 This week was all about the Corona Open at Jbay. Thankfully the comp got blessed with some really lekker conditions and there was plenty of awesome surfing going down. JBay as usual puts on a great show and well done to Koffie and the manne for making it such a slick gig. Just wish Billabong could get the naming rights back - just rolls off the tongue so much easier to say watching the Billabong, instead of Corona Open JBay.!
Local surfer fans were making the most of the opportunity to get some shots with their hero's. A chick in a purple wettie was stoked to be able to get a shot with the legendary Dennis Eliis, and some dude with a bok-baardjie was just frothing to get a picture with the one and only Car Park John.
Dusty was bitten by a shark whilst surfing Port Alfred on Wednesday morning. Thankfully he is doing well and after coming through to hospital in PE, he’s all stitched up and clean. But he's got a long road ahead of him and the Kowie Boardriders Club want to encourage peeps to contribute donations towards his hospital bills. Any little bit helps! It's estimated costs will be approx R140k in total (hospital bills as well as the recovery/rehab ahead). Wishing Dusty a speedy recovery and hope he gets back in the water soon! You can check out the crowd funding link here: https://gogetfunding.com/help-dusty/ 
It's not only sharks that are dangerous in the water - it turns out surf schools are pretty dangerous too! Dave Lippie was out at Point during the week and a beginner had the stupidity/bravery (take your pick) to paddle right in front of him as he took off - anyone that's seen Dave "leap" to his feet will know this is a maneuver definitely designed to curtail your genetic potential. Some rather gnarly board damage but thankfully no body damage. Not sure that a crowded line-up at Point is the best place for beginners or surf schools. Back in the day we all had to learn on crappy waves at a random outta-the-way surf spot in town til we got competent enough to be unleashed in a crowd.
Although all the attention was on JBay for the week, there were still rides in town.  © James Jones  Avo's slide © Riaan Vermaak Also some nice rides north of the equator - Josh Suanders has a short term gig as a surf guide in the Telo Islands and is making the most of some warm water waves.  The view from the hill never gets old. The mini surf city that is set up each year for the JBay Open is pretty impressive. Must surely be one of the best venues in the world for a WSL contest.  © Trevor Hansen Alfonso got to hang with the legendary Sal Masekela. Wish they'd get Sal in the booth permanently for the commentary as he's heaps better than most of the other ou's, having done XGames and ESPN's surfing for many years. Sal is planning to spend more time in SA going forward (he's just applied for dual citizenship) and plans to get involved with development surfing.
Sad to see that the oil spill in Algoa Bay last week resulted in lots of oiled sea birds being brought in to Sancob. These poor lil dudes don't deserve to be the unlucky recipients of our mess. All that happens to the tanker that made the mess, slap on the wrist fine. Maybe if they doused the captain in oil and left him like that for a while he'd better appreciate the mess he made.  © Luc Hosten Great turnout for the fish farm protest on Saturday - that saw peeps swim/paddle/walk from Hobie to Humewood. Will get a blog post about all that out soon.  © Dean Biddulph  © Dirk Erasmus If you haven;t yet gone to Jbay to watch some of the surfing make a plan to do so soon, always awesome to see the world's best going ballsitic!  © Robbie Irlam Charts showing a bit of promise for end of the week into the weekend. Hold thumbs.  © Luc Hosten  © Matthew du Plessis Comments are closed.
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July 2021
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