A little while ago I saw an interesting video clip on the web about this guy who was combining art and surfing in his work with lighties in impoverished communities, and getting the lil groms grinning from ear to ear.
Turns out that True Colours founder, Luc van der Walt, is a local surfer from Blue Water Bay – and in a weird coincidence I ended up having a surf with him at Millers the day after I saw the vid. Had no idea who he was as had never seen him out there before, but after we got chatting worked out he was the guy behind the video I’d just watched the day before. Luc’s such an inspiring dude and is doing great stuff in the community that I wanted to catch up with him for a quick interview. Cos surfers doing good stuff is lekker. What’s the focus of True Colours – what do you guys do? We are an ART organisation that paints murals with disadvantaged kids in their communities. We provide them the self-esteem building opportunity to be a part of something big. The kids create a huge vibrant mural with an uplifting message for their own community.
Tell us a bit about the art project for little surfers you guys started?
There are surf outreach organisations all around the coastline of SA. They teach kids from disadvantaged backgrounds how to surf and form little families, surf tribes. The kids are encouraged to attend school and are given all kinds of other opportunities such as art workshops with us. :-) The aim for this project is to raise awareness and funds so more kids can benefit from the sweet life of surfing. The way it works: True Colours cruises around the country doing art workshops with these little surf tribes. The art that is created is then documented and digitally lifted to be adapted for surf board graphics. The plan is to create a beautiful catalog so anyone buying a new board can choose from a range of these unique designs created by the little artists. The catalog will also feature stories of the kids and their organisations. The proceeds are to go back to their organisations so more laaities can benefit from the sweet life of surfing.
You’ve also done some work recently with the lighties at the Aleph surf clubhouse in Jbay…
The Aleph crew, what an awesome bunch of kids. They are the third group that painted with us and represented the Eastern Cape. They painted two murals, one in their clubhouse and one in their community. And what about the spontaneous bit of street art in the Tyhoksi community outside Jbay? Ya, that was super fun. We drove around the neighbourhood looking for a wall that could use a bit of cheering up. We found the perfect one, a wall of a house facing an unhappy playground. The owner of the house was stoked at the idea and after telling one kid what was to go down, within 5 minutes we had 20 eager little faces gazing up at us.
It must be really rewarding to see something drab become something vibrant – are the locals stoked out on the murals?
Ya, the atmosphere was totally transformed. We were stoked, the kids were super stoked and the locals were so stoked that they asked us to come back and paint on their houses to. Am guessing it isn’t hard to find willing artists? Must be super fun working with the groms Kids are always stoked to paint and it’s a pleasure to work with such happy, eager and creative individuals. They are also super cute and say the most hilarious things, often myself and volunteers are crying with laughter.
How did you get involved in street art and community art?
After a degree in fine-art and a year or two in the Cape Town Art scene, I decided to travel the world. I painted murals in Backpackers and hostels to support my search for perfect waves. The murals were spotted by an organisation, apt-ART, that specialises in painting with kids affected by conflict. I hopped on board and traveled around painting murals with them for about three years before starting ‘True Colours - ART to uplift’ here in SA. When we were chatting in the surf you’ve mentioned you’ve been involved in art projects all over I have been to very interesting places. For example Congo. Here we partnered with the organisation War Child, painting murals with orphans in Goma and Kinshasa. We also painted with children displaced by the conflict in rebel territories. That was super rad and exciting. Another interesting place was in the Zatary refugee camp in Jordan on the boarder of Syria. An amazing experience. I have just recently finished a project in Turkey. Working with the Karam foundation who is doing such amazing work for the refugee children living in one of the border towns.
Any interesting project’s planned for the near future?
