The MMA wave gobbling fisherman

Age: 38
Local Spot: Millers
Weapons: 6'0 epoxy with a wide nose, great all-rounder, and a 6'8 epoxy for big Jbay - both shaped by Dennis Ellis (The Boardroom)
Wheels: Dark Blue BMW 320i & a white VW Fox
Graft: Self-employed, JSE Equities trader
Favourite surfer: Kelly Slater & Shane Dorian
Favourite spot: Nias, Lagundri Bay (Indo)
Local Crew: John Scheepers & whoever else is in the water

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Jörg's a Millers local who's often out there, no matter the size. He's a wave machine who prowls the inside part of the reef picking up more waves than most in the average session. Must have some energizer batteries plugged in somewhere - he'll out paddle most peeps. Take it away Jörg!

USUAL STORY, DOUBLE CLICK THE PICS TO SEE THE LARGE VERSION WITH CAPTION.

Take us back to the beginning...

I started surfing when I was about 15 (1987). I had mates at school who surfed and I'd often hitch hike to the beach with them, and bodyboard whilst they surfed (Ed - the dark secret is out!). I had posters on my wall of Martin Potter & Shaun Tomson getting barreled, which inspired me to start surfing. I guess I just loved the sea and surfing was one of those things I wanted to get into.

My first board was a Town & Country twinnie that I bought off Gordon Marlin (now living over in the UK). Although I'd bodyboarded Millers before, the first time I actually stood up on a surfboard was at Clubhouse.

Who were the crew back then?

I used to surf with Arno Lane, Quintin Jones, Warren Bonnage, Philip Playdon, Jean-Pierre Degoumois and Sandon Van Wyk. (Ed - Quintin was one of the first PE surfers to do the WQS tour back in the day. He's since defected to Cape Town!)

So did you also bunk school to surf?

Nah, I lived too far from the beach and it was such a mission getting down there as none of my mate's had a car when we were lighties. In those days you also got into big shit if you bunked school. However, there was a school teacher who used to take us down to the beach in the school bus for the odd session before school started when the surf was cranking.

You reckon the surf was better then or now?

Way better back then I reckon. I remember almost always getting good waves every time I rocked up at Millers. In those days the internet didn't exist (Ed - yah lighties, imagine a world without the net!) The way you knew if there was surf was Turtle Morris announcing the surf report on Radio Algoa every morning (Ed - nowadays they call John Scheepers for the report). And then of course you listened to the weather report. If it was SW, there were waves. Simple.

Tell us a funny surf story.

My dad once confiscated my board and wetsuit and hid them up in the attic. He said my school work was suffering cos I surfed too much! Anyway, the next week my 2 mates and I made the front page of the newspaper - with me standing there in my wetsuit and holding my board! Clearly I'd given the board back to myself unbeknownst to my dad. My dad must've gone WTF when he saw the picture!

Then last year I somehow managed to drive off after a surf forgetting to tie my board onto the racks. Needless to say it blew off somewhere along the line and I never saw it again. Blind. Now I double check!

The front page that bust Jorg. Double click to see it enlarged.

Have you surfed overseas at all?

Yah, did Indo in 2005 and have also surfed the UK (lived there for 4 years - torture), as well as California.

I went over to Indo with Ryan Anderson, Brad Peens and Ashton Gardener. The waves were big and powerful, nothing like I'd ever seen or surfed before. We surfed so many lefts, I got real tired of going left! Luckily we went to Keramas in Bali, which is an epic right break. It was kinda smallish when we were there...but at least it was a right!

Heard you got attacked by a local when you were in Indo!

We were surfing a break called Lacerations, which is on Nusa Lembogan. Super shallow spot as the name implies. There was this local idiot who was just dropping in on everyone all the time. So I decided I'd repay the compliment and drop in on him. He went bezerk and tried to hit me on the head with his board - full on axe-man style. I kept blocking him off with my hands. Realising he wasn't making any progress he then tried to break the nose off my board. It was a Dennis Ellis epoxy so obviously he got nowhere with that as well. This really pissed him off! I decided it would probably be a good idea to end my surf prematurely before I had the whole of Indo after me!

