Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Winter mayhem continues, with East London bracing for some giant surf
bink, with a bit of input from me wearing my surf forecasting cap, decided on Thursday to remain on standby rather than going on the amber alert, the precursor to the green light ‘go’ call. This sparks a scramble for flights to Durban from all around South Africa and from overseas for one ‘mystery’ guest.
The waves have to be big, clean and of epic quality for the event, which has a one-year waiting period. The Goodwave is rated a World Surf League Specialty event.
They will broadcast the event on a live webcast so it’s imperative that the surf is perfect, or at least “Good Wave good”. On top of that, it has to remain so for the seven or so hours the contest needs to run. For those who know the fickle winds in Durban, that alone makes it a tough call.
And the conveyor belt of winter mayhem continues, with East London bracing for a wintery blast and giant surf next week.
The more than 160 surfers (11 divisions containing age groups up to the Over 60 range) converging on the South African Surfing Championships had better break out bigger boards.
Nahoon Reef is going to get gnarly, as they say. A three-day southwesterly buster will blast the ‘Slumtown’ coast from Tuesday to Thursday, which dawns solid 8-10 foot, and getting bigger as wave period builds to 16 seconds, and swells reach 15 foot by evening.
Friday dawns positively mental, with giant surf and offshore breezes. That means wave faces of 20 to 25 feet high: not for the faint hearted.
The 52nd SA Champs makes it one of the longest running surfing tournaments in the world, and it’s also encouraging for SA surfing that the headline sponsor, Mer- cedes Benz, and the hosting partner, Buffalo City Metropolitan, are joining with Surfing South Africa to help our national team prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
Barring typhoons in the Pacific (touch wood) I doubt they will find Japan quite as scary. With the FNB Wines to Whales looming, there are lots of MTB races that act as good training or seeding rides. Here’s just a few. The Tiletoria Elgin Valley MTB (30 August) from Paul Cluver Estate in the Elgin Valley overlaps some of the W2W. The 70 km and 45 km routes are seeding for the W2W event. The Paarl Rotary Backsberg MTB takes place tomorrow at Backsberg, while the Greyton MTB Tour runs from 2 to 3 September. Check bicycling. co.za for a useful calendar.
Jordy Smith has climbed to first in the world after his third place in the Billabong Pro Tahiti, with a nailbiting run of four events to go in the WSL Championship Tour. Go Jordy!
Some call them goat boats or egg beaters, which is unfair considering the standard of surfing at the SA Waveski Champions at Jeffery’s Bay last weekend. The open division was won by East London’s Bruce Viaene.
Small 3’ going on 4’ surf today, with crisp east offshores and blue seas. Muizenberg small 2’ and light onshore. The small surf continues tomorrow in fresh N winds and wobbly conditions on the west coast, with Muizenberg tiny 1’ and clean offshore.