The week that was....

He who walks gets rewarded © Christo Zietsman

A few surfable days during the week, and some fun surf over the weekend. So far, winter hasn't exactly gone off it's pip in terms of consistency, but at least it's keeping us wet. The effects of the big Thursday swell are still being felt, as sand's moved into strange places. Avo's is breaking super-wide, but has been throwing up some seriously good peaks - some make-able, some not. Millers, she be broken at the moment. Sand in all the wrong places is making the point more fat & funky than normal. Clubs is making the boogers happy as can be - not hard to see why!

Warri en route to a sand enema © Fernando Tallie

A pod of dolphins turned Millers local for about 4 hours on Thursday. Just cruised between Chomp and Millers, back and forth for over 4 hours. Lot more friendly than normal - had 'em circling and going under me for over 5 minutes, so close could reach out an pat 'em on the head! Not sure what they were up to, as there didn't appear to be any bait fish about. The pod normally cruises past in the morning, heads out to the islands, and then back in the arvo. Reckon maybe this was a bunch of groms that were too lazy to mission all the way across the bay and decided to just come bunk at Millers til it was time to head home!

JBay was comp-central this weekend, with both the JBU Supertrial and the RVCA Junior Series going down. The Supertrial got won by Slade Prestwich, who scores himself a wildcard into the JBay Pro. He beat Mikey February in the final, with the Payne bro's taking 3rd n 4th possie.

© AVG

Bird's eye view © Brad Grobler - Aerial Media

Local bro's Shaun & Ryan came 3rd n 4th

The RVCA Junior Challenge had good waves and all the groms were on froth over-drive. Plenty of the local kids made it through to the business end of the comp, which draws to a close on Monday arvo. RVCA does a great job of keeping the micro's entertained, as there's ping-pong, board-art pens and all sorts of stuff to keep 'em out of mischief.

SF local Crystal Hullett © Luke Paterson

Heard some humming in a line-up near you? Check out Gavin Rother's interesting fin set-up. The weird-looking front fin's are from Aus and designed to create extra lift, and the back fins are a bit of DIY modification! Always good to experiment with different fin set-ups, as fins can make or break how your board rides. Think you have a dog, don't write it off til you've fiddled with the fins a bit. Boards can feel totally different with another set if fins.

Whilst we have been getting the odd wave at home, a couple of well-traveled locals are scoring in their adopted homelands. Seals local Stanley Badger is the surf guide on a boat in the Ment's, and spends his days in the "office". If you wanna swap your office for Stan's office, give him a holler at Surging Waters to book a trip. 

Stan's office

Another bunch of Seals locals are still lurking in the Maldives. Brad and Hannah are living the dream, surf guiding at a resort over there. Which isn't too shabby when you have a cruisey lil right out front and a bunch of fun spots a quick boat ride away. Wanna visit 'em? Check out www.tropicsurf.net

Love is...letting your girlfriend ride your board © Brad Beck

Always cool to check out old surf pics - specially one's of surf teams. Like this one of the Nahoon locals back in the day. 1984 was the year that saw the release of hit TV series Miami Vice, Brit & Irish muso's joined forces to release the "Do They Know It's Christmas" single as BandAid, the Russki's boycott the LA Olympics, Virgin airlines launched, as did the first space shuttle....and these fine surfers took to the waves to represent their province. Good to see that quite a few ou's in this snap are still in the water.

Sussed out the new food truck in town when it was parked at King's Beach for the day last week. The Makoy is the brain-child of local chef Dewald Hurter. He was over the schlep of managing restuarant kitchens which saw him doing more admin than cooking, so decided to go mobile instead. Flipping lekker home-made chow, with a kiff cheese n bacon burger, venison slider with brie and strawberry chutney or a chicken slider with provolone cheese as some of your options. Follow them on Facebook to find out where they're parked each day. 

The newly formed Nelson Mandela Bay Surfriders (ex Eastern Province) needs a new logo to go with their new name. So if you know which end of a pencil to use, then get drawing and send your creations to Mervyn on mervyn@idealvalves.co.za

The new NMBS logo should use predominantly red and black colouring and of course somehow represent surfing in PE. If yours is chosen as the winning design (by the EP....I mean NMBS....committee) then you score R2000. Sponsored by Surf Centre and DecoPro. Comp closes 27 June.

Speaking of comps - remember to get your entries in for the Something Good Surf Classic. Plenty of prizes and a lekker days jol on the beach, followed by an equally lekker jol at Something Good that evening - which includes the footstomping hilly billy rockers The Cottonfields, as well as DJ's Skullmonkey and Munro. Entry form online here, or at Surf Centre.

Another trip down memory lane. Remember Simple Shoes? If you're over the age of 35 you no doubt owned a pair of these -and probably still do - cos they were that amazing. Best takkies ever. Like seriously. And the original surf takkie. Good news is that Simple is being resurrected, so if you're keen to get your toes into the first pairs - hook up on their Kickstarter campaign, which is to go live later this month.

Mine still going strong 20 years later!

Rumour has it that CarPark John has got his mojo back, and is now catching (and ripping) plenty of good waves. Now someone just has to remind him that if he's wearing a T-Short that Says "Fun", he should at least have a smile on his dial! Seriously tho - good to have the ballie back in his groove.

And just to round off a fun weekend of waves, the sunset decided to play ball to and be a good 'un. More of the same this week we hope....