Check out these wooden surf boards at www.wawawave.com and see the video below of the Alaia being ridden at Supertubes, Jeffrey’s Bay. The boards are made in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa and their makers are as chilled as the riding style itself.

Somehow these are just beautiful to me, but I think the level of difficulty will be high on this specific board. They also have Paipo’s (hollow board with a single fin) and Handslides (these are SICK for bodysurfing!) Go check it out right now!  Can’t wait to get my grubby surfer webs on one…

www.wawawave.com

On the other hand, some of the other ideas are best left in someone’s head… where it ought not to be granted a second thought or even remain a memory.

We’d like to know what you guys (and gals) think about this one: A surfboard with a viewing window. The idea, patented in 2005, has been subjected to mixed reviews.

One reviewer – a South African surfer no less – didn’t particularly like the view he saw through the window when he took the board out for a spin: a Great White Shark swimming below him…

Now, we agree with him that in these terrifying instances ignorance might definitely be more blissful, but the knowledge did give him the upper hand and he was able to get out of the water quickly and safely.

Other reviewers don’t necessarily ascribe to the idea that ‘less is more’. Some have suggested that, instead of merely having a smallish window at the one end of the otherwise solid board, the entire board should be clear. An entirely clear acrylic board will leave no mystery as to what lies ahead or underneath the surfer.

What do you think? Cool idea or not?

My roommate’s immediate reaction: “How on earth will an entirely clear board be visible in the water?”

She makes a clear point! And she doesn’t even surf!

A South African surfer made a splash recently in the art world when he shelled out a cool R17 000 for a surfboard.

So yes, granted, it wasn’t just any board. It was a two metre ‘wavescape’ meticulously decorated by underground comic artist Andy Mason.

A stunned Mason said he was “speechless” by the amount of money paid by avid surfboard art collector Glen Thompson. Thompson, who is a surfing historian, also bought Mason’s last two boards in 2005 and 2006. The amount Thompson bid for the “egg surfboard” is believed to be the highest paid in South Africa for a surfboard decorated by an artist.

The sale was part the third annual Wavescapes Surfboard Art Exhibition and charity auction to raise funds for the NSRI and Shark Spotters.
Of the R125,000 raised at the event, R18,500 came from five signed photographs of sharks by a top marine photographer from the Save Our Seas Foundation, Thomas Peschak. A famous image of a great white following a man in a kayak sold for R5,000.

The Wavescapes Film Festival, which kicked off at the Labia in Cape Town yesterday and will run until Sunday, 14 December, also forms part of the event.