Tag: surfing

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Surfing Mozambique’s surprise left-hander

Surfing Mozambiques surprise left

Surfing Mozambique’s surprise left-hander

Cyclone Dineo caused serious havoc in a lot of people’s lives, leaving behind destruction that will take years to rectify. But it also left us a proper left-hander. Right in the corner at The Dragon in Tofinho.

After imagining many times that one day a left would magically appear in Mozambique, it would appear out of nowhere – be a top to bottom pitching barreling rip wave that made you work and sweat and surf and surf and surf…well, it appeared. The featured picture is more to show where it is, there was only Captain Gallop and myself in the water AGAIN! So no more pics, but the main factor in this miraculous birth of a wave is very clear in the seascape. THERE IS NO SAND.

Right from Praia do Rocha in the south, past Backdoor, around the point at Tofinho, across the Dragon, into the bay, and all along to Tofo. There is nothing. Beaches have vanished completely. The football pitch sized beach on the wild side (if you can call it that), of Praia do Tofo, is gone. You have to walk half up the dune at high tide. It’s an amazing spectacle. The coastline in Mozambique is so subject to change by the elements.

Back to the top to bottom pitching barreling rip wave that made you work and sweat and surf and surf and surf.

The first day my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I saw it in the perfect blue warm conditions we came here for. It was hammering through. Head high and mean.

What had happened, is that the removal of all the sand scoured out the bay at The Dragon, right back to the primary dune. Exposing a reef! So the waves that come off The Dragon point reef (which is well surfed every high tide every day when this happens), spill into the corner, the water escapes north and drags across this reborn reef and straight out into the oncoming swells. Ok the current was mean, but that’s what makes these kind of waves stand up and go so fast.

We had to stop surfing eventually!

The next day was the same as the tide barely moved being in full neaps. Luckily for the neaps as the current would have been undo-able in spring tides. Water moves so fast with the 4m spring tide range around this area.

The next day was the same.

And the next.

And the next, until it was time to make travel arrangements and go West.

We left it there for any takers. A cooking powerful hollow EMPTY left in Mozambique.

PS except for Tofinho, the other waves are all still operating just fine. Backdoor is a bit wild as the lack of sand means it breaks right onto that shelf. I still cannot get over the power that bay holds. At 10 foot the ground shakes when the sets break – huge perfect a-frames that will shake your bones. The bay in Tofo has many different faces through the tides with the sandbanks producing long running lefts and rights at low tide and playful shorebreaks at high.

For any other surfing info or accommodation or tour options, buzz Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com…or click here for more.

https://www.facebook.com/thesardine.co.za/

 

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Cell C Goodwave 2017 – Watching The Horizon

Cell C Goodwave 2017

Cell C Goodwave 2017 – Watching The Horizon

Craig Jarvis keeping us up to date for the upcoming event…Thanks Jarvi!

Cell C Goodwave teaser video – www.youtube.com/watch

New Pier, Durban – The recent fast and wild storm swell has passed, and we’re all looking forward to the next clean, deep-lined ‘Goodwave swell’ to show up at New Pier.

The Cell C Goodwave official swell forecaster Spike from Wavescape had this to say about the last swell. “That swell contains a lot of mixed up directions and intervals and sizes. These swells straight off the end of the wind fetch will always create good individual waves every now and then, but with a lot of weak, and bumpy waves in between.”

Wild and stormy seas from the last swell ©Flanagan

According to Spike there are bits and pieces on the maps for the upcoming weeks.

“The storms are fragmented and lacking uniformity and directional fetch for Durban,” reckoned Spike. “The high pressure systems are still ruling the roost, sitting too far south. A small storm does form off the coast on Friday, and has a small chance of upgrading into something interesting next week, but it’s early days for that. The other system is a giant storm just north of the ice shelf that blasts a SSE fetch towards Durban this Thursday. However it’s a five-day travel away, and it must pass through the Roaring Forties and several cold fronts before it makes landfall next week, with the swell direction also likely to be too southerly.”

Contest Director Jason Ribbink is confident that the Cell C Goodwave will run within a fairly short period of time.

“As Spike mentioned, we are not looking for those swells that have so many different variables, with different wave heights and directions,” said Ribbink. “We’re waiting for that classic day when the New Pier is just perfect, big barrels all day. When it comes the event will run.”

As an added bonus on the day, Cell C Durban is going to be offering free WiFi on the beach and around the contest site all day. So apart from watching the action live you can get all the replays, commentary and scores on your phone or device for free. This is pretty cool. If you happen to miss a 10-point ride or something else just as remarkable, then it’s going to be available for you on your phone, and you can access via Cell C’s free WiFi.

• The Cell C Goodwave is a South African Surfing Legends event, with Jason Ribbink the contest director.

• California Dreaming, overlooking New Pier on the beachfront, will host the competition on the day. Oakley and Sun International are both supporting sponsors.

