gin clear water. So yah - good trip all in all. You can check out the trip report and pics here...
​http://www.millerslocal.co.za/millerslocals-blog/maldives-missions

The Quik Pro France has had some epic surf. Big booming beachies barrels breaking both boards and bodies. Quarterfinalists now locked in, so get those emtry forms for the ML Fantasy Surfer comp in asap - and you could win some great gear from Billabong (Boardshorts, TShirt, slops and cap - to the value of R1600).
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/ml-fantasy-surfer.html

Recycling is cool - upcycling is even better. Nice work by Millers local Shane Pyke who gave this 2nd hand board a new lease of life as a bday pressie for her man. Bit of a clean and a new lick of paint and she's good as new!

Get your entries in for the EP Open longboard comp coming up this weekend. Deets as follows:

Free entry. Kiff prizes - R2000 for men’s open winner, R1000 for ladies open winner. Comp counts as a trial for 2016. Open to everyone - not only EP surfers. Followed by AGM Bring and Braai / prize giving at Dennis Ellis boardroom - and if held on Sat - followed by Rugby!! Call will be made on Thursday as to whether comp will be on Sat or Sun. Here's entry form, email to [email protected].  

The CYOH Surf Series was help in kiff surf at Pipe on Sunday. Bruce Campbell won a tightly contested final to take the win and overall bragging rights. And the added bonus of getting to stab the ou you beat in the back with a samurai sword. Long story. Comp wrap and results coming soon.

Hard to believe this is our 14th year in the Maldives. Started off at Lohi's back in 2002, and got hooked for life! Kinda hard to beat pretty lil tropical islands, idyllic palm trees, crystal blue water and plenty of super fun waves.

Things have changed a fair bit over the last few years - the area we surf used to be totally off the radar - but (no) thanks to a popular surf guide book and the construction of an airport close by the previously unridden realm now has it's fair share of charter boats. Still not as crowded as North Male, but gone are the days of us surfing there for 2 weeks and not seeing another soul. Don't you just hate progress....

September's not the best month to go to Maldives cos the weather can often be a bit iffy - and this year was no different. Schedules hadn't allowed us to travel earlier in the year - so it was now or bust. Luckily we chased a solid swell up from Jbay - which hit just as we arrived. So scored really good (albeit windy) surf for the first 4 days of the trip. Light crowds, and even some solo sessions in sheet glass. I was so busy surfing I hardly took any pics. Damn. ​​

National Braai Day (aka Heritage Day) happened whilst we were there - so in true patriotic fashion we had a lekker braai. Trekked a braai grid over from SA, as well as some boerewors - and thankfully customs didn't seem the least bit concerned about our cooler bag of wors and steaks!

Our Maldivian crew were pretty impressed with our Saffa sausage - no corner shoppe out in the middle of nowhere so our chef baked some hotdog rolls. Hard to beat a boerie roll in paradise!

​Cos winds were right for the zone we were in, we picked up sticks and headed northwards. First stop, the longest right in the Maldives. Needs quite specific conditions to be at it's world class best, but can still get some fun waves even if the stars don't align. Has a wicked lil bowl midway through the wave - which clamped shut on our boogie-boarding crew mate and rolled him over the reef. Made his way back out, and spent the rest of the session saying "very dangerous wave, very dangerous wave" repeatedly. Did try give some instructions as to how to dig the rail in for steering purposes etc, but musta got lost in translation.

We'd bought the crew a bodyboard and fins a few years back so we could get them out there with us so they could understand why we'd spend the whole day out in the water, instead of thinking we were mad.

There's a cool uninhabited island nearby, which a coupla years back hosted a full scale Saffa vs Maldives soccer match when we met up with Barry & Greg Heasley and their crew. But this time we were the only boat about so it was two on two. Gotto try keep fit whilst you on the boat, cos they feed you so well. Always try get a kick about or some bat & ball in every coupla days just to keep the legs ticking over. 

After a few days we continued our northwards sail, to an area we used to surf quite a bit in the past but hadn't visited for a while. Two other boats were in the vicinity, but luckily they were opting to surf the lefts (which were picking up more swell) and left us alone on the right. 

