Llandudno beach was packed to the brim and the who’s who of SA surfing popped in to support. Highlights was Potamus the surfing dog who almost ate one of Vudu’s boards (in fact I hope it wasn’t one of their boards) and of course Jordy Smith (leading SA surfer) , Roosta, Chad du Toit and more.

It was hot on the beach, and not just the sun, babes everywhere made for a happy beachbum…

Shoutout to Jacque Smit and John Wilkinson who kept me company.

Props goes to sponsors Vudu Surf, RVCA, Red Bull, theGoodLife, Hurricane, Backsberg, Indo Sole, Wet Sac, Reef Wetsuits, Mrs Palmers and once again to Kai for making this day possible. The best day to kick off a year full of surfing in Cape Town, ever!

theGoodLife video here:

And without further ado, check out the gallery below (there is a second set of photos, link at bottom!):

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De Sousa went on to beat Durbidge (no knockout round), Bourez (quarters) and Durbidge again in the semi’s to line up against Kelly Slater for the final. Kelly beat Alves and Taj Burrow to get to the finals. De Sousa displayed some excellent technical riding to take the title, but Kelly’s edging towards his 11th World title. He only has to make the fourth round in the next event (San Francisco Rip Curl Search event) to take the title, but there are still a few contenders with an outside chance. Chances are slim though…

See the final heat for Portugal below:

Watch this space for some fun coverage and comment us if you’re keen to contribute.

It’s not just Wright who claimed outrageous aerials, Kelly Slater gave it horns right up to the final heat, but looked out of sorts with the kind of competition that Owen was throwing his way right from the start of the heat. To top it all off Kelly snapped his board on a lip with two minutes to go and didn’t bother paddling out again as the writing was on a long wall, being carved up by Owen Wright right in front of him. He’s not too bummed though, as he earned just as much as the US Open of Surf at Huntington Beach with a nice $100k cheque in his pocket. Owen earned the biggest cheque in surfing history, a whopping $300k for winning the event.

Kelly’s semifinal heat against Taj Burrow was an excellent contest. Both of them were scoring in the 9′s and Kelly wrapped it up with a perfect 10 for a stupendous air (around 2:30 in the vid above). This heat just went to show that it’s never over until that buzzer goes, especially against Kelly. He’s on a strong path towards an 11th world title, scoring 8,000 points for his second place against Owen’s 10,000 points, but Owen is not far behind at all, with Joel and Jordy trailing not far in their wakes. These guys starting looking like choppers with all their front and back side reverse airs. Best move of the contest was Josh Kerr’s body varial (is that what it’s called?) Watch closely below:

The current top 10 ASP World Rankings:

1. Kelly Slater: 34950
2. Owen Wright: 31900
3. Joel Parkinson: 30200
4. Jordy Smith: 27000
5. Adriano de Sousa: 26750
6. Josh Kerr: 25600
7. Taj Burrow: 25250
8. Mick Fanning: 23000
9. Michel Bourez: 20500
10. Jeremy Florez: 19700

This year seems to be wide open and it’s making for some spectacular viewing pleasure. Long Beach, New York really did bring the goods, and there were crowds aplenty. It was great to see such a good turnout, and also how well the surfers were being looked after by the sponsors (Quiksilver’s competitors area was amazing to see and apparently modelled by the guys who does locker rooms for the NFL!)

Stoked. That’s it!

Plus check out this insane footage from the Phantom Cam in the earlier rounds of Billabong Pro Teahupo’o 2011. Check Adriano de Souza’s wipeout at 2:15, it just shows you with how much speed these guys are racing down the line!

And then as you’ve all probably heard by now, Jordy and Travis surfed against each other only for Jordy to be injured (rib injury from either his board or the reef – he doesn’t know), the heat to be stopped and then restarted with Jordy winning. BUT the call was made for a re-surf of the heat, because it wasn’t supposed to be standard protocol for a heat to be stopped if someone’s injured and Travis took the rematch, putting him through to the quarter finals.

We can’t really complain, a Saffa’s going through, but I damn well hope that we don’t get another Saffa duo match up for the rest of the year as this was two in a row (first in JBay earlier this year).

We wish Jordy a speedy recovery, as he has to be up and surfing at the Quicksilver event in New York by the 5th of September!

A BIG shout out also has to go to Jeremy Flores who scored a perfect 20 (two 10 point rides) in one heat. Some amazing surfing going down at the moment.

[UPDATE]

Congratulations to Kelly Slater (USA) for taking the win over Owen Wright (AUS) in a close fought battle. Kelly put one over Owen on a wave by wave showdown and some excellent tube riding was displayed by both contenders. A big WELL DONE goes to Travis Logie (South Africa) for making the semi finals and making us fellow Saffa’s proud.

For heat reviews on the ‘Heat Analyser’, visit www.billabongpro.com.

And in other news, I saw the Lost Atlas premier the other night here in South Africa. It had really amazing footage (the most creative cinematography I have seen to date in a surf movie thanks to Kai Neville), but apart from a disguised pop shove-it and a few rodeo flips that was as progressive as it could go (maybe I missed the climax?). PS who’s the little blond chap? He rips!

Now excuse my ignorance and don’t make a mistake, Lost Atlas is thoroughly enjoyable and got a bunch of surfers who attended the premier applause at the end. I particularly liked the scenery of the different countries and surf spots (which was captured honestly and realistically) and Jordy’s ‘stinky breath’ scene.