The next phase of the surf project is to get the more eager and talented kids to work their magic directly onto the boards. The phase after that is to launch the catalog I mentioned with exhibitions showcasing the best works, stories and arty pics of the project. Planing to exhibit in Cape Town, J-Bay and Durbs. If the project is a success we are planing to work with a lot more groups in SA and even move up into Africa, maybe even go to South America, India and Indo. We are always doing other community projects on the side and developing new ideas. One idea is have a big group of interns come in and learn from us, then split up into teams with the aim to paint with kids in all the orphanages in SA. If peeps are keen to get involved with your projects what can they do and how can they go about it? Well, True Colours is brand new and is always looking to add to its team of super stoked and skilled individuals. If what we do inspires you, we'd love to have you onboard. Email me anytime. We are all volunteering our time and skills for free and sometimes out of pocket. Any financial or material donations will be ultra-appreciated. We believe that ART should be fun and free for everyone. So if you keen to help out with your time, or are able to donate materials, please give Luc a holler on: [email protected] Shot to local surfer Andre Venter from Decor Pro for already getting involved and donating paint, and to Lippie for offering free use of his Surf Centre boards when Luc wants to do some lessons with the lighties. Images by Kayoko Shutoh & Luc van der Walt Definitely a summer week. Bit of swell still hanging about on Monday, but things went downhill from there. Some beaut days, just not a lot of waves to go with the lekker weather and bath-tub water. Hopefully every banked a few sessions, cos looking at the charts there isn't a hang of a lot coming the way of the bay for a while now, just whatever the east can whip up, or take some trips round the corner. Bit of drama off Cape Recife on Thursday night. Wondered what was going on after the 100th siren screamed past. Turns out a cray boat had taken on water off Cape Recife and eventually sank. But thanks to some mighty fine work by all the rescue personnel - NSRI, SAAF with their choppers & Coastal Water Rescue, they managed to save all 25 crew in what was some pretty gnarly conditions - onshore and big swells. Respect! Love a lekker cabbie, and what's better than a lekker board in a lekker cabbie? The ou's from the Dutchmann did a lil roadtrip from Jozi down to Durbs to collect their new stick from Safari Surf. They have a collab going with Spider Murphy - you can check it out here http://dutchmann.co.za/black.php Did mention to the Dutchmann that he might end up with 2 shortboards pretty pronto if he drove around like that, or at least a kiff pressure ding on the deck - but he tuned all good at 40km/h but things got sketchy at 120! Both the car (911T) and the board (retro twinnie) are beauts. Might just need some roofracks though.... (but hey, if you rocking a GP number plate you can get away with stuff like that!) End of the competitive year so WSL Africa released the results of the local series, which saw JBay surfers doing really well. Dylan hooked a first in the Pro Junior Men, and Matt 5th; with Dylan, Matt and Remi getting 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the Men's. Faye got a second in the Women's division, and Gina a 2nd in the Pro Junior Women. Good stuff! Some more drama later in the week when I spotted some muppet diefing a groms bag off the beach at Millers and making a duck. Had just got back from a surf and was checking out the window to make sure it hadn't got any better in the 5 min's since I got out, and saw a dodgy dude standing on the dunes in the drizzle. I'd seen the lighties had left their bags below the wall at Millers, as they got in just as I was getting out. So knew he might be eye'ing them out. Next thing he walks back down the dune, behind a tree....and walks out wearing different clothes! Huh!? Gonna watch this ou...up to no good! So he ambles back to Millers and stands about on the beach for about 20 min acting like nothings up, throwing stones into the sea etc. Finally a decent lil set came through, after which everyone was paddling back out with no eye's on the beach. Dude saw his gap and grabbed the bag and ran back over the dune. Did a quick check of the contents, skyfed the phone and bucks, and ran back to his tree - did another quick change job back into his original clothes, and then calmly walked off. All he needed was a phone box and he coulda been Superman.... The cops had actually just been doing a drive-through at Millers and had seen him grab the bag whilst they were on the deck at the car park. But when they walked down the boardwalk towards Hobie to investigate he'd already done his clothes change so he walked past them un-noticed. Ran downstairs n over the road to tell him they'd just walked right past the ou, so luckily they managed to pick him up as he was walking back towards Pipe. Stuck him in the van and off to chookie hopefully. Grom got his stuff back, so was stoked. Hopefully everyone will now know what this dodgy dude looks like and can chase him away if you see him hanging about. He can buzz off from our beachfront and go be a scumbag somewhere else. Best bet is to not leave anything on the beach these days. Unless you don't mind it going AWOL. Good week for Bruce Irons - first he gets signed by RVCA, and then he scores the wildcard for Pipe. He's still a phenomenal surfer despite being off the radar for a while. Could make things interesting at Pipe for those with their eye's on the World Title. If Pipe's firing he could easily knock a few seeds out. So let's hope we see Second Reef peaking. We might have pirates for car-guards (thanks to Merv kitting out Chris with full Jack Sparrow regalia), but looks like Aussie's go one better. Ex-PE local and now South Aussie local, Pottie, found this ou looking after his cabbie and seeming to be pretty insistent about getting a tip. Ending off with some lekker pics from the week that was. Never forget we live in a beaut lil spot.
