The week that was...

© Marcus Ducker

A week that was neither here nor there. A few lil waves about, nothing flash. But at least enough for your weekly salt water dose. Still waiting for the February that should be delivering glassy conditions and fun peelers. Someone tell the weatherman please.

©Robbie Irlam

One thing the weatherman delivered on was some pretty impressive cloud formations and spectacular sunset to mark Valentines Day. The weird cotton-ball looking clouds are called Mammatus clouds. They are formed by cold air sinking down to form the pockets contrary to the puffs of clouds rising through the convection of warm air. 

It started out like this...© Gideon Brunsdon

And went from orange at Sards...

...to pink in the Bay © Zelda vd Westhuizen

© Ryan Anderson

With the finale at Schoenies © Luc Hosten

© Luc Hosten

So yah, maybe no waves to write home about, but we did get to tick the "sunset" box.

Remember the fuss about Fu wax on the WCT a coupla years back? Throw back to the 2011 Quicksilver Pro New York, Kelly Slater launched a frontside full-rotation slob grab for a perfect 10 to defeat Taj in the waning seconds of the Quik Pro semifinal. He did it on a board without a traction pad, which Fu Wax said was covered with their secret recipe. 

Martin Potter said it was cheating, like surfing with foot straps. No more groomed bumps, just a sticky spread of hyper-tack wax, which sticks to the bottom of your feet like glue. So if you keen to start blasting some airs and wanna stay attached to your board - this is the wax to try.

Now finally available in South Africa. Grab some down at the Boardroom. 

Moan as we may about crowds, we have nothing compared to Aus. Would you even try paddle out and get a wave in that mayhem? I counted 130 surfers out at Noosa. And who knows how many more sitting off the the left out of view of the surf cam.

Despite the iffy weather on Saturday there was still a good turn-out for the 2nd Salty Hour. Salty Hour is a an hour of free surf lessons hosted every Saturday by Dennis Ellis, Mervyn Goddard & Alan Buchanan. Everyone is welcome, boards are provided as well as some wetsuits. It is held every Saturday at Kings Beach (meet on the beach next to McArthur Baths) 3-4pm.

© Colin MacKenzie

Lekker Sunday sunrise captured by Colin MacKenzie. Betcha don't know the story behind the tin hat? There's an excellent book called "Port Elizabeth - a social chronicle to the end of 1945" by Margaret Harradine which is a mine of information and images of old PE. This is what it has to say on the Tin Hat: "The Governor General of the Cape (Prince Arthur of Connaught as well as Princess Arthur) paid a short farewell visit to Port Elizabeth in 1923.  On this occasion Prince Arthur opened the Campanile and laid the foundation stone of the First Scouts Hall in North End.  Princess Arthur opened the "Princess Promenade" in Humewood which was built in sections over several years.  The official opening took place under the Promenade Dome, designed by the Assistant City Engineer JJ Burt, on 6 November 1923. "

The Promenade Dome is commonly known as "The Tin Hat" from its resemblance to a First Word War helmet, but couldn't have had any connection to the Moth order as it was only founded in 1927.  

Black wetsuits although functional, can be pretty boring. Enter Janga, an independent Portuguese wettie brand that only does brightly coloured wetties. Been wanting to get my hands on some for ages but bit of a hack to take a chance on wettie sizes when ordering from overseas. Local Cape Town surf-girl Simonne Robb has a few of the Janga suits - and decided to give her latest white one a bit of Posca love - pretty cool suit don't you think!?

Environmentally-minded local Andrew Stewart is looking for Volunteers to join the WILD SIDE beach clean up this Saturday.
WHEN: 08:30 on Saturday 24th Feb 
WHERE: Bushy Park Farm entrance (close to T junction of Old & New Seaview rds.
HOW: Refuse bags will be supplied and full bags will be placed on a trailer close to beach.
All welcome - The more the merrier!
WHY: The group walked this area a few weeks ago and were blown away by the amount of litter. They helped two little Terrapins clean the plastic from their pond!

Supers Sunday © Andre Clarke

The weekend saw a few waves pop up, with some fun easterly bowls to be had. Hope everyone got a few cos not much on the charts for this week.