Table Mountain is one of the 7 New Wonders of the World!
Well done Table Mountain for becoming one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. We love Cape Town, and we love our mountain! This picture incidentally was taken at 11:11 on the 11/11/11 from Bloubergstrand in early anticipation of this announcement!
Super proud!
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Review: 25th South African Bodyboarding Champs 2011
Since this Beachbum has bodyboarded for 17 years, I decided to cover the local 25th South African Bodyboarding Champs 2011, held at Big Bay, Blouberg (near Cape Town), South Africa. It might have something to do with the fact that it was right on my doorstep… The conditions were excellent for bodyboarding, albeit small initially, but throughout the waiting period the waves just got bigger and bigger with the finals day held in huge surf. It was a paddle battle in the finals, especially for the ladies (read Beekman and co), but everyone pulled through and it was a greatly successful event in the end with great exposure for sponsors. The earlier days were sort of a letdown as conditions weren’t that great (though it was contestable) and people questioned the location, but Big Bay showed SA what it’s worth in the end, drawing huge crowds on the finals day (in 30 degree weather) with epic waves.
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International Coreban Summer Stand Up Surfing Series
Day one of the Coreban Summer Stand Up Surfing (SUP) Series kicked off at Canal Walk in Century City near Cape Town yesterday with over 80 entrants from around the world battling it out on the gruelling 4 kilometre course around the Century City village’s canals and waterways.
The four day event, which includes sprint racing, wave-riding, Le Mans Formula 1 racing and endurance racing, began with long distance stand up paddle board racing.
The men’s event was won by German Andreas von Blottnitz. Jonathan Rosslind and Greg Bertish managed to do South Africa proud by coming in second and third respectively.
Germany took the ladies’ event as well, with Gabi Ott coming in first. Karina Figl from Austria tied with Natasha Pietersmann for second place.
The SUP series will continue until Saturday. If you’re in the area for holiday gift shopping, take some time out to see some of the worthwhile, upstanding action. Today presents the Le Mans Formula 1 surf slalom while the wave riders will battle it out on Friday.
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Junior Saffas Take Reunion Island Challenge
Last weekend saw our local junior 2010 team fare extremely well in the team contest in the Reunion Island Challenge that took place at Kalk Bay Reef in Cape Town on Sunday.
Western Province, the hosts, took second place and the visitors from Reunion Island came third. The Emergin South African team came fourth and Boland came in at fifth place.
The U18 Boys Final title was snatched up by South African junior team member David Brand, who managed to beat current SA champion Matt Bromley of Western Province, pushing him down to second place. Hugo Dubosc of Reunion Island came third and Mikey February, another member of the South African team, came fourth.
This victory has managed to distinguish Brand as the top seed in the U18 SA Team when they compete in the ISA World Junior championships in New Zealand in January 2010.
The U18 Girls’ Final title went to Sarah Baum of the SA Team. She beat Camilla Davila of Reunion Island, who came second. Heidi Palmboom of the SA Junior Team came third and current U18 Girls’ champion Alice McGregor of the Emerging SA Team ended up in fourth place.
The U16 Boys’ finals saw the title going to Daniel Wilson of the Western Province. South African team members Steven Sawyer and Jarred Veldhuis came second and third. Fourth place went to another WP surfer, Benji Brand.
The U14 Boys’ Final victory also went to a WP surfer: Max Armstrong. He beat SA Emerging team member Benjamin de Castro. Lucas Jannier of Reunion Island came third and Brandon Benjamin of the Emerging SA Team came fourth.
The Reunion team members have been spending this past week training in Durban, where they will take on the SA team again, as well as a team from Central KwaZulu-Natal and Southern KwaZulu-Natal in Durban tomorrow and Saturday. The Reunion Islanders return home on Sunday, but they’ve already promised to host a reciprocal event on their home turf next year.
Well done Junior SA Team! Hopefully this weekend’s challenge against Reunion Island and the KwaZulu-Natal teams will see a stellar repeat performance!
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Surfers Break Guinness Record In Cape Town
A few weeks ago we told you about the overwhelming interest surfers expressed in participating in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the “Most surfers riding the same wave” in Cape Town.
Well, we were elated to hear that they did it! Yesterday, more than 100 surfers hopped onto the same wave at the Earthwave beach festival that took place in Muizenberg this past weekend.
The initial estimate was that there were more than 120 surfers on the successful attempt, but from the photographs, the correct tally seems to be closer to 103 – which is still better than the 100 that were set by Earthwave in Brazil last year. So provisionally, South Africa has broken the record yet again!
According to the report on IOL, it was initially a bit of a struggle to get all the surfers on the one wave. “The first wave was chaos. Some yelled “go, go”, others said, “no, no – back wave”.”
Earthwave’s local organiser, Paul Botha, told IOL that the secret to reaching success is to not have the surfers clumped together. “They need to stay in a line, spread out along the beach, so that when they turn and paddle, they don’t paddle into each other.”
The Earthwave festival is an annual event to promote awareness of climate change and sustainable lifestyles.
Video footage and photographs will be sent to Guinness to have the record updated and ratified.
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