PE Course Date Saturday 2 December 1 - 6pm, venue TBC
 
So what goes into the Swim Free Confidence Underwater Workshop?
 
I developed this course purely because I wanted to be comfortable surfing bigger waves and know that I could handle the hold downs. The increased capacity did lead to me becoming interested in free diving, which I now also love, but the two activities are very different when it comes to managing your breath hold.
 
In free diving your breath is rarely adrenalised or hypoxic and depth is usually a primary objective. 
 
In surfing you are both hypoxic and adrenalised and depth is is not so much an objective as is surviving the beating. 
 
Lets face it in surfing you are only holding your breath when something has gone wrong ;)
 
It doesn’t matter if your comfort zone is 2ft or 20ft this course will help you relax in the surf because it will make you more confident in what you are able to handle.  In this course I teach people to approach and manage their breath hold so that they can vastly increase their capacity in and under the water. 
 
You DO NOT have to be a big wave surfer or extreme athlete to benefit from this.  The average increase in just 5 hrs is around 100%.
 
Below is a link that explains what I do with this course: 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH4mHejDZsE
 
The course has four fundamental pillars and takes approximately 5 hours to run. 
 
The cost is R750pp.
 
It covers.
 
1. Discovering your mammalian dive reflex and learning how to use it. 

2. Conscious breathing. Breath up, the breath and recovery breath. Remember a lot of this in surfing is hypoxic and adrenalised, which is very different to free diving. 
 
3. Efficiency underwater. We speak a different language down there and the smallest things underwater can make a massive difference. Slow is Pro! When transitioning from above to below the surface we have to learn to press the ‘reset’ button. I run several drills that deal specifically with wipeout and caught inside scenarios as well as how to behave underwater when this happens. 
 
4. Safety. We always do waterwork with a buddy, be conservative, understand contractions and C02, never hyperventilate, understand the difference between blackout (your mammalian dive reflex preventing you from drowning) and drowning by breathing in water. Understand and share deepwater resuscitation , it could save your life!
 
Booking and payment
 
I can accommodate 15 people max on a course. Your full payment in advance confirms your participation. 
 
For your booking reference please use your name and then the letters ‘PE' i.e. 'Joe Soap PE’
 
My bank details are: 
 
John McCarthy OCEAN CHILD
Standard Bank
Cheque: 402086007
Code: 051001
IBAN/SWIFT code: SBZAZAJJ

Just a typical summers week, nothing terribly exciting surf wise, just some lekker days. Summer doldrums kinda vibe. Still can't be complaining about kiff beach weather, despite the absence of surf. Always cool to bring out the boardies and bikini's, and leave the wettie in the garage.

Squid season opening this week and the ou's bailed outta the harbour at St Francis quicker than the Boks can stuff up a try-scoring opportunity.

Never a bad thing to be able to hold your breath longer - specially when you about to wear a  set on the head. Durbs surfer and free dive guru John McCarthy is hosting a Swim Free Confidence Underwater workshop. You definitely don;t have to be a big wave surfer to attend - it's for anyone wanting to be able to hold their breath longer in wipe-out situations.

The average increase in just 5 hrs is around 100%. So sign up and double your underwater time. Learn to love getting tumbled about underwater!

​Date is 2 Dec and cost is R750. All the deets are here: 
http://www.millerslocal.co.za/blog/swim-free-underwater-workshop

Not a week goes by in the bay without some there being a cool sunrise or sunset. This week was no different.

If you missing out on your daily dose of barrels in the bay (well - to call it a daily possibility is probably stretching it!), then how about this as an option? Coolest lil wake-board barrel you can get. Sure there'll be a few ou's on the Krom this holidays trying to get a shot like this.

Anyone wanting to upgrade their stick from boring vanilla white to some rad colours, why not grab some Posca pens. And if your artwork sucks then maybe offer to trade some set waves (or some cash) to local surfers like Andre Clark or Britney Linder who certainly know their way around a pen.

Lazy summer surf free days are good to wander about Cape Recife. Random factoids: The 366 hectare Cape Recife Nature Reserve was proclaimed in 1973, and the lighthouse was built in 1851. It was ​the fourth to be erected by the Cape colonial government, was the first lighthouse constructed in the Port Elizabeth area and is situated on the southern point of Algoa Bay.

