Barra superbank on fire again
When the sardine.co.za was SurfTV, we had the wave sage Trent van der Bijl, watching the atmosphere’s every move. I never doubt Trent . So when he buzzed me about an east oriented swell coming out of the south…”Sean, your superbanks are goin to come alive!”, we declared a surfing emergency, and made the pilgrimage to Barra.
It’s always flat when you first look at Barra, but after a few minutes, the first set thundered down the bar.
On the long, long walk to the top of the sand, sets were rolling through consistently. And turning themselves inside out as they doubled up and exploded on the sand. In crystal clear water under clear tropical skies. Dave Charley and Aladinho each got the best wave of their lives. Being ambitious I took three crushings onto the sand at the end of three tuberides.
We were spat out in front of Neptunes bar and looking back up at the carnage of dead low tide, decided to take a quick look at the next superbank wave, 300m further north past the hectic close out section that ends the Neptunes stretch.
This next un-named spot was firing barrelling cylinders one after the next, and barely a paddle from the shore. Aladinho and Davey got the best waves each, of their lives, again. And again. And again.
All the while the Neptunes section of Barra superbank – that kilometre of grinding inside out barrels taunted. No takers. Until near the end of the tide window, the Dutch surfing team produced brothers Arjen and Jelle who gave it their best both ending their entertaining sessions with those high speed flying beatings Barra gives you all the time.
A rare day on the beach at Barra…this place is so fickle, and so it was appreciated immensely and rounded off with burgers and beer at Neptunes by a bunch of very lucky people.
Thanks to Dave Charley for the sum total of media coverage, this little phone video…
