Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
New events can only benefit up-and-coming surfers
Steve Pike
ior Series and the first event towards crowning WSL Africa regional champions in September. It sounds a bit complicated, and rather grand, but good news for our talented young surfers knocking on the door of a professional career.
And while we need to give our rising local stars a crack at reaching the professional echelons of the sport on a global level, we also need developing surfers to grow in stature so they can feed through on a local level.
Much more humble and closer to home, the Academy Cup is just as important as the event in PE. It offers very little in prize money, but it offers young children an opportunity that they may not have had, so kudos to the heads of two grass roots NGOs, Nigel Savel of the 9Miles Project and Rory Heard of the Share the Stoke Foundation project in South Africa.
Share the Stoke works with many similar programmes in Cape Town and Durban, including Waves for Change, Surf Shack Outreach, Waves For Change, The Surfer Kids, Aleph Foundation, and Surfers Not Street Children.
Waves for Change took a leap into the big leagues after winning a Laureus Sport for Good Award this year, but all are doing great work on the ground.
Surfing has such amazing potential as a life- changing activity. It’s fun and therapeutic. Us surfers know how grumpy we get when we miss our dose of salt water – our potion from the ocean. But crucially, the fun element comes with fundamental attributes that you need to be a successful surfer. You need things like patience, commitment, discipline and focus.
Surfing lends itself to metaphors about riding the wave of life, ducking under obstacles or ‘taking off ’ off on a big wave where hesitation can mean a wipeout and injury. It lends itself itself to tuition around life skills and it provides kids with role models. And, of course, these programmes are the perfect conduit for the CSI aspirations of surfing brands and other corporates.
The Academy Cup is a new addition to the 9Miles Project Surf Challenge and Family Day this weekend. Savel started 9Miles in 2013 to offer the youth in his community a way out of gangsterism and drugs.
Heard and Savel have called on surfers to enter the Challenge and to come down to the beach for a fun-filled weekend that includes a demonstration by the NSRI, sandcastle building, a Treasure Hunt, free surfing lessons, skateboarding demos and a music and artistic concert called Acoustic Sunset, comprising free performances by dancers, poets, musicians and rappers.
As they say in the TV series Game of Thrones, “winter is coming”. We got a taste of it in Cape Town last Sunday when an epic 10 foot west swell thundered along our coastline. Lets hope for more of the same.
The surf fired for the first fews days of the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro in Australia this week. Jordy Smith is into the quarter-finals and looks to better his ninth place in the first event of the season on the Gold Coast.
In the women’s event, three Australians are in the semis: Tyler Wright, Sally Fitzgibbons and Stephanie Gilmore. Sage Erickson from the US is the odd one out.
The staunch southeaster abates today, steadily dropping all day until it’s completely gone. It will be replaced by a balmy, warm evening and light berg winds, with a possibility of thunder storms.
Small surf on the west coast, but in False Bay, a big SE windswell up to six foot will be dropping all day.
Tomorrow, fresh NW breezes blow and a cold front tickles the peninsula, but the surf remains flat. Some rain in the evening. A few 2’ waves could be fun at Muizenberg.