Not much during the week, but the weekend pumped - both wind and waves. Solid 16 second groundswell lit up the bay and all the spots to the west. Not without consequence. Wes snapped a leash and cut his foot at solid Supers, making his possie look like a murder scene. Let's back-track a bit - The wind pomped on Tuesday - which saw an interesting reversal of roles for the Lightfoot family. Dad Gary grabbed his windsurfer and hit the windy waves, whilst son Dylan sat and got a few snaps of pop doing his thing. Wednesday was an absolute beaut of a day - hardly any wind, water warm enough for baggies if you wanted to trunk it and some lil waves in the bay. The awesome conditions meant there were plenty peeps floating about by late arvo. Dirk popped down to Pipe to get some snaps. You can see em all here. Saturday saw the Soul Surf Classic go down in some kiff waves; although the weather was a bit grim the guys were frothing on putting some vintage boards through their paces. Pre-80's boards that had been stuck up in the rafters and the dusty corners of garages got a lil outing. For those flat summer days when you just wanna do some exercise but there's no waves. No prob - head down to King's Beach where you can use the new galvanized gym equipment to bash out a few crunches and dips and pull ups. Stronger ab's equals better turns. Jean Trefson spent a coupla days a while ago in St Francis photographing and filming the chokka spawning aggregations. They found a huge egg bed with thousands of spawning squid as well as lots of ragged tooth sharks and stingrays cruising around looking for an easy meal. Jean said "The dirty surface water layer and overcast conditions made it seriously dark and green at the bottom and the fact that the eggs and squid were deep at around 35m meant limited bottom times and mandatory decompression stops at 6m on the way up. Although this dive was definitely one of the highlights of my 25 years of diving, the 15 minute stop in water so dirty that you can hardly see your own fins was a very lonely experience and it felt like a lifetime before being allowed to surface. Halfway through my last stop I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck and I started to get seriously edgy, although I could not see anything (or maybe because of it). After what felt like an eternity I surfaced and climbed into the boat and the others both said they had felt the same thing. Rick Harding and several other fisheries scientists and researchers were also in the area in a research vessel and after we were finished they put their ROV into the water to film and map the egg beds we had been diving on. Both on the way down and up the cameras on the ROV filmed a curious great white that was checking out the intruder to its territory. In hindsight I'm almost certain that we were all visited by this shark during our various deco stops, and although none of us saw it, we certainly "felt" its presence nearby! Never a dull moment in the ocean..." Jordy's back. At last. After an extended injury run he'll be hitting the water for the 3 Van's Triple Crown events - including the Pipe Masters. Not only is he hitting the water - he's hitting the cover to - of the latest Surfers Journal. Sasha Spex Specker nailed an awesome shot of him powering through a rail turn. Nothing beats a fresh stick. Well, maybe 2 fresh sticks. A pair of his 'n hers Greg Smith Gobblers getting ready for our Indo trip. Stevo in JBay does some lekker board sprays, cos nothing is more boring than a white board. Get your summer stick orders in to one of our local shapers asap, cos Greg, Thys, Eric and Deno are gonna have order books chokka block for the Christmas rush so get in early so you have your stick in the water before Santa comes. If you cruising past the beachfront and spot Makoy's bright orange food truck, then pop in to grab a kiff chow. Dewald makes some really good food, street food with a twist, and with the best ingredients in the biz. Plus he's a surfer. So support a bro. Next Saturday is the Women on Water event at Denvils. It's open to ladies of all ages who'd like to learn to surf in a fun, friendly environment. From groms to grannies, you're all welcome. It's free, and boards and suits are provided by Surf Centre, but if you have your own wettie do bring it along. Things will kick off at 8am with some gentle stretching & warm-up's by physio Marelize Dalton, and then the qualified surf instructors will take you out for a surf lesson, and plenty of laughs. RSVP to Sandy Coffey if you keen - [email protected] (Denvils is the small beach next to McArthur Baths, opposite Dolphins Leap Centre) More details here http://www.millerslocal.co.za/comp-news/women-on-water If you're land-locked in Jozi at the moment and desperate for a bit of surf stoke, hook up with the JoBurg Boardriders this coming weekend. The guys are gonna get together for some skating, a beer, and chat with fellow wave-starved surfers. You can even win a Safari surfboard - which would then make you even more amped to bail the big smoke for the coast. Steve Sawyer did a gig after the Soul Surf Classic at the Cork Wine Garden on Saturday night, playing some tunes from his album, Summer Daze. Amazingly talented musician, and some beautiful songs. Go grab one of Steve's CD's from Surf Centre for R100 - and support Steve in getting to the Longboard World Champs in China. Double whammy - you help a fellow Oos-Kaap local to represent his country, and you score some kiff tunes. And that's the wrap for the week. Ending off with another of Deon Lategan's beautiful shots....
There are 6 surfers in with a shot at claiming the 2015 World Title. Mick Fanning, current no. 1 sits at the top of the pile, followed by World No. 2 Filipe Toledo, World No. 3 Adriano de Souza, and No. 4, reigning World Champion Gabriel Medina. And although Julian Wilson and Owen Wright were eliminated early in Portugal, either could theoretically take the title in Hawaii if Mick bows out early. If Mick wins at Pipe he takes the title. So it's an even match between the Aussies and the Brazzo's for top spot, with 3 from each country in the mix. Although it's pretty much Mick vs Brazil for the title cos Owen & Julian are such outside chances.
