Gutted! Literally! We’ve pretty accustomed to having to unpack our big fishing reels every time we go through customs, but this time was a first. The Dubai customs muppets decided the gut on the reels presented a security risk, and insisted that we would not be allowed to proceed unless they stripped both our reels off all their line.

They then laboriously took off all 600m of line as slowly as humanly possible, all whilst being treated to dagger stares by Wright Inc. Particularly since this was our deadly red stealth line that was a guaranteed fish catcher. Ah well, lucky fish. Nearly not so lucky me, I was trying to surreptitiously film the saga with my GoPro when the one customs ou spotted me. Next thing my camera gets yanked outta my hand and he’s demanding I show him the pictures and telling me I'm in big trouble! “I didn’t take any Sir!” He kept turning the camera over and over after making me switch it on, saying "Where are the pictures!?" Thankfully the GoPro doesn’t have a LCD screen, saved my bacon…and my camera!

A mad dash through the capital island on arrival to get some new line, and then we were off. Missioning down to our special spot in the hope that the swell gods would roll the dice in our favour.

One room for our boards and rods, the other for us. A good balance. Took a flyer and asked the boat owner to try find Garth an el cheapo guitar so he didn’t have to lug his one over. Turns out el cheapo guitars sound like el cheapo guitars. Or maybe even more like screeching cats who’re in the process of being snacked on by Bruno the Bulldog.

So far one fish in the boat. Been travelling a bit too fast to trawl. Caught by the R10 handline tied to the rudder strut, not the $$$$ Shimano Tiagra 50 stuck in the rod holder. Fish aren’t fussy.

Been off grid whilst we sailed down to our spot, only arriving late Thursday arvo. A quick surf (OK, make that a swim with our surfboards) to rinse the grime off and then go set anchor in a nearby lagoon for the night. The swell that klapped us over the last weekend should pull in on Friday. Fingers crossed! Mates of ours are also anchored down here – said we’d missed cooking surf on Tuesday. Bogger. But a good sign they’re here, cos that means my call on the swell prediction should be spot on.

Could get used to living here. All you have to do is surf, fish, sleep, read and get fed like a King. Gonna start investigating how to enter that $200 US Mega-million lotto…..

Back in the day there was a comic strip called Hagar the Horrible. Was bout some Viking dudes, Hagar, and his sidekick Eddie. Now Eddie was called Lucky Eddie, kinda facetiously, cos if there was an arrow flying by, a cauldron of boiling tar being thrown over the wall, or a stray spear - well, you guessed it, they hit Eddie. So he wasn't really so Lucky.

Yesterday was Big Dave's turn to be Lucky Eddie.

Things started out well. A "business trip" to JBay neatly coinciding with clean glassy 4-6ft lines. So far so good. Bails out the car at Supers. Board off the roof, ready to grab suit and get kitted up...but, ooops, locked the keys in the car. Phone the Houdini people, get the keys out the car, pay R200.

Now the southerly has come up a bit, so Supers not looking so super anymore. Board back on the roof, down the road to the Point. This time keys not locked in the car. Paddle out, hair dry. Lil bomb rolls through just as he reaches the backline. Spins round, strokes in, wave peeling off down the line ahead of him. Mind ablaze with the possibilities. 

Kulula's everyone's favourite budget airline. They're the Nando's of the skies, with some great tongue-in-cheek advertising. The hiccup is that they're now paying their marketing ou's so much, they've decided to pull a serious skelm on surfers. Gone are the days where your boards could come along for the ride.

Uh-uh, sorry for you....new baggage regulations at the end of last year saw em pull a sneaky. What the PR types call a "soft launch"...i.e they introduce something they know the public are gonna be the moering with them about, so they don't actual advertise it, and try hide it away on some obscure section of their website.

So your first introduction into the new Kak Kulula Kharging policy is when you rock up at the check-in counter with your board. "Hi sir, that'll be R300 please." Whhhhaaat?! Yebo yes, you only be allowed ONE piece of baggage these days. So whatever else you got with you, including your surfboard, gets heaped with a R300 surcharge. Untidy, very untidy.

And let's just remember those drie honderd smackeroo's only get your board one-way. You still gotto bring it home. Cha-ching....they just hooked an extra R600 outta ya pocket. Daylight robbery, there's nothing more to it.