Any scary moments whilst surfing?

Probably surfing Desert Point in Indo on a biggish day. Got caught inside, so there I am standing on dry reef watching a 6ft wall of white water bearing down on me. Kak place to be!

You're quite the fisherman, what's the deal with that?

I go out on my fishing ski quite a bit, mainly in summer. I like to troll along the harbour wall for leerie, as well as heading out towards the bell bouy. In the last year I've been getting into drop shots off my ski. I've also been doing quite a bit of fishing with surface lures along the river banks for leerie, cos it's quite a mission to launch a fishing ski on your own.

I fish regularly with Dylan Stone (Ed - ex EP surfer back in the day, still rips). He's a fishing guru in disguise! I also sometimes fish with Greg Hayselden & Lloyd Dillon - had to mention Greg else he woulda got a bit emotional!

A while back Dylan and I were on our ski's out at Sards, and we nailed the Geelbek. I must've caught my biggest fish that day - all of 6kg's (Ed - pretty hectic to pull geelbek in on a ski, these things go ballistic when they're near the boat). On our way back in, as we were close to the outer reef I got klapped by a solid wave and my ski got rolled. I managed to hold onto my paddle and made it back to my ski after getting hammered by a few more good sized waves. Dylan laughed his ass off as you can imagine. Luckily I didn't lose any tackle or fish, and needless to say haven't been anywhere near that reef since!

You often surf during the day, don't you work?

For the past year I've been trading JSE Equities part time using an online trading platform. I used to own a florist in Central, but eventually sold it cos got tired of dealing with staff issues, having suppliers hounding me and ou's not paying. It was a mission but I learnt lots of priceless business lessons. I remember Barry Heasley ordering flowers for his wife quite a bit - most of the time cos he was in trouble with her, and needed to get out of it!!

You're a flipping wave machine, how come?

I've been practising MMA (mixed martial arts) for about for almost 2 years now. Not on a competitive basis, just to keep fit (Ed - note to all - do not drop in on Jörg, cos he can kick your ass!) We do lots of strength conditioning and fitness which helps with surfing and paddling. I also go for the occasional run.

You surf the Wildside quite a bit?

Yah, I like to surf the Reserve on a NW wind after an east swell - which brings the surf down to a managable size round that side. Boilers is probably my favourite spot there. I used to surf Noordhoek quite a bit when I was a student, but nowadays the parking is such a mission there, as well as the safety side.

You're an epoxy convert, right?

I've been on Dennis Ellis epoxies for nearly 5 years now. They really go well. Light, strong and super fast. What's also an advantage is that Dennis uses extruded polystyrene, so if you ding your board, it doesn't take in water. The epoxies are also meant to be more environmentally friendly during the manufacturing process (Ed - green points for Jörg! Check out the Millerslocal Green page). I can't even remember what it feels like to ride a "normal" board. I'll be sticking with epoxy unless something better comes out in the future.

You drive a Beemer, that's not the usual surf mobile!

I used to drive a Honda Ballade, but it gave me so much shit that I ended up deciding to buy a good quality car, and that just happened to be the BMW. I've also got my VW Fox that I often use when going to the beach for a surf.

Tell us something interesting about you we might not know.

(Ed - well besides the fact he's a MMA fishing guru!) I'm building a model of the Titanic at the moment. My girlfriend Carrie gave it to me for my birthday.

Thanks Jörg!

Useless trivia - the funny dots on top of the "o": It represents the umlauted form of "o" in the German alphabet. What's umlauted mean? Absolutely no idea. You get the dots there by doing ALT+0246 on your keypad. Who says you don't learn stuff whilst browsing the web!?
Jörg's dad is Dutch and mom is German, so he's got a German first name and Dutch surname.
By the way - he also digs Donald Duck - I found it "liked" on his Facebook page. Careful what you put on your FB page peeps!

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