The week that was… – Featured Blog

The first week of 2017 won’t be remembered for the quality of it’s surf, but hey – it’s summer, the water’s warm and the weather’s lekker, so it’s good enough. And even if the sea isn’t doing much exciting, the sunrises and sunsets sure have been making the effort.

If were just keen to get your salt-water dose you were in luck, as there were some small sliders and some onshore lumps throughout the week. Just couldn’t be fussy though. But then when do PE surfers ever get that luxury?

If you were prepared to take the road less travelled….better treasures awaited.

The JBay ou’s are not quite used to the mission that trying to find waves in summer in PE entails. Arno Lane did manage to find a few possibilities after putting in the miles.

Always fascinated by the street vendors plying their trade along the beachfront this time of year. Primary product this year was selfie sticks and yellow inflatable ducks. Ou’s had to develop some fine skills to keep a hold of them during the super windy days…

You know the holidays are over when they come fetch the temporary bog-houses…

Been some crystal clear water about on the windless days, here’s St Francis looking like the tropics.

The local wildlife hasn’t had a good week. A seal with an apparent gunshot wound washed up at Cape St Francis, and a dolphin with a big chomp outta its back washed up at JBay. Appears as if the dolphin lost a battle with a White. Eish.

Didn’t matter if the surf wasn’t the best – you could still hit the pavements for some glide. Always fun to take the lighties for a tandem skate. Smile stretches from ear to ear. Kids are easy to please!

Ex-Pipe local and now superyacht crewman Carl Barnard isn’t too concerned about the PE flatspell – cos he’s been hooking some kiff waves in the Maldives.

Some more ex-locals blew in for the holidays, with Ari and Faye popping past Seals for a quick howzit. The happy couple serve as a great reminder for all those looking for future partners – remember the saying that goes “couple that play together, stay together” – and there isn’t a better combo than having both of you that surf! 

Cos surfing ain’t like tennis that you can just arrange to play on a Saturday at 3pm. You need someone to understand why you just have to bail whatever social engagement might have been organised weeks in advance cos the surf’s cooking NOW!

The week ended off with some spectuacular sunsets, a last blast before most peeps have to head back to work and school. All the best for 2017!

Here’s to 2016. You weren’t the best year for surf, that’s for sure. But hey, we had waves. We also had wind, And sunshiney days and spectacular sunsets. Some stunning sunrises. A few big days. A few very big days. Plenty of little days. And the absolutely v*k-all days. So yeh, overall you weren’t so bad I guess. Let’s run you through the year.

The waves pumped! Oh wait. That’s cos I was in Indo….

The bay didn’t do too badly either….

As long as you didn’t mind sharing the sea with the summer critters.

Funky perspectives kick-started the month. The first in what was to be a year of amazing images from PE’s eye-in-the-sky Dean Cothill.

The perceptiveness of PE surfers was shown with a punt for the #mustfall campaign 10 months before it started….just swapped Zuma for fee’s.

The pier had it’s share of the Pied Piper and his Merry men….

And some wargames kept the locals entertained.

There were a few waves here and there.

Our hood sure is pretty from up on high

March saw some mini-grom mayhem descend on Pipe for the annual Grom Games.

Local restuarant Muse steped up to the plate with an ocean inspired dish from surf chef Allan Bezuidenhout. An edible coral reef for mains.

Surfer magazine founder John Severson famously said ““the surfer can still seek and find the perfect day, the perfect wave, and be alone with the surf and his thoughts.” Or alternately, they can just sit by themselves on the beach at Seals.

PE finally landed a feature in the Zag just to show the rest of the country that we actually do get the odd wave.

Perspective is everything. In PE you need it to make the waves look good.

March ended with a bang at least…

April Fools says Cape Recife has a grinding right point. The irony is that actually it does.

Funnily enough there actually were waves on the 1st

Just a taste of sunsets to come, as autumn started to get it’s act together.

The saying goes that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Add to that waves in April.

The wildside doesn’t always have to be wild.

The locals just reminding everyone why PE’s now called the Dolphin Capital of the world

May madness at Millers

And the NMBM Masters grabbing 2nd spot at the SA Champs

The days started pretty…

…and ended the same way.

A coupla waves about that were worth a shout.

If you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.

June means JBay time.

It also means stormy Seals.

Did I mention JBay?

What about a pretty sunrise and JBay? Yeh – it would definitely be June.

July means the JBay Pro

When ou’s get to meet famous people like CarPark John and Chris.

And even surfing superstars show they aren’t immune to the bricks

There’re even waves in PE.

And nothing beats a midwinter sunset.

Winter might be on the wane, but the waves weren’t

Little people began to believe in big things…

Other people just did stupid things.

Nature continued with her show.

A month of youthful optimism…

And absolute bloody morons…

The surf still delivered.

Whether it was single-fin logging…

…or Seal point speedlines.

No takers on the Bird Rocks barrels though.

Started off like a lake

And then got breezy.

Went back to looking like a lake.

And then went back to being windy again.

In between the extremes there were some waves.

And some sage advice from a Seals elder statesman.

The friendly fins continued their daily patrols along the backline.

A few unseasonal swells popped up.

Chomp Rock tried to hide away…

But the moon didn’t.

Some might say there’s light at the end of the tunnel. But a wave will suffice..

And before you know it the last month of the year sneaks up on you.

It did try throw out a few waves.

Some ou’s came to a stop…

…at Full Stop

Peeps were in such holiday mode that lil runners like these broke with not a soul out

Avo’s was more of a fishing spot than a surf spot

But early birds still got the worms.

The Season opened and the Year came to an end.

​2016, to be honest you were pretty kak for surf in the bay. There were some good days and some epic days, but overall we wave you goodbye happily and hope 2017 delivers a bit more!