The week that was....

© All Aboard Surf Travel

Monday started off pretty well if you got up early and headed west. Still some waves about after the Sunday surf fest. Even if you stayed local there were still some ramps to be had. Newcomer Klaus Schroder from George found the Hummies closeout sections to his liking. He's gotto have the best ever hastag seen on a surfboard - #ZumaMustFall

© Fernando Tallie

Unfortunately the red tide has made an appearance again, which large swathes of it visible on the wildside. Hopefully the hectic water temp drop that hit us late in the week will have killed off a lot of it though. The plankton isn't stoked about ice-cream headache water.

© Issi Abrahams

The weekend saw the Billabong SA Club Champs go down at Seals. Plenty of representation of the Eastern Cape - with CYOH, NMMU, Sunset surf, Seal Point Boardriders and JBay Boardriders all having teams in the event. Even the Joburg boardriders sent down a team. Reckon the ou's were nipping to lose to a Vaalie in a heat!

​Durban guys were struggling cos the sea temps were seriously ball-shrinking, guys rated about 12C. Cape Town guys probably felt right at home.

Shot to Seal Point boardriders for taking the win, with PE's CYOH in second, West Coast boardriders in 3rd and NMMU Madibaz in 4th. Joburg came 9th outta 18 teams which ain't half shabby.

© Christopher Scott

© Christopher Scott

Some of the local lighties are on overseas QS missions. Dylan Lightfoot is over in Hawaii - and got to see some epic conditions. The Eddie was meant to run, but then it didn't. Quiksilver taking a bit of flak for not running it a lil while ago when conditions were all-time. But pretty hard to judge if it's gonna be 20ft all day.

​Matt McGillivray and Emma Smith are in Aus doing some QS comps there. So best of luck to all 3 for their remaining events. Kick some butt!

Anyone who's surfed on a Sunday knows the line-ups turn into a bit of a daddy day-care centre with ou's getting their groms into some waves. But looks like some of the locals are starting em ever younger! Richard von Wildemann's lil one can hardly walk but she's getting her sealegs already - expect to see her charging Bell Bouy before she's a teen. Taz Wright's lil dude is already amped to try out some of pop's retro shapes.

Remember to get your groms surfing ou's, cos it means more water time for you! Mom not gonna argue with you going for a surf if you're taking lil Johnny with.

The recycling penguins installed by the Supertubes Surfing Foundation are doing a great job of guzzling recyclable rubbish. Just in January alone they chowed through 9 tonnes that was collected by Enviroman. Nice job! If you live in JBay go feed the penguins!

Stoked to have got my copy of Stoked from Chris Bertish. Missed the book premiere in Dec as was already in Indo. Super keen to read Chris's story about his win at Mavericks, but know there'll be so much more to this book than just a surf story.

Chris competed in the Titans of Mavericks event on Friday, but unfortunately his heat was a bit wave starved so he didn't make it through. 

Millers local and uber-chef Allan Bezuidenhout has opened up his own restaurant, Muse, together with his wife. Fine dining without the pretentiousness (and the price tag). Find em below Two Olives at the bottom of Stanley Street. Heard good things about em and will definitely be heading over for a chow soon.

War games this week at Kings Beach. Wednesday is the big day so expect some road closures etc in the area, and lotsa things going boom. Be kinda surreal to try nab a surf in at Fence during Armageddon! Navy's already in town getting a bit of practice in. Came past Hobie on Friday to pull a few donuts in the surf just off the backline.

Sunday was Valentine's day and saw a few lil waves about. Guys probably had to buy a few extra roses cos they were skipping out to surf when they were meant to be doing quality time with their significant other. Water temps dropped to ice-cream headache material by late arvo and caught a few peeps by surprise. Particulary the ou who paddled out at Chomp at about 5 in his boardies. Didn't last too long!

© Linda Schenck

Shot to PE local Stuart Connacher, who completed a solo row - yes, row! - across the Atlantic in just 53 days. He took part in an event called the Atlantic Campaign, which saw other solo and team boats do the crossing. Stuart rowed to raise money for the charity the Smile Foundation. Epic effort bru!

Ryan Allen and his 4 Blind Mice team are still hard at work painting the mural beneath the end of the freeway - at the harbour entrance. It's the new parking area for the MBDA building they've revamped (the old ice rink). Nice to report on finned activity this week that's concrete based - dig the big Johnny they're doing.

Dean Cothill is one of the town's premiere shutterbugs, known for his awesome sunrise and sunset shots of the bay and surrounds. He bought himself an early (or late) Christmas pressie and is now taking some kiff shots with his drone. Betcha ya never seen the pier look like this!?

© Dean Cothill