JBay surfer Matt McGillivray Qualifies For Elite Tour After Mid-year Cut
Western Australia – JBay surfer Matt McGillivray has succeeded in his quest to requalify for the elite Championship Tour after a tense day of surfing at Margaret River. However, McGillivray was on the cusp and needed an excellent finish at the event to have any chance of requalifying. The Rip Curl surfer who calls Supertubes his home break seemed very at ease in the giant waves that Margaret River main break delivered. There were ten-foot sets and sometimes bigger ones rolling through the lineup. The wild conditions of West Australia suited some surfers but were tricky for many. McGillivray defeated Brazilian surfer Samuel Pupo in the round of 16 before defeating 2019 World Champion Italo Ferreira from Brazil in the quarterfinals.
He picked up some of the day’s biggest waves on finals day and carved them with speed, power, and flow, just what the judges were looking for. His fearless approach saw him advance to the semi-finals, where he came up against event favorite John John Florence from Hawaii, eventually bowing out in this round in a close heat. “Matt has been surfing so well this event,” said Florence. “I knew it was going to be a hard heat.” Fellow South African Jordy Smith was also competing in the event. He managed a quarterfinal finish, lost to local surfer Jack Robinson, and qualified for the back half of the year. The next event of the year will be at Grajagan, a left-hand reef break that breaks off the jungles of Java in Indonesia. For more information, go to https://www.worldsurfleague.com/
Ballito, KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal. Shaun Tomson rode the crest of his career wave earlier this week, when he was honoured with an induction into the elite South African Hall of Fame, the highest accolade that any South African sports person or performing artist can receive.
Listed among the top ten surfers of the century, the former Durbanite was the 1977 World Surfing Champion and six times winner of the Gunston 500 in Durban. Apart from surfing, Tomson is also a renowned author, businessman, environmentalist and motivational speaker.
Former World Surfing Champion, Shaun Tomson, receives his South African Hall of Fame award from Eugene Lewis (CEO, SA Hall of Fame, pictured left) and Johnny Burger (Chairman, SA Hall of Fame). Tomson, who was crowned World champion in 1977, was decorated with the highest honour for a South African sports person at the Coco de Mer Luxury Boutique Hotel in Ballito on Wednesday evening, June 27, 2018. Picture: Pierre Tostee
The South African Hall of Fame celebrates great achievements by extraordinary South Africans excelling in their field, who inspire and empower the youth to holistically reach their full potential. An individual’s integrity, sportsmanship and character are also taken into account.
“The surfboard became a mere vehicle for an incredible human being, Shaun Tomson, to epitomise his passion and perseverance, and then he returned to create a message of hope,” said Johnny Burger, Chairman of the South African Hall of Fame.
“We firmly believe that character supersedes talent and that one human being, no matter how big or small can make an enormous impact. The biggest sporting legend that has ever walked South Africa, besides Gary Player, is Shaun Tomson. We honour you, we respect you and we thank you for leaving something bigger and longer-lasting behind, than just yourself, and that is a true legacy,” said Burger, before handing Tomson his accolade.
On accepting his newest award, Tomson, now California based, said “I am so humbled and so honoured to receive this award from my homeland. I know that I am going to do my homeland proud and spend more time here. What you will, you will become!”
Tomson’s powerful words of inspiration come from his book The Code: The Power of I Will, where he illustrates how people, especially the youth can change their lives in just twelve steps, each beginning with “I will…”.
Shaun Tomson has spent the past few weeks motivating local schools and organisations through the Positive Wave Tour as part of the 50th edition of the world’s longest running professional surfing event, the Ballito Pro presented by Billabong in KwaZulu-Natal
Such is his affinity with the local youth that it has earned him the affectionate nickname ‘Baba Tom’. Wiseman Cele, Manager of New Development for KwaDukuza Municipality said, “The youth that Shaun has interacted with in the last few days have been so greatly impacted by his friendliness, positive energy and accommodative manner, that they started referring to him as Baba Tom. He has become like a father-figure to them.”
“Alchemy is the transference of metals from one state to another which occurs through heat or pressure. Shaun Tomson has to be celebrated not for his achievements, but for his ability to transfer his own pain and transcend every single negative thing that has happened to him to become the person that he is today, an alchemist,” said former South African Champion surfer Greg Swart.
Tomson recently spent an afternoon with Dr. Albertina Luthuli, daughter of anti-apartheid struggle icon, Nkosi Albert Luthuli, where the two philanthropists shared their sentiments on racism, sports, politics and their common love, South Africa.
Tomson’s visit to South Africa culminates with him spending 67-minutes at the Lethithemba Secondary School for the centenary celebrations of Nelson Mandela’s birthday on 18 July #LiveTheLegacy.