And if Toledo beats Mick in the final to take the win - will he forever be remembered as the champ that was too chicken to take off at Chopes? Cos he infamoulsy wrote himself into pro surfing history by not catching a single wave in a heat at heaving Teahupoo earlier this year (and later coming up with a lame excuse about having a sore elbow). Let's hope Pipe is as big and perfect as it gets, and sorts out the men from the boys. Most surfers have a love/hate relationship with mussels - we know they're important critters for the ecosystem balance, but there's nothing funny about having to negotiate a reef packed full of them when you making your way into or out of the surf. If you've seen ou's wondering about on the rocks at Supers at low tide, with pegs and tape, they're part of a crew helping out with some Intertidal Reef Research between Boneyards and Lower point. They're sussing out the health of the mussels along this stretch of reef. Cos happy mussels generally means happy reef. Mussels are important dudes and play a key role in aquatic environments and are considered to be "ecosystem engineers" cos they modify aquatic habitat, making it more suitable for themselves and other organisms. The lil black feet-shredders shlurp up organic matter from the water column which they siphon, processing it to build their body and shell, and then flush out any left-over nutrients - which are then immediately available to nearby plant life, fish and invertebrates to chow. Mussels feed entirely on plankton, and have to filter up to 65 litres of water a day to get enough food for themselves. During this feeding process, the mussels "clean" the water they live in by removing phytoplankton and the bacteria and fungi that are attached to the non-living organic particles they have removed from the water column. Other not-so-lekker particles and chemicals are then bound in the mussels' poop and deposited on the sea floor. The mussel's shells are a nice possie for algae and insect larvae to attach to, so when mussels are present in large numbers, they may become like underwater gardens that in turn attract fish to feed in the area. Reefs with healthy mussel populations will be cleaner and more attractive, so it's important to understand their distribution and population numbers, identify what impacts them and to evolve our knowledge of them. Tiaan Hoeben, who is conducting the research, is a Nature conservation student from NMMU-George campus who's busy with his final year of practical at the Supertubes Surfing Foundation. The one's Tiaan is keeping an eye on are the Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and Brown mussel (Perna perna) on the inter-tidal reefs. What's been happening recently is that lots of mussels are getting washed-up on shore and there is no logical explanation for this is happening. Hopefully the research might provide some answers. Some of the objectives of Tiaan's study include making Jeffreys Bay a marine protected area/ World surfing Heritage site; to determine mussel population size & structure; and any changes to these over time and to detect threats on mussel populations, and the impact of these. Tiaan's research will cover the reef from Boneyards down to Point, a distance of 1.5km. Measurments will take place on 6 week cycle, every spring-low tide.
The next Survey will take place on 25 and 26 November 2015. So the next time you see dudes with sticks and tape and clipboards clambering around the reef throw them a shaka to say thanks for looking after the health of your surf spot. The week started out with a pretty spectacular sunrise, but unfortunately it was one of those weeks where the sunrises and sunsets were far more impressive than the surf! Conditions were pretty perfect the whole week - light winds, glorious sunshine, but bogger all waves in the bay (unless you knew some sneaky spots, and even then it was tiny). Travel further west and you know the story - always bigger up the coast... CarPark John has been upgraded from just being available on tap to now getting it's own bottle. Rumour has it you might start seeing it pop up your favourite watering holes soon. Move over Heinekin - CPJ gonna be sponsoring the next world cup... From World Cups to World Champs - CT local Jared Houston won the World Bodyboarding title - and ended up with a trophy almost bigger than he is. Things were pretty tense cos he got knocked out early in the last comp and had to sit there biting his nails til the wild card ou wiped out his main rival and the title was his. Here's hoping Jordy takes note and makes a plan to win us a surfing world title soon. At least he's back in the water now after a prolonged absense due to injury. He'll be surfing all 3 event sin the Van's Triple Crown. A couple more of these cute lil critters washed up on the beach at JBay again during the week. If you spot them, pop em in a container with a little bit of sand a a teeny bit of water, then get them through to Bayworld in PE, who will look after them til they big enough to be set free. This lil dude is only 4cm long. If you have any bust boards - consider donating them to the Supertubes Surfing Foundation, as they can be re-purposed into signboards to remind peeps to keep off the dunes. The SSF guys do a great job of looking after the beachfront area along the famous point, planting vegetation, keeping the decks and boardwalks sorted, and trying to keep the dunes stable by keeping ou's off them. Friday evening saw the PE surf community pack out the Boardwalk Amphitheater