The week that was.....

Hangover week for sure. After a run of really good surf the whole of the previous week, this week was a bust instead of gangbuster. Sure, there were waves about if you took a drive, but as far as the bay went it was rather dismal. Unless you dig onshores, then you were smiling.

​Monday offered up a few dribs and drabs, but as the week wore on the surf dropped and the winds grew increasingly iffy. Not a bad thing though, it meant ou's got some work done, lighties went to school, peeps attended the odd lecture. Productivity levels inversely proportional to surf. This week productivity won.

Some waves at Jbay earlier in the week. Ballie getting barreled. Dave Lippie. © Robbie Irlam

The periodic rain squalls meant the opportunity for rainbows. The Greeks and Romans thought a rainbow was the path made by Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, between heaven and earth, linking gods with humans. The iris of the eye is named after her, because of its colour. “Rainbow” in Latin is arcus iris or arcus pluvius, a “rainy arch”.

A rainbow doesn’t actually exist. Optically speaking, it is just a distorted “virtual image” of the sun. Each raindrop acts as a tiny, imperfect mirror.The light is refracted or “bent” slightly as it passes from the air into the water; and again as it bounces back into the air again. Each raindrop acts as both prism (refraction) and mirror (reflection).

Gold at the end of the rainbow? © Kody McGregor

© Luc Hosten

© Stan Blumberg

Moving from pretty rainbows to ugly mugs. Duncan Scott - EP's new SA Longboard Champ in the Grand Masters division got a kiss from his board during the comp. Rail vs lip is always gonna end in lip coming second....
​Eina!

Unfortunately some red tide has been seen lurking around Table Bay again. Big red patches were visible suring the calm spell in the early parts of the week. Maybe there's something about red critters that make them persistent.... the EFF refuses to go away and so does the red tide.

© Jean Tresfon

Some really flat days midweek meant the rockpools became more interesting than the surf. Gideon Brunsden snapped this cool shot of a lil starfish at Pollock. If you're really bored one day when you find one, sit down and check him out for a while...cos you might catch him eating something, which turns out to be a rather neat undertaking. They have tiny suction cups to hold their food, and then their stomach comes outta their mouth to chow the food, and then reenters the body when they’re done eating.

Reduce, reuse, recycle is the manta we should all be living by. An Oregon surfer decided a novel use for his old board was to convert it into an outdoor shower. Gotto say the board doesn't look too buggered though, and might have been more useful staying as a surfboard instead of a shower?

Whilst we had a quiet week, the west coast of the states is still getting plenty of El Nino swell. The Wedge in Newport's been macking. Bit like Fence on steroids.

© John Lucarelli

The weekend saw some pear-shaped weather. Pomping east meant plenty of growly onshore mushburgers about if they're your thing. They ain't mine. Winds fairly light and variable this week, so there should be something to surf if you wanna get wet.

© Christopher Scott

Bruce Campbell and the CYOH crew don't mind a bit of east