Yah, that was such a cool event. All expenses paid trip to Sun City to surf in the wave pool. Took a bit of getting used to the wave as you don't have that much time to adjust once the wave comes out from under the wall. It's such a short wave, basically 2 turns and a closeout if you're lucky, so if don't catch it from the right spot you miss the chance to fit in a turn.

I actually don't think it's a bad idea. I really don't think they should be in crowded surf zones, as they're pretty hard to turn and as such present a potential danger to other surfers. I prefer to SUP away from the main spots. Apparently in Durban there's SUP's out at New Pier, that's asking for trouble.

I was nearly born on the beach at Fish River! My mom went into early labour whilst my folks were at our holiday shack. I grew up at the beach, my dad was a surfer. Started off standing on a boogie board doing lil 360's and at about 10 got a board made for me by my cousin - real garage job, even made our own fin.

Plenty. I grew up in East London and they had some serious grommet abuse going. There's this smelly sewerage run off we called the Turdy River that runs into the sea at Nahoon. On flat days the ballies made the groms do Turdy olympics. We had to swim across the river, or they threw rocks into it and we had to go dive and fetch them. Miles Rosser nearly drowned there one day - the ballies held him under after he dived down to get the rock. When they eventually let him up he was puking all over. Another favourite was getting rolled down the sand dunes in boardbags.

I only came to PE when I was 18 for university, so never got subject to grom abuse here. However, we certainly dished some out. Our favourite target was Justin Douglas-Jones. He would just never shut up, just kept coming back for more. I can't tell you how many times he got tied naked to poles, yet he still wouldn't stop!

When longboarding made a comeback in the late '80's my dad got us a board from Andrew Carter and we entered into the first longboard comp held here in '88. That's when the bug bit. Also I guess cos the waves in PE are more condusive to longboarding too. I was also starting to do better in longboard contests.

I ended up with a Mitsubishi 1 tonner as my car at varsity. My mom had owned a factory and when she closed it I got the truck. It was actually an ideal surf vehicle. You could fit 8 guys and boards in the back. This was a bonus cos I couldn't afford petrol, so everyone had to pay R1 for a ride, so we could put petrol in. I knew EXACTLY how much the petrol cost to get to each surf spot! Plus it helped to have an instant crowd when you wanted to surf Sard's - decreased the shark risk! The other issue was the thing didn't start - you had to push start, and you definitely needed at least 8 ou's to do that to a 1 tonner!

My worst was during the SA champs at Seals. I was on my 3rd wave in the semi's. Pulled off but somehow got sucked back over the falls and ended up getting drilled straight onto a rock covered in barnacles. It sliced so deeply into my hand that it hit an artery. The blood was spurting out like mad. I was rushed off to Humansdorp - but cos I didn't have any money I had to get treated in the then "black" section of the hospital cos it was free! This was a rather daunting experience. The nurse I got had no clue what to do, even asking me how many stitches I thought I should have! She bent the needle in me whilst trying to give me an injection. To make matters worse she didn't even clean the seaweed and dirt out the wound before she stitched it!

I managed to get back to Seals in time for the final, but they refused to let me surf cos everyone was panicky about my wound attracting sharks! To add insult to injury the stitches burst open a few days later and had to be redone.

The worst one is actually from PE. Mates of mine wanted to go surf Kay's. It's a spot about 5k's walk west of Sard's, way past Donut's. For some reason I just had a bad feeling about it, and said I didn't want to go. Steven Cross and Carl Walton were the last guys left in the water and next thing this massive shark came bursting out the water and knocked him off his board.

The guys on the beach actually had thought there were 2 sharks at first cos the thing was so huge it stretched out below both guys and they were about 5m apart. Steven punched it in the mouth as it was attacking him, but his hand slid down the nose as he did so and into the sharks mouth, which clamped down on him.

Luckily it opened it's mouth so he could pull his arm out, but at the same time it flung him up onto it's back. Apparently whilst he was lying on it's back he only reached from it's mouth to the dorsal fin - that's how massive it was!

They managed to scramble off it's back and paddle like mad to shore, all the time hearing this thing chomping behind them. Steven had screamed so much by the time he got to the beach his throat was bleeding. Luckily Carl was a medic and knew how to put a tourniquet on his arm, but they still had to walk the 5k's back to Sard's. Thankfully there was a doctor there that could help.

I lived in the UK for 2 years so have done most of Europe. I've also surfed Maldives, New Zealand, the Canaries, the US and Australia.

I did 2 winters there in '93 and '94. Localism was still hectic in those days. It didn't help that I looked like a typical Californian (who were the Hawaiians nemesis) with my long blonde hair. I remember walking along the road, I was living at Sunset, and these massive Hawaian dudes in a monster truck with 2 frothing Rottweillers in the back were shouting "Go home, Haole" at me.

I did surf Pipe, but not when it was big. The problem was when it was big it wasn't so much the wave that was dangerous, but the crowd. Totally hectic - you were either getting dropped in on, getting no waves, or having to dodge a million people whilst you were on the wave. We rather surfed Jocko's and Piddlies, great waves with far less crowds.

Another awesome spot was called Revelations. It's a km paddle out to sea, a heavy right. Plenty of tiger sharks. Des Sawyer and I paddled out there one day, just us, the guy who took us there, and 2 other blokes. The "reform" of Revelations is Velzyland.

Ryan Anderson and I surfed big Makaha one day, on borrowed boards which for some reason had no leashes! The pressure was huge, you HAD to make every takeoff cos there was no ways you could lose your board and have it go smashing into some Hawaiian!

My wife had given birth to Tanna early that morning and I was just dashing home from the hospital to get her some fresh clothes. I just saw Millers going off, probably one of the best days ever. I had my camera in the car cos I'd been taking pic's of our new baby, so I hopped out the car and shot off a few of Millers. I realised I wouldn't be too popular if I opted to surf, so promptly packed up the camera and headed back to the hospital.

I know how to knit! I was at a co-ed junior school and it was 4 guys and 28 girls in my class. I learnt to do french manicures and how to tie french plaits. It worked out really well - a manicure or plaits in exchange for getting my homework done!