to watch John John Florence's View from a Blue Moon. Crikey, that kid can surf! Impressive movie with some insane cinematography and kiff soundtrack. Always lekker to watch surfing on the big screen. Shot to Brett Hoppe from the Boardwalk for arranging the venue, and to the Zag, Hurley, Monster Energy and Stance peeps for the giveaways & prizes. Reckon PE proved to the surf industry peeps that we shouldn't be ignored in future! Here's holding thumbs more premieres come our way. Saturday dawned a lekker day - and the stage for the Guinness World Record attempt at the Longest Surf Marathon was set. Josh Enslin took to the surf at 12h00 - and proceeded to rip it to shreds for the next 30 hours and 11 min, catching 455 waves, collecting R30k worth of donated goods for charity, and claiming the new World Record - awesome effort Josh - PE is so proud of you bru! Check out the wrap and all the shots here: http://www.millerslocal.co.za/millerslocals-blog/josh-breaks-the-world-record Spotted some rad fins on my newsfeed and went to check the page out, Ace Fins. They do custom artwork on fins. Decided they'd make a kiff Christmas pressie for my husband. Ordered a set of Spongebob's (long story) and they came out insane. So if you looking for a novel present for the surfer in your life, a set of customised fins is not a bad option. They're really decent fibreglass fins, nice and stiff, and you can choose from a coupla different FCS templates. Yet another shark incident in Aus - again at Ballina - which has seen a number this year. Guy was bitten on the thigh, thankfully wasn't too serious other than a bunch of stitches and a nice munch mark on his board. The Aussie government is considering putting up nylon eco-barriers at the beach, which will run from the seabed to the water's surface, and from shoreline to shoreline, to create a protected enclosure for swimming/surfing. While the nets separate swimmers from sharks, they do not capture sharks or other marine life as other nets can. Get up close and personal with BIG WAVE SURF Champion, Waterman supreme, all round Adventurer and amazing dude, Chris Bertish, on 17th Dec. He's hosting the launch of his book, Stoked, at the Boardroom. R50 entrance Fee. Cash Bar. RSVP as seats are limited. Call Sandy Coffey on 0832657804 for more info.
Take a bow Josh Enslin - you are the new Guinness World Record Holder for the Longest Surfing Marathon! Flipping bloody awesome! Local is lekker, but yoh, when it's world record local it's as lekker as it gets! In his 30 hours 11 min in the water Josh caught 455 waves on his 5ft9 Dennis Ellis thruster, and collected R30 000 worth of donated goods (food, blankets, clothes, surf equipment) for the Cyoh Surf Club's Charity Drive. Respect! Josh hit the water at 12h00 on Saturday, with a big crowd of supporters at the beach to cheer him on, and a big Nixon watch to keep time on proceeding. Plenty of nervous energy around for the marathon task ahead. We've all clocked in long surf sessions - but nothing like Josh was about to attempt! Late arvo and he had to come in to grab a hoodie (and a kiss!) and some gloves to get ready for the all-night stint in the water. The wind was on it, which made things pretty nippy despite the warm water temp. The CYOH Surf Club crew were there in full support of their man, with the guys behind the admin table to keep count of all the official stuff like number of waves caught, and rest times etc. They also made sure that there were always a coupla guys in the water with Josh for moral support. The sun set, but the supporters stayed put. Coupla tents went up on the beach, a few bottles of OB's circulated to keep the spirits up. Some of the groms took the night shift duties and took turns in the water with Josh. Dawn broke on Sunday morning and with it some kiff clean lil waves. Despite a whole night's surfing Josh was still ripping the peelers to pieces. No stand n straight to the beach for him, uh uh, snap, smash, carve - he was on it. Powering like a machine. With wings from Red Bull! Plenty happening on the beach - DJ's pumping out some beats, volleyball net, guys chilling on the deck. Conditions weren't too bad early Sunday morning, but then PE did what it's famous for. Wind. Lots of it. The wind pomped midday Sunday - like only PE can. Nelson Mandela Waai - not baai. No worries - just chuck on a pair of goggles to keep the sand out ya eye's, and keep going. Just to make sure Josh had to contend with every condition imaginable, the rain blew in late arvo - but no probs, wet already. Finally the minutes and hours ticked away and the record was broken - and then smashed! He wanted to keep going, but his mates spoke some sense into him and he decided to hit the beach. The ou's went mal as their new World Record holder left the water for the last time, carried on his dad's shoulders. Champagne and hoots and hollers, perfect ending to a marathon undertaking. An incredible achievement, and hopefully a record that'll stand for a long time. Well done Josh on being the new record holder and putting PE on the map. Big up's to the whole CYOH crew who supported their man the whole way through the event. Shot to all the sponsors who made the event possible, Billabong, Chevrolet, Ivor Smith Electrical, Cape Courts & Civils, Green Secure, Trauma Net, Lifestyle Contractors, Surge Point Pictures, Innerview Film Art, Nutritech, Nixon, VonZipper, DPI Sign Industries, PEFSA X-Tra Foam, The Boardroom, The Boardtalk and Nelson Mandela Boardriders You're a legend Josh - well done bru!