Oh, but it gets better....if you're a golf nerd, that's OK....bring along them 40kg golf clubs, no problemo, no extra cost. Why the discrimination!? My flipping board weighs a damn side less than those stupid ball-hitting sticks. The website specifically states: 

What sports equipment can I take and what is the cost?
Bikes, fishing gear, surfboards etc. are not considered normal luggage, and can only be carried as part of your 1 free piece baggage allowance. Extra pieces will be charged at the airport rate of R300 per piece or save up to 33% and purchase extra bags online (at least R200 a piece) at least 2 hours prior to your departure.

Yah, well guess what Kulula Kooks, the surf community ain't so chuffed about your kak idea to charge for boards yet still letting the golf nerds through. We thought Kulula was all about Kool. Surfing is Kool, golf sure as hell ain't!

Get your priorities straight!

Wanna let em know you pissed, click the link below to give em some "feedback". If you don't bitch, you just gonna keep paying. Vote with your feet peeps. They don't support us, we don't support 'em Fairs fair.

https://www.kulula.com/pages/survey/feedback.aspx?FC=31 

Geoff Jones dropped us an email with a coupla shots of the old days in PE:

"As an ‘old’ PE surfer, I thought I better give you a little more info about ‘the old days’ i.e. the 60’s and 70’s.

When I started surfing in 1965, we only had one surfshop in town.  That was Sandy McGilleray’s shop in the old city parking garage next to the Hong Kong restaurant.  The other surfshops in Rink Street came years later.  From what I can remember, all the boards were imported from Oz and the USA at the time, although both Cape Town and Durban were soon making pretty good boards.  Then Bobby Joubert started making really fast boards in EL – I still remember a 10 year old Gavin Rudolf asking me for a wave on my new board at the fence.

Taking about the Fence, I thought you may be interested in a couple of old surf shots.  The first one was taken on a big day at the fence.  The shot was taken around 1966 (46 years ago).  Note where the break was compared to the double stacked harbor wall block versus where they are today.  That section of the wall is now high and dry and the break is far more out to sea.  The bounce off the wall was far more pronounced and had a lot more effect on the waves.  Those were the days!!

The second shot was of me on a nice glassy day at the Pipe, again taken around about 1970 – note the old fashioned cargo boat in the background.

Sorry I don’t have some better action shots to show you.  But I do have years and years of good memories.  I still surf a longboard, now at 66 and intend to keep going until I can’t stand up anymore.!"

Thanks Geoff! Anyone out there with more old pics of PE surf and the beach scene from back then, please pop em to me on millerslocal@gmail.com.

Was wondering how the EP team was doing at the SA Longboards at Vic, so tracked down manager Michelle Hill for an update. Here we go...
"So far so good. We had a fantastic day today with some real standouts! All of our juniors (under 18) and Boys (under 15) are through to the Semi-finals. It’s an amazing accomplishment and they have all surfed their hearts out and made us very proud...Standout's so far have been Steven Sawyer, Galad Smith, Josh Macwilliams, the Van Risjwick brothers and Dane Van Greaunen. Dylan Macleod is thru to the Semi's in the open division and Masters. Jonathan Hill has also put on a sterling performance this year and joins Dylan in the qualifying final with still there safety net in place. Michael Hill and Brad Beck also got through their heats today to advance to the reprocharge semi's in the open division.

Also our superbly talented team of grand masters unfortunately lost one of their own today but Duncan and Andrew Scott and Kimbal Whitfield are all through to the Semi's after putting on a fantastic display of old versus new school surfing making them a force to be reckoned with for the title. Greg Smith surfed amazingly posting some huge scores in his heat also seeing him comfortably advance to the semi's. Craig Van Greunen also displayed some powerful back hand surfing in his division today making him a genuine favourite for the title in his age class.

Tomorrow (Friday) we kick off with the ballies with Dave Hill, Gavin Seaman and Dave Lippy all ready to do battle with the old Vic locals from the Southern Cape team. From there we will be heading straight into semi-final action with the possibility of final heats as well.

On a more serious note we were chased out the water by what looked to be a large shark this evening. The contest was called off at once and will resume again after the managers meeting tomorrow morning. It’s scary stuff. One local resident says in all his 30 years at Vic, he has never seen a shark... makes you wonder!!!

Big swell predicted for Saturday!"

Good luck to all our surfers - get your grubby mitts on that trophy ou's, and mind the finned friends.

