Thursday sideshows

© Karla Newton

Some really decent surf poured into the bay on Thursday. And as always is the case with solid days, there's often as much action on the sidelines as there is in the surf. You know it's gonna be a good day when a giraffe washes up on the beach!

Shooting Clubhouse mid-morning after an early Millers sesh (good size, but waaay too much chop). Next thing this ballie walks down towards the edge of the Avo's rock with his goggles & snorkel on. For a terrifying minute I thought he was gonna wade in next to the rock - and then get sucked out in a second. Sent John down to tune him, but turns out the ou was just gonna get into the rock pool. There he lay for a coupla minutes getting washed about by the surge that flushed into it from the gap between the rocks.

Done with getting sand into every orifice he owned, he then parked off in the shorey doing some karate. So lekker to see ballies still stoked on life. Loving it!

The early morning sessions were plagued by heavy cross chop. Such a pity cos reckon the swell was at it's biggest then. Rincon was breaking halfway to the horizon. Back of Pipe had some good one's. Specially if you went left, away from the wind.

Glad to see some guy read the paddling article! Here he is busting out some push-ups on the beach! Don;t wanna paddle like a poepal? Check out the blog post then.

Big surf always means you get to collect a few on the head for your troubles. Think this is Andre about to wear one square on the pip. It was one of those days for him. Every single one he took off on he got axed. He got so gatvol of his board in the end that he jumped off after the take-off and decided to do some barefoot surfing instead! Credit to him he still walked up the beach smiling!

When the surfs pumping it's so easy to over-froth. Like these 2 lighties below. They were so amped to get out there that they sprinted off the beach and into the water at full tilt - either not knowing, or not remembering, that there was some lovely sharp reef hidden below the surface. They went from 100km/h to a dead halt as those feet suddenly went from soft sand to sharp rock. Too funny to watch.

PE doesn't get surf all to often, so there were plenty peeps in the line-up. Thick crowds meant a few near misses, a couple classic T-bones (no-one got injured amazingly, in the one's that I saw), and lots of family waves. 

© Dirk Erasmus

Pipe, between sets © Dirk Erasmus

The surf was so hectic it even pulled Barry's bootie off! Well, not quite. Barry's just a one-bootie man.

"Don't leave til you have a good shot of me!" Gregg jokingly called out as he jogged past on his way out to the surf. This was his first wave....I think it was a good shot!

Long time Millers local JP Degoumois is testimony to the fact that when you're good, you stay good, even when you hit middle age. He pulled off some ridiculously critical turns out there. Just bummed I didn't get any good shots of them. Easily still one of the top surfers in PE.

On good days - there're just as many good wipeouts as good waves. Think that this one captured by Dirk Erasmus at Pipe takes the cake. That expression says it all!

And if PE cooked, you know JBay fired. The day dawned with a spectacular sunrise, and some pretty darn spectacular lines pouring down the point. Early birds definitely got some worms. 

© Clive Wright

© Clive Wright

© Stan Blumberg

Plenty of PE locals make the trek west for some bombs. Luke Bakker on a solid one © Hannalie Bakker

And Clubhouse had a few cookers for those that stayed in the bay...

Even some barrels at the bottom of Millers © Gavin Rother

There was so much surf on offer that Luc took a break from shooting the surfing action and got some arty shots of the pipe at Pipe.

Rincon delivered. Although you had to have had a few Red Bulls to make it out to the back. It was solid. Never too many shots from there cos it breaks so far out and the ou's look like ants. Dave got a lil clip on his phone which shows just how solid it was. Free bonus segment of random sky shots as Dave has a shaky moment....

Post by David Lipschitz.

Check out all Thursday's photo galleries from PE & JBay in Latest Shots.