Alfonso is a well-known face in the South African longboard surfing community and recently got featured on Expresso (local morning TV show in South Africa).
Alfonso is also trying to get to the World Longboard Surfing Champs in Papua New Guinea and we thought we’d spread the news to our readers to support him.
You can help him get to the Word Champs by clicking and donating here.
Ok beachbums, check out this kiff clip by Dan the Director (Dan Mace) of Bianca Buitendacht heading into her world tour. The short film covers Bianca and her good friend Johanne Defay who’s also on tour. The ladies tour is receiving a lot more attention this year and I think it’s great. Bianca also mentions how we should celebrate the subtle differences between ladies and men on tour.
“In surfing, male and female have a different way of expressing what they know on a wave. Femininity in surfing is a beautiful thing and performance and masculinity in surfing is also and I don’t think it should be compared.”
Something is sure, they all have to be damn fit and on top of their game. Kudos to Bianca, Johanne and finally Dan for putting it all together!
One of my favourite events of the year was recently held at the beautiful Llandudno beach in Cape Town. The Rolling Retro Surf Festival. Beach goers came out in droves and packed the beach for an awesome day of surfing and sun bathing. The weather gods once again didn’t disappoint and with a South Easter predicted I was bracing for a blow in the afternoon, but not a whisper came up the entire day. Photos after the jump…
This year I seemed to have really outdone myself with the number of photos I shot, so I’m going to break it up into a series of posts. The first lot is from day 2 as far as I can remember.
The conditions were pumping, just like the wind initially, but were highly contestable. After driving from 3am in the morning from Cape Town, I took photos until about 2pm and decided that a rewarding surf would be in order for myself. Point was cooking 3-4ft and I ended up staying in the water for 3.5 hours. The fish was behaving well, got some fin free movement on the bigger turns (love how a twin fin releases as you’re about 90 degrees into your cutback) which sets up the next bottom turn nicely. Wait, what the hell am I talking about? I’m just a very average surfer, who had loads of fun. That’s what surfing in South Africa is all about…
If you like what you see, please share this on Twitter and Facebook, bru, and thanx for the support 😉
[nggallery id=13]
On Saturday the 21st of Jan Kai Linder and his crew from The Good Life organised an excellent day for all at the beach. The theme was retro surfing and the guys from Vudu Surf provided a whole range of retro boards for the day’s contestants to ride on. The idea was to raise funds for the Llandudno Life Saving Club and from what I experienced this was a raging success.
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!):
[nggallery id=12]
After grinding the hard slog to a halt I finally got to go on a long awaited surf trip down the garden route for the December break. Mossel Bay was to be had for one day near Christmas and then went flat for a week. Crazy dubstep parties and trash talking around the camp fire were the highlights of the day as the waves didn’t show much in terms of improvement.
Around the 30th I ventured to Still Bay, hoping to catch a swell that was looking better and better on WindGuru and truth behold, on New Year’s morning it was firing like I haven’t seen it in a long time. Solid 6-8ft corduroy lines were filling up the bay and I surfed for almost 6 hours. The next morning was more of the same being out for 3.5 hours, but the rips started coming over the reef and down the line, making paddling a hard fought battle. On the 3rd it was even more of the same, but the swell was jacking and I decided to skip to Betty’s Bay to try and catch the end of the swell.
Arriving at Betty’s the wind had turned and messed things up, but I could see the potential of some waves to be had. The local crew had it great from early morning, so I was excited to get into it on the dawn patrol the following morning. We surfed ourselves out the morning, and I managed to land on my board and break the fin box on my fish. I didn’t want to risk the long board, so paddled out the afternoon with a bodyboard. BEST DECISION EVER! We had it all time, and were frothing around the braai that evening in anticipation of the next morning’s dawny. Having bodyboarded for 17 years before turning to stand-up I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore. Seems that was not to be a worry at all, just that my feet got chafed heavily by the flippers which I wasn’t used to.
What greeted us was perfection! We caught the second session of the day on camera for your viewing pleasure…
[nggallery id=11]
It’s official, Kelly Slater took his 11th World Title last week by placing past round 4 in the San Francisco Rip Curl Pro.
Who knows how long he’ll keep on doing this, but at 39 years old it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down at all. After Jordy Smith fell out with a rib injury after Teahupo’o in Tahiti  it was pretty much plain sailing for Kelly, but Owen Wright (Aus) did give him a hard run for a few events. Lets hope Jordy keeps it together next year and that Kelly keeps on surfing, because it’s sure going to be a cracker of a tour with all the new talent coming up the ranks.
Long live Kelly, in my opinion one of the best sportsmen of our time. Congrats mate!
Hear it in Kelly’s own words:
and a cool compilation here by Red Bull:
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.
Owen Wright fought hard to win his latest title at the Quiksilver Pro New York 2011. He was on a high after his second against Kelly Slater in Tahiti at Teahupo’o and it looks like he’s not planning on coming down from that high any time soon. You see, Owen has gotten his pilot’s license in being an aerial specialist and this event will go down in the books for being a showcase of just that. See the video below for some ridiculous air time.
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!
My annual pilgrimage to the Billabong Pro in Jeffrey’s Bay did not disappoint. After all it was a trip with extreme epicness patched together by a lot of nothingness in between. Stretching a surf trip over 10 days doesn’t do one’s bank balance good, especially with so much entertainment on offer and seemingly the only final destination on a lay day to be the factory shops. I think this town was laid out exactly with this in mind, with the end of the road (Da Gama) being my credit card on the sales counter, literally. At least I scored a new suit at a decent price.