Capetonians can look forward to a bigger and better ‘celebration of beach culture’ when the seventh edition of the Earthwave Beach Festival is run at Muizenberg on the weekend 26 & 27 September. (more…)
I’m glad to see that the more wave riding sports progress, the better different genres of the sport are getting along. Except SUP’s at the moment it seems. Bodyboarders and surfers (I happen to do both) seem to get along better than ever in terms of mutual respect. At least in Cape Town waters where I surf frequently. (more…)
Cape Town’s waves have been fickle over the past week or so. My longboard is in for repairs (more on that later) so I couldn’t even hang ten a bit. While we absolutely can’t complain about the weather in Cape Town at the moment perhaps I’ve been spoiled over the holidays in terms of surf, but I’m really amped to get out there again and shred a few.
Other stuff happening is this tool that made a total fool of himself for his surf rage. Go and check it out and add your 2c to the post. It’s disgusting in my opinion and I’ve personally witnessed his behaviour at Supers.
Some good things are happening here. I’ve decided to ditch the accommodation portal that sat on the root domain and from hence forth it’s the blog and all things related that’ll be your main attraction here. That said, some cool things are coming. Summer’s here which for most of us mean that it’s too late to get that beer gut in shape. Luckily I’ve been exercising like a mofo, so ‘jammer om van jou kak te hoor’.
If you’re interested in getting that winter beer gut sorted, check out www.sleekgeek.co.za and get yourself a challenging. In the same fashion Beachbum.co.za is getting some workouts, so sign up your name to the right for receiving regular updates when the site gets updated.
If you landed here looking for accommodation, sorry for the inconvenience, the idea will be revisited during 2013.
For all the other folk that keeps supporting, thanx for the visit pal, you just made my day.
It’s claimed to be a world record. I still think the wave Twiggie rode with Greg Long at the Tafelberg Reef was bigger (100ft claimed), but who really knows. All I know this was one gnarly wave and well done to Garret for pulling it off and staying on his feet!
The Quiksilver Goodwave invitational is back by popular demand and will be one of the highlights on the Surfing South Africa event calendar for 2012. The Goodwave was one of the most anticipated events of the year but was postponed in 2011 leaving a gap for a solid, core surfing event in good waves. Quiksilver decided to bring the event back due to the popularity of the Goodwave.
“We are pumped to have the Goodwave back on this year, it’s an insane event to watch, it makes such a difference watching quality surfing in good waves as opposed to small, sub-standard conditions. There are minimal events on the calendar this year for non-traveling surfers so it gives South African surfers something to look forward to, let’s hope that the ocean produces the goods and we get to run it,” said Quiksilver’s Marketing Manager Dane Patterson.
Thirty-two of South Africa’s best surfers will be selected to compete for R25 000 in prize money on the single best day of surf between 1 March and 31 August. The aim of this unique event is to see South Africa’s finest surfers going all out in good, clean surf.
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…
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!
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!
No this has nothing to do with surfing, but it’s something pretty amazing which I thought should be shared. Have you ever seen anything as cool as this? One day transport will work like this! Imagine!
Chintsa shark attack survivor Denver Struwig has had several surgeries, and he’s going to need some help from the surfing community to cover his costs.
Eric Harris, a member of Friends of Chintsa, a non-profit organisation in Chintsa East, is heading up the fundraising campaign to assist Denver with his medical costs which have amounted to close to R35k (original costs were looking between R40k – R50K, but the hospital has graciously agreed to lower these costs). Friends of Chintsa is a non-profit organisation in Chintsa East. They host a number of community projects including a development surf programme. They hosted a weekend with development surfers from Port St Johns, Coffee Bay and Knysna 2 weeks ago. They are properly accounted and perfect to host this fund.
The organisation are hosting a fundraising buffet and raffle for Denver at the Country Bumpkin restaurant where all proceeds will be going to the Denver Struhwig Shark fund. Anyone interested in attending the fundraiser please contact: 043 738 5523 or email admin@friendsofchintsa.org. Donations towards this fund are also welcomed and can be deposited into the following account:
Friends of Chintsa
Nedbank, Vincent, Current Account
Acc No 1206076925
Branch 120621 (00)
Sort Code: 12-06-21
Swift (IBAN): NEDSZAJJ
Please reference donations as ‘Denver’
They will also have a donations portal up at www.givengain.com by tomorrow under Friends of Chintsa and then ‘Denver Struwig Shark Fund’.
Friends of Chintsa would also like it to be known that any money raised over the R35k target for Denver’s costs will then be pooled in a shark attack fund that will be available in the unfortunate case of another attack.
