The week that was......

© Dean Cothill

If anyone knows where Winter is hiding please go give it a big kick up the butt! The small run of swell has persisted for nearly a month now. Even the JBay ou's are complaining. Least they now have an idea of what it feel like to live in PE. 

Nonetheless, still something here and there to get wet in, but no decent groundswells have turned the corner at Cape Recife for a while. Keep the faith - something has to pitch up eventually! It always does.

© Surfing South Africa

Some really decent surf just down the road though. Bombs and barrels on offer at PA for the Quik comp. Beyrick de Vries won the Open, with Adin Masencamp (u20) and Sebastian Williams (u16) the other division winners. Best placing by an NMBS surfer was JBay's Joshe Faulkner with a 3rd in the u16's.

From big bombs to big rigs. After spending some time in Coega getting fixed, this huge floating platform starting to make it's way west to Namibia, then Angola. Moving at 6 knots, it's gonna take a while. Think the Bell Bouy woulda had some size envy issues as it went by!?

The swells might be in hiding, but the sharks ain't. Another incident, this time in the California. Luckily the surfer was uninjured. Experts reckon it was just a juvenile shark having a looky-see as to what this surfboard thing was all about.

© Mervyn Goddard

Some serious spring cleaning underway at the Boardroom. Full revamp of the shop is on the cards, and some exciting new additions - watch this space!

Some of the biggest waves on offer this weekend was the prop wash from the chopper doing NSRI exercises. Ok, not quite, there were a few slightly bigger lumps than that. The resident pod of dolphins cruised right around the boat - just to suss out what was happening in their back yard. 

Always have to smile when see the guys doing the drills, cos invariably they're done on a day when it's sheet glass conditions - no wind, no swell. Not too sure how many rescues happen when it's like that?

© Marlo Torr

Sometimes life does imitate art, as the saying goes. Last year photoshopped a few nice looking waves onto the eastern breakwall of the Coega harbour for April Fool's day. Even caught Twiggy out - he was amped to come surf it. Turns out it does get some surf, as I suspected, but needs a really big swell and just the right conditions.

Marlo Torr snapped a pic of it doing it's thing recently. No chance of it getting crowded any time soon. Or ever. The locals are big, grey and have lots more teeth than you do. And there are loads of them. Bird Island is just a stone's throw from the harbour, and the finned friends use the Coega beaches as their chill-out zones after grabbing a seal snack at the islands.

Has front deck grip made a comeback? Must have if Jordy's latest stick is anything to go by? Front grip fell off the map after Fletcher in the 80's. But as with all things fashion, what goes around comes around. Mostly in 20 year cycles, so this took a bit longer. 

Noah Deane has been rocking a frontie for the past year, so maybe it's catching on....

Looking ahead to this week and a few short period lumps and bumps should at least get us wet. Still no serious SW groundswells showing on the charts yet. Wondering if it's El Nino doing us in?