And big up's to your lady, Shelley Wells - cos behind every good man is a good woman! Josh Enslin, one of PE's most dedicated surfers, needs our support this Saturday and Sunday. He'll be hitting the surf this weekend to try break the Guinness World Record for the longest surf session. He needs to surf for more than 29 hours and 27 minutes to claim the title. The attempt is not only about claiming the record, but also a charity drive for a number of worthy causes in and around the PE area. "There will be a massive donation drive alongside the record attempt,” says Josh. “We will be gathering and donating old surf equipment and old wetsuits and blankets and canned food that Cyoh Surf Club will donate to underprivileged surfers around our surf community, and we will be donating blankets and canned food to the street children of Port Elizabeth.” So pull in to Pollock beach and support Josh, and bring what you can to support the charity drive. Double whammy goodness. Josh hits the water at 12h00 on Saturday. So come grab some lunch down at the beachfront and come give him a yell. If you're wondering what all the nitty gritty criteria for such a record would be. So in a nutshell Josh has to do the following:
Longest surfing marathon Record definition
Rules for Longest surfing marathon 1. The participant may use any traditional design of surfboard, though not one that has been modified significantly for the purposes of the attempt. 2. They may change surfboards through out the attempt but only during rest breaks unless a board is damaged. 3. A wet suit (or dry suit) may be worn. 4. While we accept that the paddle-in and waiting for a rideable wave are and integral part of surfing, however, apart from rest breaks a substantial percentage of the time must be spent actively surfing and we will not accept any claim where there are long pauses between any element (paddle-out and surfing the wave). 5. The rest breaks (as per the marathon guidelines) are the only time during the attempt when the surfer may leave the water. Rules for 'endurance marathon' records • The attempt must take place in a public place or in a venue open to public inspection. • The record is measured in days, hours, minutes and seconds. • No person under the age of 16 may attempt this record. Documentary evidence of permission must be provided for any participants who are between 16-18 years. • A detailed log book outlining the progress of the attempt, including rest breaks and witness changeovers, must be created. • Rest breaks do still count towards the final total length of time for the record. However, it is not permitted to add any remaining rest time available to the total at the end of the attempt. If you are approaching the end of the attempt and still have rest break time left over, you must take it and then resume the game before calling an end to the attempt in order for that time to be included. Rest breaks a. Rest breaks are the only point where the claimant may stop performing the activity during the attempt. b. Rest breaks are the only time the claimant can take a bathroom break or sleep during the attempt. They may consume food and drink while the record is in progress, but this must not disrupt the flow of the attempt. c. The following acts as a guide of how you must calculate and monitor rest breaks. In simple terms, you are allowed 5 minutes rest for every continuously completed hour of activity. These can be accumulated to give, for example, 20 minutes worth of rest time after 4 full hours of activity. If you do a shift of 4 hours 30 minutes activity without stopping, you have still only accumulated 20 minute as only completed hours count. d. Any rest time that has been accumulated can be taken in full or in part at the discretion of the participant(s) at the appropriate time. Any unused rest time can then be carried forward to be taken at a future time during the attempt. However any unused rest time cannot be added to the end of the attempt when it is completed. e. Rest breaks must be documented in a log book maintained by the independent witnesses at the attempt. The week started off with a bang, with some solid east swell pulling through early on Monday morning. Definitely a case of the early birds got the worms, as the swell died off (and the wind picked up) as the day progressed. Zero crowd factor early on thanks to everyone having to be at work, varsity or school. Frigging love Monday swells! And then came Tuesday - more of the same. Pity an annoying devil wind popped up just after 8 to mess things up for a while. Swung round mid-morning and all the low tide spots fired. Swell dropped during the course of the day though, and by evening was pretty much cheers. But for every ying there's a yang. Plenty of sand meant a few sucky sections. And sometimes sucky sections turn yucky. And eat your board. The only ou's happy when that happens are the local board shapers. Cha-ching. If you didn't get wet on Monday or Tuesday, pretty sure plenty of your mates were rubbing it in. What's worse than missing out on the swell? Missing out on it when you can see it. Like when you stuck up in the sky and can see the lines beneath you just rolling in. So close yet so far. The easterly swells seemed to do a bit more than give us some surf. Also dislodged