Surfing is pretty much taking over skate and snowboarding moves. It’s the only natural progression I guess. Now, who out there do you think is the most progressive surfers and give us some video evidence of their moves, would love to see that…

It probably comes down to pulling off these extreme moves in competition, but I love me a free surf…

Conditions were a bit blustery at Big Bay (about 25 minutes from Cape Town), but it held for most of the day. The opportunity to take good pictures was hampered by the fact that I don’t have enough zooming power and there were no close elevation to get above the waves well enough so some are not entirely focussed.

Images after the jump…

Excuses aside, here are some of the better ones that came out from the day.

A shout out must go to Monster for the free drinks and FireWire for their demo boards on which anybody could go and surf.

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Remember to pop in on Wednesday the 17th for the premier of Lost Atlas! The prize giving and events start at 7pm at the Big Bay lifesaving club (at Eden on the Bay).

Word is that the waiting period will commence this upcoming Saturday the 20th of August 2011 so keep your peepers peeled on billabongpro.com.

For more info on the upcoming event, check out billabongpro.com.

The swell looks like it’s heaving and we can expect a high level of surfing in all divisions. I’ll go and see if there are any good pics to be taken…

Divisions include:

- Open (Pro and Plate divisions)
- Masters (over 35+)
- Juniors ( under 18)
- Girls

Paid up embers surf for free, and get preference into event. Visitors R150 entance fee.

All the details after the jump…

Loads of Prizes / Coaching for the kids / Everybody welcome.

FIREWIRE surfboards Demo day. Come test ride one for free. About this I’m particularly excited as I’ve wanted to surf these for quite a while.

For more info go check out and like, West Coast Boardriders fanpage or contact info@dutchie.co.za; 021 554 2885; text only 083 580 0551

To top it all off they’re having a screening of Lost Atlas, claimed to be THE surf flick of 2011 on Wednesday the 17th after the prize giving from Sunday’s contest.

Check out the trailer below, it’s going to blow your mind, so make your way to Big Bay Lifesaving Club on Wednesday the 17th 7pm.

View Lost Atlas Trailer on Vimeo

I have to mention that live tweeting an event is hard work. I tried to keep up most of the time, but I’m not sure I’ll do it again. I might find solace in the fact that this is a new twitter account (@beachbumsa) and that one can call it some brand awareness…

I took two boards, both purchased second hand off a desperate buddy that wanted cash for his fishing trip in the Kei. One’s a fish and one’s a longboard that I ‘light footed’ because of a crease that I still need to get fixed. The typical catch 22 of either surf or watch surfing applied and I opted to take some photos as it’s a fun hobby. On the lay days I managed to scuff some waves off snaking Brazilians and Frenchman (Internationals were roaming the water everywhere and Capetonians acting as if they’re the local insider at the Gat in Llands). I got Seals on a decent 3-4ft swell after 4×4′ing the makeshift earth bridge that Craig Jarvis (@red_elvis) is moaning about so much. I now understand what he’s on about and it seems with all the rain following the comp it’s gonna be a while before they get it sorted. There I met up with some local West Side crew that were just to glad to be rid of their wives to let loose a little. A classic quote to be heard was ‘It’s so weird being out’ one night in the Mexican…

I of course (being a 6th year veteran) know the ins and outs of Billabong time and made sure every moment was enjoyed to the full. The music fest was great, some excellent bands (Evolver, Jack Parow, Jeremy Loops, Taxi Violence) played to great crowds. On the night that Evolver played I bumped into another Big Bay crew and we literally tried to drink all the beer in the  ’Dolly Jolphin’. Dutchie almost succeeded only to be escorted off the premises.  At that stage I had left already so can’t vouch for the authenticity of the hearsay. A shout out also to Kai (the MC for the music fest at the Jolly Dolphin) and our shared double whiskey at the bar early evening. He’s a cool guy and always smiling, and rocked the stage making sure we were amped for every band that came on.

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Now yes, I was actually here for some surfing action and the first day I arrived (the 15th) I actually missed Jordy’s heat as I was flying up the coast from Mossel Bay upon the call and missed it by 10 minutes #FML. Anyway, I started clicking away… I’m not going to comment on every day, you know what happened in the end and check out Billabongpro.com for highlight videos. It was sad that Kelly and Bobby didn’t show up, but I understand Kelly’s point that it was possibly the best waves in 20 years in Fiji and after 10 titles I would have done the same. It was also one less competitor Jordy had to worry about and congrats goes out to him for taking the win in difficult conditions and to Mick Fanning for his well deserved second.

Stand outs for me was Alejo Muniz, Michel Bourez, Josh Kerr, Julian Wilson, Matt Wilkinson (that pop shove-it attempt or whatever you call it was just insane), Dusty Pane, Mick (still the fastest in the Supers lineup aka White Lightning) and especially Adam Melling (very impressive form) and I’ve got to mention Parko for his sweet carving style which was sharply honed.

If I commented a pic wrong, lemme know…

15 July 2011

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18 July 2011

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21 July 2011

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23 July 2011

Yes, yes, I know there were 20 heats run this day, but the lighting was just so crap and I was drinking beer all day winning prizes with Black Label…

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24 July 2011

The conditions were really shit that day, so I decided to stay warm rather than shooting onshore slop. Some pics are from my cellphone and lower in quality…

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