Jason Heyne checks in with Spearo news weeklyreporting typical summer conditions and species.
Well the diving conditions this week have been tough. The sea came right today (Friday) after a few days of big swell . King and queen Mackerel are around with some big ambers out deep. Saturday the swell is minimal and the wind switches from a light south east in the morning to a light northeast in the afternoon. Sunday the swell picks up to 1.8m and the northeast freshens towards midday . Travis gets club merit fish of the week with his first cape knifejaw and Don gets fish of the week with a 17kg cracker. As always dive safe and straight spears.
Bodysurfin’ The Movie: It’s not often you find something that blows you completely away. But this is will. Blow you the hell away. Flung by a masterful piece of artwork in the form of a quasi-ephemeral timepiece movie about the purest wave riding form we know about.
Bodysurfing.
It feels like a hundred years ago when my brother Marc and I were fortunate enough to hang out with a certain Frenchie Fredericks, as kids. The same Frenchie that toured the north shore as a Springbok surfer in a sponsored VW beetle late 60’s. This was way before any doors needed breaking down. Frenchie’s erstwhile and notable companion was Christine Petrucci. The first Springbok lady surfer. Who used hang out with The Rell. And is the mother of *Maya.
Frenchie was heavily into board design and fin technology. And as early teens, Marc and I fell in with his mystical dreamings and fanciful wave riding philosophies. He surfed with aplomb, and a nice twitch which he converted into speed whenever he needed it. An intense surfer, full of concentration. Flare.
Back then, a day on the beach was just that. An entire day on the beach. Starting way before the sun. And ending with it.
Umtentweni, our local beach, was infamous for it’s shorebreak. On a decent spring with some east swell lying around, this dumper could really deliver. With Frenchie’s encouragement, we were all up for it. So much tube time. So many laughs. So many grazes.
And it was here that Marc and I were able to live life through Frenchie’s decades of experience and travels a while. In between waves he would chat north shore and south shore. Names that were God-like to us. Haleiwa. Laniakea. The Pipe. And whilst surfing these mystical meccas, Frenchie was rubbing shoulders and sharing waves with the likes of Nat Young and Rell Sun. He even knew Gerry Lopez!
Those days charging the huge shorebreak with Frenchie Fredericks were right in our formative years. He taught us how to wipe-out properly. How to porpoise a wave. How to survive the sand!
So when I found this. Bodysurfin’ The Movie. I was flung back to those pure and simple days. When having a surfboard didn’t even matter. Because you could just go for a ‘body’…any high tide you liked.
BUT what a movie features just below! If you would like to get real familiar with the inside workings of a tubing wave, watch away! The camera work is straight from George Greenough and the completely custom made sound track and movie score is oh so ephemeral. This movie dollops buckets of kudos onto such a noteworthy and noble pastime as is bodysurfing.
Enjoy and share a magnificent surfing production – these guys really turned it on! You ought to watch every scene. Listen to every note. I did.
Footnotes:
Coincidences?
There are two wild coincidences in this story. Firstly. Christine Petrucci. Mother of Maya. *Maya is Geoffrey Petrucci from JBay. His first name is Maya. He bust his neck bodysurfing the infamous ‘Tweni shorebreak when he worked with us at The Spot. Nineties. He survived just fine, but Christine still blamed us!
Second coincidence. Frenchie’s spearing buddy in the late eighties was none other than The Sardine News’ spearfishing editor at the time, our very own Darrell Hattingh!
Couta season seems to be well underway, according to the spearos. They have been shooting quite a few for this early in the game. Any fish before December is noteworthy. So maybe this augers well for another good season of couta fishing.
Jason Heyne checks in with his ever-reliable weekly spearfishing report…
“The diving conditions this week have been well below average with a couple of storms and heavy rain mucking up the ocean. Some Cape tail and the odd couta are making an appearance. Saturday a moderate south West blows dropping off later in the day with the swell running at 1.5m . Sunday light variable wind all day and negligible swell. So it looks like Sunday is go day if you can find some viz between the river water. No fish of the week is an indicator of how bad the conditions have been. We have our club AGM on December the 1st so please pay club fees before then so you can join in the fun. As always dive safe and straight spears.”
Jason Heyne checks in with his ever reliable spearfishing report for the KZN coastline…
The diving conditions this week improved quite a bit compared to the last three weeks. Plenty bait ball action on the go north and south. Saturday a moderate to fresh north east blows with swell running at 1.4m. Sunday light variable wind all day with minimal swell. Viz was reported both north and south. Biggest fish of the week goes to Stephen with a 14 kg garrick and club merit fish Quintin White with a 9kg blacktip kingie. Our species comp is on for tomorrow and I expect some decent fish to be weighed in. Good luck to all entrants. Weigh in is at Freedivers Renaldo Rd at 3pm. As always dive safe and straight spears
Peter Jacobs spears a 22kg yellowfin tuna in this weeks spearfishing report by Jason Heyne.
The diving conditions this week have been below average with only two days diveable and not much viz around. Saturday a light southwest blows in the morning switching later in the day to a light north east with the swell running at 2m and dropping off during the day. Sunday morning the north east continues to blow picking up during the day with the swell running at 1.6m. So if big surf is your thing Saturday may be diveable.. Well done Peter Jacobs on getting fish of the week and club merit fish of the week a 22kg YFT! As always dive safe and straight spears.
