Author: Roostar77

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Chasing the goose – surfing the KZN South Coast in summer

Surfing the KZN South Coast in summer

Chasing the goose – surfing the KZN South Coast in summer

Surfing the KZN South Coast in summer…Onshore, offshore, side-shore, cross-shore day to day. Bluebottles, sunburn traffic and brown water, dawn patrols and of course chasing the proverbial golden goose. I woke up way too early the other morning again to a sweet and very uncharacteristic offshore careening down the river. A little after dawn I am staring at the sea with a coffee and of course no-one to surf with- again, it get’s a little ‘Groundhog’ around here sometimes especially out of season, I find myself scrambling madly through my phone trying to conjure someone to surf with- no joy, everyone’s stuck in the real world- a curse and a blessing this existence…and no one is answering the phone. Plan B I hunt my evergreen older brother Shonalanga, and phantom Nephew Buzz down and an anxious hour or two scratches by until all three of us are in the car with the camera charged headed to a brand new surfspot! You see I have been hunting new waves- especially slabby reefbreaks my whole life. A little bird told me about a particularly chunky little wave the boogieboarders love to ride, and I had been on a mission to find it. Turns out the wave I thought was ‘Flintstones’ turns out to be just another perfect little bend of reef peeling into a rocky bay just around the corner!

To cut a long story to smithereens Sean drew the short straw and was elected as filmer and we got to finally start shooting for our project in collaboration with Gazo and Justin at Wedge surfboards to film and test these crazy new sleds they are making. Quite literally building chassis into surfboards with crazy concave and Modern Planing Hull technology. Stay tuned for more in this video I am riding the latest C-Link model 5’5 and Buzz is riding the Air-Bender 5’5 as well which is one of the fastest and most responsive boards I have ever ridden- you just have to be completely on your game to ride them properly…

If you see us lurking the KZN South coast surfing this Summer- come check these boards out, if you are interested in buying one we will set you up and you can try a test board for a couple sessions-no more!!!

Surfing the KZN South Coast in summer
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Clive Barber African Vibrations

Clive Barber African Vibrations

The first time i heard of Clive Barber was in the Godfreys house in Seal Point- they have a poster from his surf film ‘African Vibrations’ on their wall, the film itself has been lost in the ether, the reels lying somewhere between here and Australia. I have since seen, and surfed Clive Barber shapes all over South Africa, during the Rolling Retro event in 2009 a wave presented itself to me and im still not sure what happened: check the photo in the gallery below by Winston Kletter for more of his work click here…

I met Clive through Bruce Gold years later, he was fighting for his health, after a lifetime of surfboards and their associated health risks his body was packing in. He had a few surfboards left that he had made, Bruce described the one to me: he said it  was a surfboard- that looked nothing like one, and that i had to try ride it. I bought it on the spot and felt even better for it knowing the money was going toward hospital bills- but Clive was going to make it, originally it was going to remain unsurfed and hopefully on auction at a future Rolling Retro event. I was having all kinds of dreams like setting up a fund to help all the legends of South African surfing like Clive and Bruce Gold- to help look after their health needs after a lifetime dedicated to surfing and the lifestyle- wholly unrealistic but still a dream of mine none the less.

So i took the Barber for a ride…

…and she had so much glide- i cant help but keep riding on her…

When Clive finally ‘dropped his body’ as Bruce loves to say, The Barber had ridden all kinds of waves, and  even become a quad. His son Craig approached me online about buying it when i was in Norway a month ago. The sweetest irony being it now is actually the only board i have to ride!  There’s a lesson here somewhere but back to the story: Clive Barber not only made one of South Africa’s first surf movies, he was also an intrepid photographer and traveller who documented his journey around Australia as can be seen in the gallery below there are many iconic images from Byron bay to Mauritius, and all over South Africa my favorites are the one’s of old Seal Point and Jeffreys bay…

A few weeks ago i saw Angie Knight posted on Clive’s Facebook page  some notes she had printed out that were from a blog i wrote that has been since deleted- from my first surf on The Barber check it out below with a bunch of other images that tell their stories for themselves…

Miki Dora, his dog Skooter-boy, Bruce Gold, Clive and Eddie Godfrey holding court at The Fullstop

also check out Garth Robinson’s work Surf Art Jeffreys bay for more iconic imagery

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South coast shark sightings

Reports have been filtering from all over the South coast shark sightings seem an all too common occurrence. Here on the South coast shark sightings are a part of life- before all the sardines got hoovered up by the Chinese we used to see crazy stuff at all our local surf spots each Winter- now, the sharks- especially the Zambezi and Great Whites have snuck their way back up the food chain and boom! Which part dont you get? more sharks…

Good surf potential on walk to HITW
South coast Shark sightings photo courtesy Whitesands

I dont how many sessions we have had down here where we all saw something, but chose to keep quiet about it we were so keen to just surf and get some waves in, then come in and all say something like: ‘im pretty sure i saw something out there’ someone else would chime in with a: ‘ya, i definitely saw something!’ the third would echo our thoughts with a ‘i just wanted to get a few waves!’

Yesterday a Great white chased two of those friends from the story above out the water at a closely guarded secret spot here on the South coast so ‘beware be aware and be warey’ to quote the ol’ sea dog himself Bruce Gold and have your selves a wonderful early Winter!

barco ondas

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