a pair of sunnies which has obviously been living on the reef for a while judging by the barnacles on the lenses. Not too surf how they ended up out there!? Barnacles are interesting lil critters. Once they glue themselves onto a possie they there to stay. Which means picking up chicks can be tricky. No probs - Mr Barnacle has his testes on the back of his head, and the largest d*ck to body size ratio of the animal kingdom. Gotto love nature! Wonder if the ou on the right lenses can ka-foefal with the chick on the left one? The party ended on Wednesday though, when a pomping SE churned the sea into a spastic washing machine. Even the kiters were scarce. Cape town also got properly klapped by the beasterly easterly - with it whipping up the ocean surface into spray clouds. Dungeons was spitting - even though it was flat! Eina, Christmas shopping started early with some skelms breaking into Grant Beck's Billabong van over the weekend and diefing a whole stack of stuff. If you get someone offering you wetties, EP rashvests, Billabong caps or Dakine duffel bags at a good price, re-arrange his dental work then give Grant a holler. The rest of the week surf-wise was a non-event compared to the start. However a bit of sealife action out at CSF kept ou's on their toes. A finned friend was spotted snacking on a seal just off Full Stop on Friday arvo. No doubt long gone out the line-up, but the point is that there's a bit of activity around at the moment so just be alert when you out there. This is the time of year for more near-shore sightings as the grey suits are cruising inshore for munchies. NMBS held their annual prizegiving and AGM at the Boardwalk on Friday evening. Shot to all the winners, and huge thanks to the committee for their tireless work. Without them, surfing wouldn't happen in this province, so throw em a big shaka. Props to Billabong and Boardwalk for their support of NMB Surfing. Kiff trophies designed by Merv, Barry and Irma. The big industry news of the week was that Dane's quit Quick. Despite still having a few years to run on his contract he's opted out of the sinking ship. Chances are RVCA are gonna do a wheelspin trying to sign him cos he fits their brand like a glove. So it actually means he won;t be leaving Quik after all. Kind of. Cos RVCA is owned by Billabong, who's owned by Oaktree, who are the ou's trying to buy Quik. So same same but different. JBay surf coach Shannon Ainslie is over in Sri Lanka for a stint on the south coast there. In between the fun warm- water waves and endless days on the beach he's discovered there are some pretty weird fruits hanging about. Red banana's anyone? Rule #1 - do not piss off an ou with 420k instagram followers. Jet Blue mutilated JJF's board on a recent flight, and then had the audacity to tell him it wasn't their fault. As if boardbags just randomly disintegrate at 30 000ft!? BUt their arrogance/disinterest quickly became a solid kick in the ass when John John's post got over 20k likes and social media lit up with Jetblue firmly in the firing line. Would've been soooo much easier just to acknowledge the damage and pay him some bucks. Muppets. (and what the furry thing is at the bottom of the bag? No idea! Unless some ou's head photobombed the shot) The pomping wind lashing rain combo during the week gave rise to some interesting natural sand art out at Cape Recife. Luc came across a mini version of Arizona, with it's canyon's and mesa's (see, remembered something from Geography class!) whilst taking a stroll near the lighthouse. Jamie Bell was uber-stoked with his kiff haul from Billabong after winning the ML Fantasy Surfer comp. Gotto be in it to win it ou's! The pier been re-opened for a week now, so plenty of lekker shots doing the rounds. What's disheartening is that some muppets have already scrawled their initials into the woodwork. If you spot anyone doing that give em a good clip on the ear. Be careful if you wanna leap off the pier - now monitored by CCTV and you could grab yourself a R750 fine. Clear your diaries for Friday! Pull in to the Boardwalk Amphitheatre to check out the raddest surf movie of the year. The premiere of John John Florence's much-awaited View from a Blue Moon will be showing in all it's huge HD glory - you don't wanna miss it! Doors open at 18h30, so get there early to grab a good seat. Show starts at 19h00. Free entry - so bring all your mates. Gonna be kiff prizes and giveaways. Chow and drinks available. Be lekker if we can pack out the Amphitheater (500 seats) and show the surf industry peeps that PE isn't such a hick town and we shouldn't get missed out on all the time when it comes to premiere's. Took a bit of nagging, and Brett Hoppe from the Boardwalk sponsoring the event, to make it happen - so let's make sure we host the biggest premiere in the country and kick CT's and Durbans butt. Cos #localislekker For those wanting to grab a chow before the movie - Kiff special at Craft on Friday arvo - the gourmet burger & craft beer joint in the Boardwalk. Buy 2 get 2 free. Runs until 18h00. Next weekend see's Josh Enslin's attempt at taking the Guiness World Record for the Longest Surf session. Josh has to surf for 29 hours 27 minutes to break the record. Come down to Pollock Beach on Saturday and Sunday to give him a shout.
