Jason van Greunen

Jason wrote in a while back to say he liked the site, so couldn't pass up the opportunity to get him to pen a few paragraphs bout what he's been up to in Cape Town. He was one of PE's only true big wave warriors, even paddling out through a heaving shorebreak at Pipe all the way out to the Bell Bouy to have a go at chasing down the mountains out there. He was a standout at Clubhouse whenever it went off, often hooking the biggest waves of the set and scoring the deepest tubes.

DOUBLE CLICK THE PICS TO OPEN UP IN FULL SIZE SLIDESHOW MODE

Greetings to all in the Bay.

I was offered a job at an Architectural Firm in Cape Town back in April 2007. Just the thought of the variety of surf that existed in the deep south and the mountainous locations surrounding them made the decision to move an easy one and I have been here ever since.

The western seaboard of the Atlantic is the wildside of the wildside. Those west swells you see flying past the horizon while standing at the Avo's car park hit this coast square on with unforgiving power.

In winter, the general trend is for the cold front to arrive with howling North West winds. The next day the pressure begins to rise and the winds back off, lighting up the big wave spots like Dungeons or The Factory. The swell usually holds its size for days but with the pressure rising, the wind clocks more to the south, fanning Giant Sunset in offshore winds. In the next few days the swell begins to drop and all the beach break spots go offshore in true SE and the waves cook until the swell disappears or the next front hits.

The summer cycle is generally SE everyday and smaller swells arrive without the associated weather. It’s common to have 2 weeks of 4-6ft sandbar tubes that just become hollower & and colder as the season wears on.

I got dealt some serious lickings at Giant Sunset that have forced me to rethink what I enjoy in surfing and thus now days concentrate my time at tubing sandbars rather than the outside cloudbreaks.

I can recommend travelling up the West Coast to any surfer that's searching for the unknown. It’s a brutal desert landscape with perfection hiding in in-hospitable locations; nature here does not yield her secrets willingly.

Venture into this land and you may never make it back!

Cheers,

Jason van Greunen

Thanks Jason!

Check out these shots I got of Jason at Clubhouse back in June 2005. Double click on the first one to open up in slideshow mode to see his crazy antics in full size colour!