Weekly wrap

The swell machine decided to take a bit of a break last week after a pretty good run. "Break" being a relative term. It just didn't cook every single day, just some days! Let's hope it's recharging it's batteries and will come back firing. Just as well it looks like it won't wake up again this week - as the charts show a full week of winds out the north.

Dylan Lightfoot was spotted getting some practice in for this weeks Mr Price Pro at Ballito - which starts Monday. Be a good warm-up comp for Dylan, who has a wildcard slot in the JBay Open, which will be taking place in his back yard soon (10 - 20 July).

Despite the good surf, the taxman still demanded payment - so the odd board and suit were trashed to keep him happy. Bystanders were impressed by a display of boardless surfing from what looked like Shaun Payne. Quite a few of the international contingent have arrived to start getting some practice in for the JBay Open, so some impressive surfing going down.

PE local Brad Beck is still over in Maldives training as a surf guide getting barreled off his pip and making everyone back home pretty damn jealous. He steps it up a notch this week as he'll be joining his Tropicsurf team on a charter on the ridiculously pimped out Four Seasons Explorer. Not your typical leaky feral bumboat with no aircon and rice & fish every night. 

Bit of drama at Sards late Thursday arvo after some kiters got themselves into trouble and were spotted trying to swim back to shore. Local residents kept an eye on them, and the NSRI and Coastal Water Rescue crews got out there super quick. Apparently an ou had to ditch his kite cos he couldn't get it up, and swam back in to borrow another kite so he could go fetch the one he had to dump. Him & the mate that went out to help him retrieve it then got into trouble, again having to ditch kites. They got swept out the bay, but thankfully managed to swim in a gully around the corner before the rescuers had to go out & fetch them. Bit of an expensive kite sesh that - 3 kites goodbye gone (for the NSRI report on the incident, click here)

Just a reminder that we're really lucky to have a jacked up water safety crew patrolling our coast. So next time you see an NSRI collection tin, make sure you put a few greenbacks in it, as you never know when these guys might have to come pull your ass out the water. The local Coastal Water Rescue crew also do a great job.

Shot to the NMMU surf team who took 2nd spot overall in the SA Student Champs held at Vic Bay last week. Really solid surf saw the guys display some serious commitment. Jean du Plessis took the men's title, and NMMU won the men's division.

Plenty discussion about the spate of recent shark sightings along the JBay stretch, but at least these johnnies have been in cruisey mode, unlike the flying submarine snapped by Brandon Kilbribe just off Seal Island near Cape Town last week. Imagine seeing this bearing down on you!?