In conjunction with the world record attempt, the CYOH will have a charity drive where old wetsuits, blankets and canned foods and pet food will be collected and distributed to local non-profit organisations in the bay. So bring what you can to help out. Summers here, which means flip flop season has started. Chuck off the socks and takkies, and pull on the plakkies. Ever wondered where your flip flops came from? Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway... The name "flip flop" comes from the sound the sandals make when they slap between the sole of your foot and the floor. The first ou's to rock slops were the Ancient Egyptians in 4000 BC, as there're murals in their tombs depicting them. What we know as the modern flip flop gained popularity in the States after the end of World War II. They are derived from the Japanese zōri, which were worn by lil kids learning to walk. Returning soldiers brought them back to the US with them as souvenirs. They then became even more popular after soldiers returned from the Korean War in the 1950s with them. During the postwar boom, Americans started to design flip flops in new bright colors and patterns, wearing them for their convenience and comfort. In the 1960s, they became primarily known as a part of the casual beach lifestyle of California. A flip flop isn't a flip flop all over the world. In Aus they're called thongs, the Kiwi's call them jandals (short for "Japanese sandals"), and we call em slops (or plakkies). Not every country has the plastic fantastic version - the Masai tribe from Kenya make their flip-flops out of rawhide, while in some parts of India they were made out of wood. In China and Japan, rice straw was used back in the day and in South America, sisal plant leaves were used to make twine for the footwear. Slops weren't always a next to the big toe thing. The Ancient Greeks had it right and wore the toe strap between their 1st and 2nd toes. But the Ancient Romans wore the strap between the 2nd and 3rd toes and the Mesopotamians wore it between the 3rd and 4th toes. Just doesn't seem right, hey? Havaianas, a classic and well-known brand, was created in 1962 in Brazil by the country's largest footwear brand Alpargatas. In the beginning, there was nothing glamorous about them at all. They were created for the poorest peeps of Brazilian society and became known as a symbol of poverty and indicator of status. The rubber flip-flop was a simple solution to Brazil's economic state in the ‘60s. They had millions of poor people, and needed a basic and inexpensive shoe that suited its tropical climate. Alpargatas saw the gap in the market, and inspired by the “zori” slippers worn in Japan, the first Havaianas were created as an affordable shoe to for an overwhelmingly vast impoverished population. The shoes were widely distributed across favelas and low-income communities. They were even deemed a basic necessity provided by the government. The name Havaianas is Portuguese for Hawaiians. Nowadays more than 150 million pairs of flipflops are being produced every year. And it seems like 140 million of them wash up on tropical islands! Whenever we go to the Maldives we're amazed by the number of solo slops that are washed up on the beaches. Ocean Sole in Kenya have a unique solution to the problem of the washed up flops - they're turning them into art, kid's toys and jewelry. They employ over 70 peeps. So proof that one mans trash is another's treasure. If your slops blow out - don't just chuck em out. Turns out they pretty easy to fix. Pull the thong out? No probs - grab one of those bread clip thingy's, and just slip it, with the slit oriented downward, around the toe post. This creates more backing so the toe post doesn’t pull through the hole. The base on the toe post needs to be there for this method to work. If the base has pulled off, still no problem: all you need is a safety pin or paper clip (or any thin piece of wire). Pop the toe post back through the slop, then push the safety pin into the toe post and close the pin. Get the safety pin as centered as possible so you create a large base. Otherwise straighten out a large paper clip and do the same thing. As with everything, things evolve. Nowdays you can get slops that open beers for you, although it helps to be careful where you step. Doggy doo on your shoe isn't gonna encourage you to go snap the top off your Heinie. Say thanks to Mick Fanning for that inspired creation. You can also carry a coupla tots of your favorite tipple inside the heel of your Reef Dram Sandals. Four generous shots of courage afoot wherever you may roam so they say. Just not sure if foot-odored whizzo's is everyone's cuppa tea. Reef Sandals is one of the most popular sandal companies in the world. Argentine bro's Fernando and Santiago Aguerre created the brand back in 1984. They were frothing local surfers, and owned a shop in Argentina, but eventually moved to San Diego, where Reef would take off thanks to some pretty smart marketing idea's. Using bums to sell slops worked like a bomb! Any ou who read surf mags in the 80's and 90's will remember those ads fondly. No more faceless bums for Reef these days - now they sponsor surfing bums. Alana Blanchard has Reef on her feet. Slops for the beach are one thing, but ever imagine running a marathon in them? Keith Lavasseur finished the Baltimore marathon in 29th place out of 3,024 runners within a brisk two hours, 46 minutes and 58 seconds -- all while wearing his Reef sandals. Respect! You're probably worked out that slops aren't so lekker to drive in. Turns out the Spanish authorities agree, and it's illegal to wear flip-flops in Spain whilst driving. The stats reckon around 1.4 million road traffic collisions are caused each year from people wearing flip-flops. Some researchers reckon that flip flops aren't so lekker for your feet. Ou's from Auburn University say that when you wear flip-flops, you tend to scrunch your toes to keep the flip-flop on your foot while your heel is lifted in the air. This motion, the researchers report, “stretches the plantar fascia, the connective tissue that runs from heel to toe, causing inflammation, pain along the sole, heel spurs and tired feet in general.”
Furthermore, according to the Auburn team, the flip-flop wearers they studied noticeably “altered their gait, taking shorter strides and turning their ankles inward, likely to keep the flip-flop from falling off.” Long-term ankle and hip problems could result - you've been warned! But hey, nothing beats wearing slops! |
AuthorMillerslocal Archives
July 2021
|