The week that was...

© Maarten van der Velde

Oh yeh - there were waves. Big juicy one's. JBay was off it's pip. PE had some smokers. Be a bit grumbly if you missed out. But not too grumbly, charts still looking OK for a while ahead.

© Maarten van der Velde

Maarten decided to take a few on the head so we could enjoy the bird's eye view of some Supertubes tube. Brave to bob about in that and be part of the food chain whilst the mullet are thick. But shew - lekker shots!

Pipe © Ian Thurtell

PE hosted the SA Open of Surfing and thankfully Pipe actually had some surfable waves. It of course leveled the playing field nicely for everyone cos it really is a fickle wave - a bank here a hole there - dead flat for 30 minutes etc etc.

​As is was a WSL QS event there were plenty of foreign surfers taking part. Brisa Hennessy from Hawaii won the ladies and Australia’s Jackson Baker won the men's event.

© SA Surfing

© Heather Nel

There were waves all over, which included the end of the road out west if you skipped JBay (which is already starting to get crowded ahead of the comp, and with the influx of the winter surf tourists.)

And also some surf at the end of the road on the wildside. 

© Herman Coetzee

There was some good surf just to the east of PE thanks to the morning northerlies. But the locals seem a lil tetchy about visitors from town it seems, as a PE surfer had his tyre let down whilst surfing there, as did the car parked next to him. 

Some sand seems to be returning to the beaches along the Pipe to Millers stretch, although still a way to go before it gets back to "normal" levels. But the drone shots from the comp at Pipe do show some nice sand boils starting to puff up.

© SA Open

The surf was big - and the local wildlife was just as big. How's this up-sized creep crawly that decided it really liked the furry innards of this Rip Curl wettie. Lucky for Flaviana it didn't crawl it's way into the suit itself, as that would make for some interesting contortions on discovering your arm isn't the only occupant of the sleeve as you pull your wettie on....

© Flaviana Kupczyk

In between shooting the surf action, Robbie always finds time to keep an eye on what's happening on the beach in between sets. Here's the SuperTubes drive-thru - I mean fly-thru, open for lunch. Mussels on the menu.

© Robbie Irlam

Some really cool new board manufacturing technology about these days. Brendan Basset from Natural Fabrication who are making awesome eco-boards. As Dennis Ellis said of his new board hemp glassed board "Smoking new board. Sisal. Eco biodegradable. Edible. Smokable? possibly."

Brendans eco board range is all about sustainable cores, with glassing is focused on the use of bio-resins and natural fiber reinforcement. A schweet ride that's also good for the environment.

Birthdays are cool, getting a new surfboard for your birthday is even cooler. Alan, Pipe local and owner of the awesome Muse restaurant, checking out his kiff pressie.

No week is complete without sunrises shots, and with normal early bird snappers Frans and Andrew outta town, it was JBay Etienne who did the morning duties whilst watching the SA Open at Pipe.

© Etienne Venter

© Etienne Venter

Looks like the good run of surf may continue, with some more cold fronts on the way. So to end off with a reminder of what last week dished up....

© Robbie Irlam