Surfer rides street waves for some fun in the storm

ANOTHER Durban surfer’s video clip went viral on Thursday after the social media buzz over local wakeboarder Ibraheem Kajee boarding through the water on Durban’s beachfront during the storm on Tuesday. Surfer Izan “Basta” Leibbrandt, 23, could not resist “hanging ten” on Hunter Street when the road flooded during the torrential downpour.

The escapade was caught on camera and shared widely on social media.

With many of the surf shops on Sylvester Ntuli Road and Hunter Street, the surfing community and people from surrounding businesses can be heard cheering and clapping him on during the clip. Having grown up in Richards Bay, Leibbrandt, who works at 42 Surf, was soaked as the storm hit while he helped to close the store.

“So I changed into a wetsuit and went out into the street because I could see Charl Tostee from Surf HQ trying to clear the stormwater drain across the road. I went to help them and they were also trying to help some tourists get back to their hotel. We got the tourists into the car and then I went across to Surf Garage because they were also getting flooded. There was also quite a lot of debris in the street.

“As soon as everything was clear, I thought ‘it’s time for some fun’,” said Leibbrandt, who has been surfing since the age of six.

He took his surfboard into the street and, as he surfed down the middle of the road, Victor Duvera from nearby business Auto Technics caught the wave action on camera.

“Everyone seemed to be enjoying it, which hyped me even more. It was good to see people distracted from all the chaos and damage around us,” said Leibbrandt.

Veteran surfer Charl Tostee from Surf HQ said Leibbrandt’s quick surf down the street provided some lighter moments during the storm: “There were some tourists from Nigeria and Portugal who had got caught and we helped them get back to their hotels. There’s great camaraderie in the surfing community,” he said.

Meanwhile, after Kajee’s video of his wakeboard down the beachfront went viral, he told media he had ticked his adventure off his bucket list. Both video clips received a slew of positive comments from Durbanites, who were quick to share the lighter side of life when it came to the devastating storm.