Eish, the weather really threw a curveball at these ou's. Howling wind, and some serious rain showers created challenging conditions for Sunday's Ironman. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

It pissed with rain in the morning - which meant I decided the most appropriate attire to go watch the start in was my wetsuit! There was some heavy chop and a moer of a current running. I saw some ou's bail even before the swim, just collected their bags and went home. Then one ou swam out for about 50m, decided he was over it, turned round and swam right back! The jetski's and rubberducks were working constantly pulling exhausted swimmers out and back to shore.

Got goosebumps a few times when I saw peeps that really epitomised the Ironman motto of "Anthing is Possible". I saw a guy struggling to get out the shallows, he kept on falling over - well, turned out he only had one leg. They were allowed to give him his crutches when he dragged himself onto the beach, then he had to get himself up off the sand and hop up the beach to the transition. Next a guy came in attached with a rope to another guy. He was blind and he had swam an entire 4km being roped to a guide. Pretty damn scary to be out in the middle of a mean and nasty ocean and not be able to see a flipping thing.

The bike was a challenge in the wind. Some poor bugger got blown off his bike as he came past us where 3rd avenue intersects with Marine Drive - he hadn't expected the gust of wind that pumped down the street as he passed the road - and next thing he was blown off his bike and over the hedge onto the grass. Just another fun day in the saddle.

The run suffered from more gale force winds, and some driving rain showers just to really round off an already kak weather day. But hey, the ou's still plodded along. Big up's to everyone who competed and managed to finish. Local surfers Wes Weihahn, James Medcalf and Garth Wright were amongst the finishers - respect. Although it does mean they miss out on the surf today cos they probably can't walk!

Til this time next year......get training peeps. If Ollie le Roux can finish, so can you!

PS The Ironman 4 the Kidz charity raised R1.5 million for under-privileged kids, great stuff guys.

In a stroke of insanely bad luck, the Ironman on Sunday is going to get squarely hit in the teeth with gale-force winds and a moer of a storm. Ironic when the days leading up to Sunday, and almost immediately after Sunday, are all picture perfect weather! Kak luck.

But what's kak luck for some is great news for others....particularly those of us who have been waiting for the first of the real winter swells to pull in. Well, wait no longer. Sunday & Monday are going to be be absolutely massive in JBay. Sunday clocks in with 14-16ft ocean swells, which probably translates to about 10ft wave faces; and then climbing to a crazy 22 - 27ft on Monday - which should see about 12-15ft faces at least. Any takers???? Reckon you could get properly smeared onto the reef trying to make it out the keyhole.....and by the time you look over your shoulder you've been washed down to Point without even catching a wave!

The swell has plenty of south in it unfortunately for those looking to surf the bay in PE. That means Sunday is gonna be pretty average at about 3ft at best - and coupled with stonking gale force winds doesn't look too promising. You know when the wind speeds get coloured purple that it probably isn't going to be a kiff day out on the water!!

However things get better on Monday, which should see us get some decent 5-6ft lines in the bay. The swell still has too much south in it to really clock around into the bay properly - but with 20ft open ocean swell - we'll at least get some decent sized titbits! 


The southerly swells are always the phantom one's for the bay. Everyone checks out their windguru's or Magic Seaweeds and gets all excited when they see the swell size. But peeps, the direction is lank important too. Our bay needs a traditional SW swell with a period of 13sec + for it to bend properly around Cape Recife and into the bay. Anything that is SSW or S hits the coast to straight on, and doesn't bend around the point and into our line-ups. So Bluewater Bay is ginormous in a S or SSW, and the Fence to Pipe stretch is average.

Luckily this SSW one is big enough to still get us something, so let's wait and see. Take a sickie or bunk school on Monday - gonna be worth it I think! Not gangbusta by any means, but just good solid head high to overhead swell. 

JBay on the other hand is going to be huge on Sunday, and frigging lunatic outta-control on Monday.......but surf that at your peril...make sure your medical aid payments are up to date before you paddle out.....

Eish, the sand has gone seriously AWOL at Millers lately. Which is a REALLY bad sign as winter hasn't even started yet! Usually the summer onshores build up the sand, and then the winter storms sweep it away. The hiccup is, now we have bogger all sand left for winter to take.

