Hello everybody on the SurfHive Community! Last time I posted, I was complaining a bit about the summer winds we have here in Cape Town, South Africa at the moment.
Well it seemed like the Surf Gods were listening, and this weekend, just when I finally got back from a work trip and could afford a little gap to go surfing (before a 2 year-old's birthday party followed by a 70 year-old's birthday party... hahaha!), the wind completely died away! The swell wasn't enormous, but it did mean I could visit a fickle reef that is very sensitive to wind. (We paid for this gap in the wind with an absolute stinker of a HOT day as the sun got higher in the sky after the surf... Later in the day, I definitely went to fetch swimsuits when I realized the 2 year-old's party had a swimming pool - my own poor daughter would have died without a good dip!)
Unfortunately, I have surfed this place ONCE before years ago, on a bigger swell and higher tide (where I was more next to the reef than on top of it!), so I am still on the lookout for a new wave to surf before February is over! I have made a New Year's Resolution to try a new wave every month! The one new spot I want to try in the area was definitely too small this time!
So no matter how busy I get with work and music, I need to surf again this month! Hahaha!
For anybody from Cape Town reading this, the lighthouse in this picture gives the best clue for where I am! It is a fickle wave that really needs to be bigger than this, but can get world class when it is!
But it was big enough to be worth being in the glassy water on a HOT morning!
Usually duck-diving under waves is a pain - but on this day it was a relief!
The visibility through the water was unusually good, and you could see all the seaweed and reef below you!
There was only one other person in the water who bothered to paddle out through the thick kelp (a kind of strong seaweed here)
And there he goes...
One last wave for me...
Look carefully and you can see that the wave is just rising over the seaweed on the reef...
I managed to ride this last wave quite far into the kelp bed... but still had to paddle and fight my way through some of it, to get back to shore, after the wave came to an end! Hahaha!
On the way back home I drove past the memorial cross to my old boss (and good friend) who was killed in a hijacking after he got out of the water after a surf at another spot in this area - a bit of a somber reminder that the crime in South Africa can be really bad, and it's not all just beautiful glassy waves... you can read the full story about my boss's death here: @jasperdick/south-africa-how-illegal-firearms
So yes, a beautiful morning of glassy little waves! But I need to surf again in February and find a new wave in order to honour my New Year's Resolution!... will it be in Cape Town, or will I have to explore the little coastal town I'll be visiting at the very end of the month?
THE END
