SURFERS UNITE BEHIND WIGGLES
A GROUP of surfers are working together to buy Stephen ‘Wiggles’ van der Merwe a camera as he has been taking photos of them for free for the past six years. Jean-Marc Tostee of Surf HQ points to the old battered old camera that needs replacement.
DURBAN surfer and photographer Wiggles, aka Stephen van der Merwe, 66, shoots up to 1 500 pictures a day of surfers, going down to the beachfront most mornings before dawn.
After his camera started breaking a couple of weeks ago, Durban surfers got together to raise the cash to buy him a new one.
On Thursday, Wiggles said he started shooting surfing pictures in 2016 after he realised that photographers generally took pictures of the top surfers only, while there was a whole surfing community along the beachfront.
“I shoot from Moyo’s all the way up to North Beach, although North Beach is my favourite.
“I get up about 3.30am and am down at the beach around 5am. If it’s still dark, I wait in my car.
“I do a video clip every morning for Surf HQ, which I send through, and then start taking my photos.
“I’ll take up to 1 500 photos every morning and will post anywhere between 350 to 800 photos daily on Facebook and Instagram pages ‘Skinny Surfers’. They’re posted at random and if someone sees a picture and requests a copy, I send it for free. It’s all about the surfing community, not about making money,” said Wiggles.
If he sees a worthwhile shot of joggers or cyclists, he will take that.
Skinny Surfers, a page which was originally started by Andre van der Watt, was revived by Wiggles in 2016.
The photos stay up for 48 hours, after which he clears the database and puts up new pictures. It’s this constant change-over of images that has
Durban’s surfing community coming back for more.
Growing up in Cape Town, Wiggles learnt to surf off Green Point as a child.
Moving to Durban in 1976, he started surfing at Addington Beach and worked his way up to New Pier.
That was the heyday of Durban surfing with major surfing competitions on Durban’s beachfront, which included the likes of former world champion Shaun Tomson.
Wiggles said he used to surf every day, but with his busy schedule, generally he can be found surfing only on a Sunday.
His favourite shots are of youngsters surfing for the first time.
“When I see a kid taking his or her first wave, they’re so excited, often their hands are in the air, the parents are shouting. To catch that shot is great,” he said.
But with his camera giving trouble, which could well be due to exposure to the sea air, Wiggles said it would be more expensive to have it repaired than to buy a new one.
“It started about a month ago, I saw Lee van Vuuren had put up the first post about helping to get me a new camera.
“I’m chuffed; some of the guys have been very generous,” he said, adding that enough had been raised for a camera, but funds were being raised for the lens needed for shooting sport images.
Surf HQ’s Jean-Marc “JM” Tostee said Wiggles was well-known among the Durban surfing community with his photographs being very popular.
“He posts his pictures and then sends them out for free. He’s there on the beachfront at sunrise every single morning,” said Tostee.