The week that was....

© Deon Lategan

Thankfully a few fun days again this week, was worried that winter might go back into hibernation after the week before's cooking surf. Really good lil peelers on Wednesday arvo after the wind has finished blowing it's mielie off. Some guys had bailed to Jbay earlier cos it handles the wind so much better. Chris got lucky and ended up sitting out at perfect Point in Jbay all by himself - but then started to hear the Jaws theme music playing in his head and suddenly was hoping an insta-crowd might arrive!

Coupla waves out west to round off the weekend. Bit breezy and a bit chilly, but you could certainly get wet if you wanted too.

Family wave. Antony & Kai Wolff © Robbie Irlam

PA grom Kye McGregor had a birthday to remember. Chilling in the carpark chowing his birthday cake and who rocks up - no other than the King himself. Chatted and chowed some cake with the locals, then gave his lekker jacket to the carguard, just because. Legend.

© Dave McGregor

Weirdest thing of the week has to be the ou who rode his motoX bike in at Chopes. It's been home to many oddball stunts over the years (including Bruce Irons surfing it blindfolded) but this one takes the cake. It begs the question: but why!? 'Spose if the ou's are gonna windsurf and SUP out there you may as well bike it right!

If you've visited SAMREC to check out the penguins you mighta noticed the tips of the palisade fence are dotted with remnants of old wetties and gloves. They're not there to make it easier for the tuxedo'd critters to escape to freedom over the fence without poking themselves, but are used by the volunteers who feed 'em to protect their hands and arms from getting nipped. Apparently some of the lil ou's complain about the food!

© Luc Hosten

Coupla whirly birds made their way slowly along the beachfront on Tuesday evening. Perfect weather for a fly by -not sure what they were up to though as they cruised very slowly past at about 50m up all along the beach.

The Citroen SA Surfing Champs went down at Richards Bay during the week, and seemed to be doing their best to resemble PE - small and windy! Thankfully conditions improved later in the week with some nice waves coming through.

Unfortunately the final weekend was a bit on the small side again, with competitors having to make the most of what came through. Massive props to JBays Joshe Faulkner who won the u20 SA title. The NMB girls also did well, with Faye and Emma 2nd & 3rd in the Open women's and Gina 2nd in the u20's.

Joshe is the u20 SA Champ

Conditions weren't always easy © Surfing SA

© Mervyn Goddard

© Kai Linder

The Smiths sisters, Faye and Grant © Grant Beck

We love our boards whilst we've on 'em, but they have a nasty habit of developing carnivorous tendencies the minute we're parted from them. R-evolve's Wayne Barnes had a bit of an argument with his fin after a shorepound rinse and spin cycle, and came up with a lekker gash across his achilles tendon. Mervyn did a good job as emergency co-ordinator, and got hold of surf-mom Annie van Der Merwe to come stitch it back together. Nice job all round guys.

A true legend of our sport has left us for the great shaping bay in the sky. RIP Peter Daniels. Pete was one of the best shapers ever to grace this planet, often refered to as the John Wayne of shaping. Curren, Pottz, Kelly, Sunny & Jordy have all had the famous PD signature under their feet. The Durbs boytjie wasn't too shabby on a surfboard himself, scoring the cover of the '76 Surfer mag. Shape the ou's some lekker sticks up there Pete!

Sunny stoked with his PD board

Had a blue moon last week. Although it looked pretty yellow to be honest! A blue moon is so named not cos of it's colour, but refer to an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year: either the third of four full moons in a season, or a second full moon in a month of the common calendar. Ours was the second full moon in a month.