Sorry if things are a bit slow in getting updated on the website - but hanging north of the equator at the moment, and the trade-off for being way off the grid is that not always good internet. More than happy to trade lack of connectivity for some schweet peeling waves and only two of us in the water!

Winter isn’t finished with the Eastern Cape quite yet. Some heavy weather started off the week, with plenty of rain, chilly temperatures and generally very un-summer-like conditions. Surfers don’t mind inclement weather – cos if it brings swell – then bring it on! And it did.
​
Started off slow but built up at the end of the week with some solid surf klapping the bay, from Friday into the weekend.

A not-so-secret spot out west fired. It also claimed a few scalps...

Even before the weekend lit up there were some fun one's around.

​On the non-surf days CarPark John can be found honing his table tennis skills at The Boardroom. So careful next time you pop in to get a new stick, you might be challenged to a game. Not being scared of a bit of exercise, the ballie will be spotted most days on the gym equipment at Pipe. No-one’s sure, but talk is that’s he’s in secret training so he can catch the car park skelms and give them a good klap.

​Always like checking out the background in photographs as that’s often where the interesting stuff goes on. This could just look like a shot of the Park Run dudes missioning over the cobbles, but look carefully and there’s a fisherman looking like he has something decent hooked up. Could of course be the (in)famous Africa fish, we all caught a few of those before.

​Here’s a cool shot found by Cat James of the new tramway extension to Hummies. Didn’t look like much swell that day, but check up towards Millers and you’ll see it’s all just dunes still up that way. Hummies was literally and figuratively the end of the line.

​In between acting like winter there were still some beaut days this week. Perfect for a full-on beach lurk. Holidays have already started for some, so the beaches are getting busier. Just keep an eyeball on your stuff though, as plenty unsavoury types masquerading as regular beach goers just waiting to re-appropriate your stuff.

​Some ou’s steal stuff from the beach whilst others make stuff from the beach. Roger Gailey is making some amazing pieces from bits and bobs, how awesome is the driftwood rhino - apparently made by a dude in the Transkei. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

​As often happens when PE cooks it’s a case of everyone and the kitchen sink out there. Meaning a few collisions. Some poor lighties cos his board taken out by a longbooarder, and Big Dave offered to fix it up for him. Unfortunately he didn’t get the kid’s details – so if you recognise the board please tell the owner to grab it from Surf Centre. Thanks Dave Lipschitz for getting it sorted.

​Grant Beck is “working” in Indo at Nihiwatu – famously known as Occy’s Left. He’s been scoring some kiff waves in between “working”  - which is surfing with guests.

​The NSRI have installed pink lifebouys at unmanned beaches along the Eastern Cape Coast. So if you see someone in difficulty at least there’s something to grab to swim out with and assist.

Here's a coupla other random shots from the week that was.

Waves, wind, just another typical PE week! And today's a typical Monday, so in keeping with the fact that no-one's feeling too sharp at the start of the week let's keep it simple and go for a Week that Was which is just pictures - so say thanks to me for saving your valuable brain energy for stuff like work and studying, and instead you can just check out the shots from the week that was without even having to read!

Way back before Shark Rock Pier there was the Dr Muesli Pier. It was built by the municipality in it's first foray into pier-building. The year was 1978, and the local Hobie Cat enthusiasts were freaking out cos their beach was disappearing. So the Beach Manger, Wally Stimpson, had a front end loader go out at low tide and drop a whole bunch of 2 ton cement blocks along the beach between Great Bandle flats and 1st Avenue.

The aim was to break up the surf so the Hobie's could launch safely. Of course lotsa peeps thought this was a kak and unsightly idea! A crew of concerned beach goers, spear-headed by Dr Peter Schwartz, formed the an NGO (the Beachfront Protection Group) to oppose it.  This group was the forefront runner to what is now the Coastal Environmental Trust.

The Beach Front Protection Group pointed out that no hydrological study had been done and that you couldn't just go chuck stuff in the ocean and not understand the consequences of doing so - these were the days before EIA's! Legal action was threatened if the blocks were not removed.