The week that was...

The week started with some left-over south swell still filtering in. Beaut weather and some fun waves made for some lekker summer sessions. You could even get away with a shortie wettie if you wanted. And then something unusual happened. The weather stayed lekker, there was zero wind, and there were lil waves all week - right up until the buster came through on Friday.

Early morning bird gets the worm

Big full moon in the early part of the week meant you could have got some night time waves if you'd been so inclined. Couple of the Jbay guys logged in a Point sesh. Brave ou's. Reckon I would have the Jaws theme music running incessantly through my head.

JBay Monday night sesh © Brandon Watson

Was doing some cleaning up of my photo files and came across this shot from Jonty Hansford of a night surf at Avo's back in June 1976. See - the surf was better back then! Bit of debate about whether that could be Stompie up and riding, only problem is - he's in a wetsuit, which might rule Stomps out.

© Jonty Hansford

As usual if you spent a bit of bucks on gas and drove out west you'd have hooked some really good surf. Seals being the second most southerly point of Africa means it picks up any lil scrap of swell in the ocean.

© Clive Wright

Jono Coffey © Clive Wright

Summer time means surf lesson time. Herbert Hurd school came down to Hobie for some lessons with Surf Centre. Spring low Hobie probably isn't the easiest possie to learn on, and saw plenty groms nosediving on take off. Apparently a few tears here and there but everyone survived!

The Pied Piper and his merry men

Everything quiet on the Western Front now that Armed Forces week is over. Monday saw the last of the dignitaries leaving, including this chopper on the Radisson picking up the No 1 VIP muppet. The temptation to yell "Jump!" is overwhelming.

© Jared Cassidy

The whole mountain-man beard-growing phase has it's perks. Local surfers Tom & James Collins are over in the UK at the moment and decided to apply as extra's for the TV series Vikings to earn some cash. They got the nod and spent a day just outside of Dublin acting like Norsemen. PE ou's be famous, sort of. Lekker!

Tom & James with dad Dave - a last surf before moving north

The first Surfing South Africa Gromcomp was held in solid 4 foot New Pier surf. LOcal East Cape surfers did well, with JBay's Angelo Faulkner coming 2nd in the u16's and PA's Kye McGregor got a 4th in the u14. There's a PE Gromcomp coming up soon, so make a plan to enter lighties.

Kye McGregor © Grant Beck

For all those who regularly drive past the Boet and wonder if they're ever gonna do anything with it, you are invited to pull in to the Kelway Hotel for a public meeting to discuss the options. See below. Usual story - either be involved, or don't moan when they put something up that you don't like. Be an active citizen. not a whining grouch.

Spit don't swallow ou's. Photographer David Littschwager captured this amazing shot of a single drop of seawater magnified 25 times to reveal an entire ecosystem of crab larva, diatoms, bacteria, fish eggs, zooplankton, and even worms. Eeeew!

Plenty of peeps struggled to keep their eye's open on Friday thanks to a late night watching the Eddie. The monster waves and victory at sea type of conditions made it compelling viewing. The ou's were charging! Talk was that it was one of the best Eddie swells ever. Close-out sets sent the ski's all running back to the beach on a few occasions. Twig took up sky-diving as his second sport. Kelly got barreled. A brazzo caught one of the biggest waves. And JJF made it all look easy.

© WSL

© WSL

The good weather and fun waves meant that some days out at Pipe were pretty crowded. But whenever you get the urge to moan about too many ou's in the water - be thankful you don't live in Aus. Check out this human slick on the Gold Coast. Now imagine trying to get a wave amongst that chaos!?

© Kevin Perrow

Always enjoy unique shots of PE beachfront landmarks, and this one from Richard Saunders is of Something Good looking something different.