The week that was......

Eish, another slow week wave wise. Your best shot at a barrel was doing some tarp-surfing in the car park. The JBay Open kicked off, sort of. Round 1 could have had some decent surf, if it wasn't for the howling onshore that smeared it to bits. Matt Banting pulled out with injury, allowing Mikey Feb to jump in as a wild card replacement.

One of the Brazilian storm rising © Stan Blumberg

Jordy's run of bad luck continues. Back in his first comp after missing Chopes, it seems like he's done his back in. Managed to limp through his round 1 heat, with only 1 scoring wave. Hopefully the physio's and chiro's can work their magic and get him sorted for his Rd 2 match up. 

Jordy looking crock © Robbie Irlam

As much as we bemoan the run of flatness in the bay, there is always the option to stick a bit of petrol in the cabbie and drive round the corner. Where you can go find some throaty lil slabs, like this one snapped by James Jones, to get shacked on. Although keep those toes up, cos the sardines are still about.

Wildside © James Jones

Speaking of slabs. The Tand Invitational is SA's most extreme bodyboarding event. It's held at one of the countries heaviest reef's, up the west coast. St Francis local Pamela Bowren became the first ever chick to be invited to the event - and ended up schooling quite a few of the ou's, and getting into the semi-finals! Just goes to show you don't have to have balls to charge! Shot Pam!

© AFV Photography

The Coffey's are still jolling in Bali, and getting kiff waves and warm weather whilst we stare at flat ocean and freeze our toes off. Might look like our jealously gets prolonged cos a volcanic eruption on Java is screwing with the flight schedules in & outta Bali. Not the worst place in the world to get stuck!

Jono shacked

Lots of debate these days about whether the Banting diet is any good for you. St Francis local Mike Hill goes to show you can lose 30kg's and still lay down some major gashes by saying cheers to the carbs n sugar! You'll see him powering into some carb-free cutties and some sugar-free stomps at Seals. And be sure to ask to see his 8-pack if you see him in the carpark. 

Seals local Brad Beck is only too glad he's missing the flat, chilly winter back home. Not a shabby office to have, when right in front of your canteen is this schweet lil right. Much better to skip lunch and surf!

And just before they get too homesick, the local dolphins show up to say howzit. Life sucks in the tropics. Really it does. I'm sure he'd much rather be stuck behind a desk in a windowless office wearing a suit and tie.

© Hannah Beck

Yip, it's official. We're a hick town. We have tumbleweed! Check this monster ball dicing with the traffic at Humerail opp the Virgin Gym yesterday arvo. A massive one was floating about close to shore the previous week - which the NSRI went to investigate cos ou's thought it might be a sea-mine! Anyone have a clue where they're coming from??

© Tracy Haupt

Slater's Outerknown brand is due to launch some time in the next week or two.  It's designed by John Moore, who was named American GQ Best New Menswear Designer for 2015. Be that as it may, am not sure how you can warrant charging $95 for a beanie! How flipping designer can that really be!? Can only imagine what sort of scary number a TShirt will go for!

Ex-Bluewater Bay local, and now one of the world's most stylish free-surfers, Craig Anderson, pulled into Indo during the recent mega-swell. By his own admission Ando's not really a fan of the big stuff, and has a schizophrenic relationship with charging heavy waves. Yet he takes off at maxed out Kandui's, one of the heaviest waves around....on a lil 5ft4 sled. Go figure.

© Iker San Martin

Always lekker to see what beaches looked like back in the day before ill-conceived and controlled costal development contributes to it's demise. Anne Avenue in St Francis used to be home to some of the best beach breaks around, with consistent sandbars thanks to a really wide beach. These days the sea has encroached to the point that the car park at Anne's is now closed to the public as it's busy collapsing into the sea.

Ann's back in the day © Nick Lefebvre

Not only is St Francis losing it's beaches, it might also soon be home to a shark cage diving operation according to recent reports from the Zag. The Seal Point Boardriders are onto it, and are establishing whether it's possible to object against the permit. 

Seems like an odd spot to station a cage-diving operation cos most peeps doing cage-diving wanna see the big Great White's. The point between SF and Seals is called Shark Point, so yah, plenty of sharks about there. But they ain't whites. There are no known resident White's in the area, and those that are spotted are basically in transit along the coast. Which means you gonna have to chum big-time to draw them in. Kak idea really.

Might soon have to keep your toes up when Bruce's is firing © AVG

 Max Wetteland, South Africa's first representative surfer, respected surfboard design visionary and great surfer departed for the green room in the sky last week. Max opened Durban's first surf shop, and was the man behind the Durban 500 - which became the Gunston 500. RIP.

The tuxedo dudes made a bid for freedom last week, in the latest release of rehabilitated penguins from SAMREC. Looks like the ou's were trying to decide on whether they should surf the right or the left! 

© SAMREC

We're so lucky to have peeps like SAMREC doing a great job at looking after our marine birds and mammals. And then you get morons like this lot in Bali. Shocking photographs show dolphins kept in horrific conditions in a small resort swimming pool in Bali. The four dolphins are kept in a chlorinated pool measuring 10m by 20m at a hotel at Keramas Beach in Bali (and are busy going blind thanks to the chlorine).

The Wake Bali Dolphins tourist attraction charges visitors money for an 'exciting' dolphin experience, allowing people with swim with, hug and kiss the dolphins. What a bunch of absolute kooks. Still can't get over why a bunch of surfers haven't simply barged in with a tarpaulin or two and rescued them. Something that Saffa's would do for sure. So if there're any Saffa's over there now - pull of a lil Rambo raid ou's.

Otherwise you can add your voice to the call to release the dolphins. Sign the petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/wake-bali-dolphins-free-four-wild-dolphins-contained-in-a-tiny-resort-pool

Luc always gets some beaut shots. Last week there wasn't much in the way of waves so it was rainbows inbstead. Here's hoping there's some gold at the far southern end of this one and it makes it's way up to us soon! Ou's starting to get a bit tense about the lack of waves.

© Luc Hosten