• The four World Surf League Specialty Events for 2017 can be found herehttp://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2017/spec

Invited surfers, in no order:

Brandon Jackson, Matt McGillivray, Dale Staples, Shane Sykes, Mikey February, Josh Redman, Damien Fahrenfort, Dan Redman, Mike Frew, Simon Nicholson, Gavin Roberts, Frankie Oberholzer, Matt Bromley, Davey Weare, Grant Baker, Chris Leppan, Sean Holmes, Ricky Basnett, Jason Ribbink, Beyrick de Vries, Gary van Wieringen, Dylan Lightfoot, Chad du Toit, Brendan O’Connor, Warwick Wright, Noel Rahme, Shane Thorne, Paul Canning, Richard Kidd, Davey van Zyl, Robbie Schofield, Greg Emslie.

Alternate surfers, in no order:

Secret International VIP, Alan Johns, Josh Smit, Jordy Maree, Adin Jeenes, Simon Fish, Joshe Faulkner, Matt Pallet, Stever Sawyer, Dylan Stewart, Lee Bisset, Scott Venter, Billy Payne, Scott Hamilton, Ryan Payne, Sam Christianson, Derek Footit, Ben Dancaster, Bevan Willis, Koby Oberholzer, Antonio Bortoletto, Manfred Adrio, Wes O’Driscoll, Elton Cuthbert, Andrew Lange, Blane Wood, Chris Frolich, Wade Simkiss, Rene Terblanche, Frank Solomon, Mikhael ‘MK’ Vawda, Casey Grant, Andrew Banks.

The Cell C Goodwave – in loving memory of Lee Wolins.

 

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The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching

The tides of March are marching again, and it’s quite tough to understand why.

The main thing out of synch is that the tidal coefficients are not that high. Monday’s coefficient was a mere 95 in the morning. Given that the coefficient range reaches over 120, it means that it was only about 85% of what it could have been. The height of the tide on Monday was 2.1m in Durban. Durban’s highest tides come in at a raging 2.3m! That’s 20cm more than Monday’s water.

But it’s the storm surges from the massive swell that really is higher grade learning. Why now? Why The Ides of March?

Very strange stuff indeed.

But if you check this amazing animation of the globe’s wind and weather (and even ocean currents and waves if you select the right overlay), you will be able to monitor the whole lot in real time.

https://earth.nullschool.net/

The way I interpret this last push, is that the cyclonic system that grew as it moved south East of Madagascar over the weekend, but did not develop to full cyclone (didn’t even get a name), just stubbornly stayed out there, day after day, whipping swell straight at everyone from the Cape to Mozambique. It’s the positioning of the cyclone that makes for the swells. If it goes crazy and heads for land, it’s not ideal, not by a long way. But when they sit out there, just far enough off not to make too much chaos on land (torrential rain), just behind and below Mad, the distance that  a swell can be built up, is a good 2000 to 3500kms. Winds pushing consistently at 60kmh to 120kmh and sometimes more, can do wonders for us, with this huge fetch of water. Hence the huge swell and storm surges that swamped Durban beachfront and surrounds the last few days. Epic stuff – like a mini tsunami really. And with our best cyclone season for years going on right now, things are gonna stay very interesting.

Aside: If you study the animation at the link above closely and over time, you will also see how come Mozambique is offshore so often, this time of the year. As the winds square the coast, where I write this now – Port Shepstone KZN, it’s raining, it’s onshore, the water is brown and the waves are huge. Meanwhile, get on up to sunny skies and chevrolet, and huge crystal clean barrels – at any low tide in Mozambique, right now!

“I have been trying to get photos or pics from the crew up there, but at this stage, an ominous silence prevails. The wind does look a bit iffy today, but it’s the perfect tides  – things, when they smooth out up there, will be melted plastic.

Calvin Moore is in Pomene! Robin Beatty is in Tofinho! Send news!

Is Caesar going down tomorrow? – Xona”

Endless rains are great for farmers but the brown water instils a nervousness as it's full of sharks.
Endless rains are great for farmers but the brown water instils a nervousness down here in KZN as it’s full of sharks. The Umzimkulu River mouth is a favourite hangout for huge Zambezi’s, that can often be seen free-swimming around the mouth area. Eish!
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Surfing the real Flintstones

Surfing the real Flintstones

After getting in a good session surfing at Flintstones Too, a few days later and we got back on the jungle trail around Port Shepstone. This time the path led straight to the real Flintstones and the guns were out.

Roosta, Calvin and Buzz took on the shallow reef ledge with lefts and rights coming in like a little miniature North Shore. The spot seems to hold semblance to a bunch of others close by – powerful, fast and challenging.

It has been a fantastic summer so far, the swells have been thick and fast – we even had a few bigger days at the end of January. In fact, speculation in the carpark calls the summer a better winter thus far.

The offshores have been holding way into the morning, and the water has been over 24 degrees most of the time. Crystal clear too! The fishing conditions are superb and many a spinning angler can be seen at our favourite beaches up and down the KZN South Coast. Today was another surfing treat as Hibberdene turned on the juice for an entire low tide – barrells in summer!

These videos are part of a series documenting the Wedge Blacktop series of surfboards – stay posted for more Surfing the South Coast in summer!

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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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