Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Batten down the hatches, as we are due for a massive blow on Wednesday
makes landfall it deepens to 975mb, and when we are being hammered by enormous 50ft storm seas and 45 knot gales on Wednesday, the eye sits just south of Agulhas with a reading of 972mb.
The storm then grinds up the coast and a huge SW gale blasts across the southern extremity of Africa, with giant surf offshore.
The double- edged sword is that the dam catchment areas get heavy rain from early Wednesday to Thursday, but it comes with misery, flooding and a lot of damage.
Unlike all the weak rain episodes we have had this year, this looks like a sustained period of proper rain lasting between 24 and 36 hours.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. A boat and its passengers had a narrow escape off Dungeons on Tuesday. Surf photographer Grant Scholtz was skippering a ski boat with former press photographers Brenton Geach and Nic Bothma. While they were shooting a fairly slow surfing day at the big wave break, a wide-swinging set wave suddenly reared in front of them. Scholtz gunned the motor for a quick exit, only the wave had already started to break. They powered up the face, and punched under the lip through a wall of green water, popping out the back like a surfer on a duck-dive. Apart from a severe drenching, and some bruises, everyone emerged mostly unhurt, although a R30 000 lens was lost overboard, and Geach thinks he may have lost R75 000 in camera gear due to water damage. The World Surf League made history this weekend when it delayed the women’s finals at the Outerknown Fiji Women’s Pro to the start of the men’s event tomorrow. The women’s swell window ran out before they got a chance to finish the event. Finalists Tatiana Weston-Webb and Courtney Conlogue, both known for charging in heavy surf, will compete in what is projected to be solid, 6-foot Cloudbreak before the men’s event gets underway. Big wave surfer Josh Redman (Durban) and juniors Ford van Jaarsveldt (Kommetjie) and Cal- vin Goor (Salt Rock) have been given wildcards into the Vans Surf Pro Classic in Lamberts Bay this weekend. The World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series event has 1 000 points on offer for men’s and women’s divisions. Two wildcards for the women’s event have been allocated to former South African champion Stacey Guy (Melkbosstrand) and Crystal Hulett (St Francis Bay), currently the second highest rated South African woman. Today we get the first proper little burst of winter as a strong NW blows in a weak 3-4’ swell that grows to 6 foot or more, with some heavy frontal showers this evening and overnight before the weather and wind subsides rapidly tomorrow. Muizenberg looks small 1’ and blown flat by a stiff offshore but later starts jacking to 2’ if not 3’. Tomorrow, the front has passed and you can expect a residual bumpy moderate onshore SW breeze and a very west 4-6’ swell running, ending light SW. Muizenberg looks 1-2’ at most but clean in light winds.