Holiday’s gone, but visions of waves will stay
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…
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