I haven't seen the beach at Millers this rocky, and the dunes this damaged in the 12 years I've lived over the road. There's rocks popping outta the sand I've never laid my eye's on.

The dunes at the back of the beach have taken a pounding too, and are busy getting smaller with each passing winter. They used to extend far deeper onto the beach, whereas now they're getting smaller and are only starting further back towards the grassy area behind Millers. Not a good sign at all - cos once these guys are gone, that's it ...no more dunes. There's no feeder sand to build em back up. 

Yet another beach screwed up by the march of development. We're gonna seriously regret stuffing up the dune system in Summerstrand, cos one day soon we're just going to have big concrete walls all along our beaches.....

Might be an interesting winter.....

Jeffrey's Bay Surf Challenge and Industry Cup presented by Bloodscan To Be Held At The Point, Jeffrey's Bay

Jeffrey's Bay - The inaugural Bloodscan Surf Challenge and Industry Cup is fast approaching, and Jeffrey's Bay is gearing up to host what promises to be a dynamic new event on the surfing calendar as well as a great gathering of the South African surf community. With R74,000 in prize money and the promise of excellent waves at The Point in Jeffrey's Bay, the entries have been flying in and the contest organisers are well on the way to a full house of entries.

This open event comes at a time when the South African surfers are hungry for events, and it incorporates 5 divisions, so everyone can enter. The divisions are Open Men's(Industry Cup), U20 Boys, U20 Girls, U14 Boys and U14 Girls. Open Division first prize is R15,000.

The Industry Cup, which hasn't been surfed since 2003 (Billabong hold the trophy) is going to be an entertaining component of the event, with surf teams from all over the country entered into the event. Majority of the top surfers in the country are representing their sponsors, and there are going to no doubt be a few friendly old rivalries coming to the fore. Quiksilver has fielded a strong team of Slade Prestwich and Beyrick De Vries, who placed first and second in the Quiksilver Pro Junior in Durban recently. They are joined by powerful goofy-footer and former WQS event-winner Dan Redman, as well as Dane Patterson, who will be representing from the Quiksilver offices, and who knows how to wet a rail as well.

Billabong is equally as strong, with Dale Staples, Sean Holmes, Shaun Payne and Raymond Robertson representing. All four of them are dangerous on right-hand point breaks and Dale, Sean and Shaun all have impressive Jeffrey's Bay victories under their belts. On paper this looks like a winning team, and they could well be victorious and defend their title, but we all know that paper representation can be way different to what goes down on the beach at contest time.

Another danger team is the impressive Volcom crew. Alan Johns and Shane Thorne are fierce competitors who compete to win, while Luke Patterson and Simon Nicholson can both be unbeatable in good waves. They will want to do well, get the silverware from Jeffrey's Bay and take it home with them to Durban.

Similarly dangerous is the Firewire team, comprising Ryan Payne, Warren Dean, Craig Els and Ari Kraak. This is another team with extensive Jeffrey's Bay knowledge, and every one of these guys is a fierce competitor. Any one of them could make it to the final and win the whole event, and as a team they have depth and experience, which is so important in team events.

There has been a fairly good start to the season in Jeffrey's Bay already, and contest organisers are confident that there will be good waves for the event. The contest venue is The Point in Jeffrey's Bay, a perfect wave in its own right, but often overlooked due to its older brother, Supertubes, always showing off just up the road. The Point provides a perfect canvas for high performance surfing, as well as for solid carving.

The event is sponsored by BloodScan, and will be raising much-needed funds for the Supertubes Surfing Foundation. The Foundation has been preserving the waves and beaches of Jeffrey’s Bay since 1999. The Supertubes Surfing Foundation is a joint venture between the local surf clubs and the surf industry in Jeffrey’s Bay.

Event co-sponsors are African Bank, Black Label, Sector9, Element and EP Skydivers.

Red Bull will be supplying the energy for all contestants.

For contest entries please contact Laureen Payne on paynelaureen@gmail.com or 072 898 1001
For more information contact Koffie Jacobs on koffie@silverbullet.co.za or on 084 515 7026
For media enquiries please contact Craig Jarvis on craigjarvis@vodamail.co.za or on 0823 76 4443
Also check out www.bloodscan.co.za for more information on BloodScan

The Jeffrey's Bay Surf Challenge is sanctioned by Surfing South Africa (SSA) and Eastern Province Surfing Association (EPSA).