Category: Surf Sessions

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Transkei Trip

Transkei Trip

Having my two brothers and nephew in the water wherever we go, means we need a place to surf, that has no-one else near us. Luckily the Transkei is down the road, with it’s gracious serving of perfect right-handers. On camera is my brother Marc (he films a bit like Bruce Gold), and in the water, Roosta and Buzz (Brandon Lange).

Buzz put the edit together, a great job pal! The guitar is by Roosta, in the soundtrack provided by Trollsmoke, the band Roosta plays in, in Norway.

The winter has not been epic this year. The sand is all caught in the bays, and we gonna need at least two or three proper winter fronts to move it all out to the points.

So we have all mostly been surfing away, down south. Saint Mikes and Southbroom, and then into the ‘Kei.

Time is running out for this huge sand moving task. A task that can only be accomplished by nature, as we move into full on Winter. The current spring tides looks promising as it carefully co-ordinates low tide with a strong south swell, and stiff, warm offshores – for Monday. A big west is moving up the coast and promises to change everything for the better, for us.

Very good music in that soundtrack het? Check them out on Soundcloud and have a listen.

More surfing action to follow…Trashed at Saints is the title of our next clip and its coming soon!

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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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Chad Leavitt at Pomene

Chad Leavitt at PomeneChad Leavitt takes the drop at the point in Pomene
Chad Leavitt takes the drop at the point in Pomene (c) Branko

It’s not always screaming hollow at Pomene – often it’s just windy old walls just like Supers, mellow and fun, but warm and clean water. This day Chad Leavitt was out there on a 6’4″ fish and flying. South swells like the ones that fire up Jbay and the like, also make it up to Inhambane Province, where many, many un-named sandbanks await. Crowds are so not a problem, everywhere, except the named spots like Tofinho, where every geek seems to end up struggling for a taste of what the dorky print magazines have been centre-spreading all over the planet.

See you nowhere!

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Jay Steenkamp in the barrel at St. Mikes

Jay Steenkamp in the barrel at St. Mikes (August 2014)

“Repost from August 2014: As we move into the south coast winter conditions we have all been waiting for here is some motivation to get onto the press ups and sit ups routines. Jay Steenkamp proving that it does actually barrell at Saints, sometimes…looking forward to Jay’s GoPro antics again this year…”

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Now this is how you take a selfie pal! (c) Jay Steenkamp

GoPro cameras have certainly changed the way we view surfing. Jay Steenkamp has mastered the tricky take-off to holding the camera behind out behind him as he negotiates some solid pits at Saints this winter.

A sand dredging tuberide view from the inside...
A sand dredging tuberide view from the inside…(c) Jay Steenkamp

And then while sitting around in the line up, if you have a GoPro, you can film the gamefish hammering baitfish around your legs…like this profile shot of what seems to be a Greater Barracuda…yeah, the ones with TEETH! Toes up Jay!

What could it be?
What could it be? (c) Jay Steenkamp

Thanks for the photos Jay, keep ’em coming!

Jay is also our sardine spotter in the air as he works for the Natal Sharks Board…who fly a plane up and down the coast in the sardine season, reporting on the action. Unfortunately, there is still nothing to report, it looks to be another bleak run for our sorely missed sardines.

You can keep up to date with the marine life and activity by visiting our Sightings section…an interactive map with markers reflecting the positions of marine animals, like whales, sardines and dolphins.

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Cyclones! Amazing waves at Barra…

Cyclones! Amazing waves at Barra…

The first tropical storm to be upgraded in early January – Bansi – was graced with the accolade of being a Level 4 cyclone! She is moving away from Madagascar where she was hovering a while, and now has a newly born sister in tow!

Tropical Storm Chedza is right in the channel, our side of Madagascar, and also been upgraded to a tropical cyclone, but is also headed away from us – the two together have produced some epic conditions.

The water is super warm, around 27 degrees, and the airflow has steadily moved from onshore to side/offshore, and it’s finally raining. The light during the day is silvery blue, and as I write this, thunder is forcing it’s way overhead giving us even more to think about.
Surfing waves that can clean cut you in half can be fun once you get used to it, but the purported twin of The Donkey – a shifting superbank in Barra, is by no means easy. The drop is straight out of the sky and 6ft waves disgorge themselves onto a two foot deep sandbar that runs for hundreds of metres. When it’s perfect it can almost be easy, but the last few days at Barra have registered only about a 4/10.

It was lumpy, mean and yet still super hollow. Young Sung Min Cho was the star of the show – he was seen disappearing deep into pits that are easily heavier than any KZN South Coast break can be. The wave literally empties out on itself, is so fast, yet so perfectly difficult. And at 6ft it’s insane stuff.

And! It’s all captured, by Min himself. He and his two brothers, Sung Min Cho and Tae Sung Junior Cho only started surfing a year ago and the level they have achieved is astounding. In fact, Tofo is now littered with groms ripping up anything they can paddle into.

Enjoy the clip!

 

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