The week that was...

© Robbie Irlam

Not much during the week, but the weekend pumped - both wind and waves. Solid 16 second groundswell lit up the bay and all the spots to the west. Not without consequence. Wes snapped a leash and cut his foot at solid Supers, making his possie look like a murder scene.

© Wesley McGuire

Let's back-track a bit - The wind pomped on Tuesday - which saw an interesting reversal of roles for the Lightfoot family. Dad Gary grabbed his windsurfer and hit the windy waves, whilst son Dylan sat and got a few snaps of pop doing his thing.

© Dylan Lightfoot

Wednesday was an absolute beaut of a day - hardly any wind, water warm enough for baggies if you wanted to trunk it and some lil waves in the bay. The awesome conditions meant there were plenty peeps floating about by late arvo. Dirk popped down to Pipe to get some snaps. You can see em all here.

© Dirk Erasmus

© Dirk Erasmus

Saturday saw the Soul Surf Classic go down in some kiff waves; although the weather was a bit grim the guys were frothing on putting some vintage boards through their paces. Pre-80's boards that had been stuck up in the rafters and the dusty corners of garages got a lil outing.

© Craig Cuff

Avo's looking tasty © Riaan Vermaak

Black tip washed up at Schoenies. Widget investigates © Luc Hosten

For those flat summer days when you just wanna do some exercise but there's no waves. No prob - head down to King's Beach where you can use the new galvanized gym equipment to bash out a few crunches and dips and pull ups. Stronger ab's equals better turns.

© Dean Biddulph

Jean Trefson spent a coupla days a while ago in St Francis photographing and filming the chokka spawning aggregations. They found a huge egg bed with thousands of spawning squid as well as lots of ragged tooth sharks and stingrays cruising around looking for an easy meal.  Jean said "The dirty surface water layer and overcast conditions made it seriously dark and green at the bottom and the fact that the eggs and squid were deep at around 35m meant limited bottom times and mandatory decompression stops at 6m on the way up. Although this dive was definitely one of the highlights of my 25 years of diving, the 15 minute stop in water so dirty that you can hardly see your own fins was a very lonely experience and it felt like a lifetime before being allowed to surface.

Halfway through my last stop I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck and I started to get seriously edgy, although I could not see anything (or maybe because of it). After what felt like an eternity I surfaced and climbed into the boat and the others both said they had felt the same thing. Rick Harding and several other fisheries scientists and researchers were also in the area in a research vessel and after we were finished they put their ROV into the water to film and map the egg beds we had been diving on.

​Both on the way down and up the cameras on the ROV filmed a curious great white that was checking out the intruder to its territory. In hindsight I'm almost certain that we were all visited by this shark during our various deco stops, and although none of us saw it, we certainly "felt" its presence nearby! Never a dull moment in the ocean..."

© Jean Trefson

© Jean Trefson

Jordy's back. At last. After an extended injury run he'll be hitting the water for the 3 Van's Triple Crown events - including the Pipe Masters. Not only is he hitting the water - he's hitting the cover to - of the latest Surfers Journal. Sasha Spex Specker nailed an awesome shot of him powering through a rail turn.

​

Nothing beats a fresh stick. Well, maybe 2 fresh sticks. A pair of his 'n hers Greg Smith Gobblers getting ready for our Indo trip. Stevo in JBay does some lekker board sprays, cos nothing is more boring than a white board. Get your summer stick orders in to one of our local shapers asap, cos Greg, Thys, Eric and Deno are gonna have order books chokka block for the Christmas rush so get in early so you have your stick in the water before Santa comes.

If you cruising past the beachfront and spot Makoy's bright orange food truck, then pop in to grab a kiff chow. Dewald makes some really good food, street food with a twist, and with the best ingredients in the biz. Plus he's a surfer. So support a bro.

Next Saturday is the Women on Water event at Denvils. It's open to ladies of all ages who'd like to learn to surf in a fun, friendly environment. From groms to grannies, you're all welcome. It's free, and boards and suits are provided by Surf Centre, but if you have your own wettie do bring it along.

Things will kick off at 8am with some gentle stretching & warm-up's by physio Marelize Dalton, and then the qualified surf instructors will take you out for a surf lesson, and plenty of laughs.

RSVP to Sandy Coffey if you keen - [email protected] 
​(Denvils is the small beach next to McArthur Baths, opposite Dolphins Leap Centre)

More details here ​http://www.millerslocal.co.za/comp-news/women-on-water

If you're land-locked in Jozi at the moment and desperate for a bit of surf stoke, hook up with the JoBurg Boardriders this coming weekend. The guys are gonna get together for some skating, a beer, and chat with fellow wave-starved surfers. You can even win a Safari surfboard - which would then make you even more amped to bail the big smoke for the coast.

Steve Sawyer did a gig after the Soul Surf Classic at the Cork Wine Garden on Saturday night, playing some tunes from his album, Summer Daze. Amazingly talented musician, and some beautiful songs. Go grab one of Steve's CD's from Surf Centre for R100 - and support Steve in getting to the Longboard World Champs in China. Double whammy - you help a fellow Oos-Kaap local to represent his country, and you score some kiff tunes.

And that's the wrap for the week. Ending off with another of Deon Lategan's beautiful shots....

© Deon Lategan