Snorkeling in the Maldives is world class. Water is so clear and there's a plethora of fish. The coral still hasn't recovered from the bleaching it suffered in the big El Nino of '98, but the gazzilion fish swimming around you more than make up for it. Stoked to have had a swim with a turtle, who didn't mind you giving him a back scratch - although did so tentatively cos they have gnarly beaks that look like that could take a big chunk of skin outta ya arm if they felt so inclined.

Was cruising along happily fish watching when suddenly a black tipped reef shark came across a few metres in front of me - just a lil guy of about a metre, but my first thought was "where's mom and dad"...and that was the end of the snorkel session! 

No secret that our exchange rate sucks coconuts. Cos we went rather last minute  - only booked a week before we left, the boat hadn't checked on it's beer stocks. Alcohol is tightly regulated in the Maldives as it's a Muslim country, so beer has to be ordered a while beforehand - not a case of being able to pop over to the bottlo to grab some. The slab was klapped 3/4's the way through the trip, so went on a beer-bumming mission to one of the other charter boats. Tinnies don't come cheap - $60 (R800) buys you 12 beers - thats nearly R70 a pop. Sip slowly.

The trip was coming to a close and we needed to get the boat back up to North Male to get to the airport. Had hoped to have a surf with Brad and Hannah before they left, but unfortunately just missed them - they pulled out the morning we arrived in South Male. The lucky fish are off on a quick mission to the Philippines, before heading home to say "howzit" and then off to their next job surf guiding in Mexico. Eish - tough life!

Got a few surfs in at a mellow lil right, and then quick as you can snap your fingers, the trip was over. On our last day we headed up to North Male just to see if we could pick up a wave there - but arriving at Sultans to find 6 charter boats and 4 resort boats all anchored up, and at one stage 50 peeps in the water - we took one look at it and went "no chance" - so just stuck out the fishing lines and went for a troll instead. 

North Male is crazy crowded, but you can still get the odd session with just you and your crew. But generally speaking expect at least one other boat in the water with you. This all changes if the swell starts cranking - and suddenly the line-ups are empty. The average visiting surfer in North Male isn't all that flash, so one and a half overhead clears the line-up. Double overhead and you'll be one of a handful out there.

'Of course, the day we left the weather settled down, not a cloud in the sky, and a huge swell hit. Arg, don;t you just hate it when that happens! Normally we'd just have extended our trip, but unfortunately the boat had been booked for another charter. Win some, lose some.

Pretty good holiday all in all, weather coulda been better, and swell coulda been bigger in the second week - but hey - boardshort surfs, warm water, fish on the boat, tropical islands and palm tree's always makes for a good trip regardless. 

​Be back again next year (just not in September!)

Here's a couple more shots....

Coupla waves about if you wanted to get wet. All the action was at JBay, with the Billabong SA Junior Champs that were held in some really good surf. NMB Surfriders hooked a 2nd possie overall, as well as the SA u15 girls title (Kirsty McGillivray) and the SA u17 girls title (Crystall Hullett). Props to the NMBS kids for winning the Skull Candy team spirit award. You can check out the full wrap and results here.
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/comp-news/billabong-sa-junior-champs1

Just got back from 2 weeks in the Maldives and was hoping to have a surf with these 2 cats, but unfortunately they left the morning we got up to North Male atoll so we missed 'em. Brad and Hannah have now finished with their 18 month stint as surf guides in the Maldives, and are now on a lil surf mission to the Philippines before a pop back home, and then over to Mexico to begin a stint surf guiding there. Eish - it's a hard life!

Shot to Antony Smyth, the SA team captain, for his 2nd spot at the ISA Adaptive World Games. Some really inspirational performances by all competitors and looks like everyone had a big jol. Recognise that kinda familiar looking dude on the left? Shaun Tomson popped in to give the guys some support.

The newly revamped Boardroom is the perfect possie to go watch the rugger. Big screen TV, braai available for your wors (or just buy one of Smiler's lekker boerie rolls), and a crowd of stoked surfers getting amped on something other than waves. Everyone's welcome, so bring the lighties too. Next game is Wednesday Oct 7th.

Black wetties might be boring as hell - but they sure are a bunch more practical than white wetties! Kolohe Andino sporting his sponno's new suit - which might require some Omo bleach after a coupla sessions.....

No wonder the Slummies ou's are always bemoaning our comparatively inferior waves when they end up based in the bay for varsity or work or whatever. When you're used to views like these must be hard to deal with Pipe on a regular basis...