A little about why I started this blog.

I have never blogged before, so this will officially be my very first blog post.

This blog is about surfing, and I don't mean surfing the web. This is about surfing the wonderful, powerful waves of the South African coastline.

My journey with surfing started 4 years ago, when I moved from the fast paced Pretoria in Gauteng, to a lovely little town called Mossel Bay.  Now you see, I didn't want to come to Mossel Bay, and the reasons why is a very long story, but to make the long story short lets just say I was 14 years old and the decision was made for me. Today I am incredibly thankful that that decision was made on my behalf.

When I got here, I could barely swim, but since I have seen surfing on a vacation when I was no more than 6 years old, I knew I wanted to become a surfer. For the first time, this was possible. So my uncle and I went hunting for a surfboard, and we ended up buying an old, yellow, 7'2" board. I thought it was an incredible board, purely since it had three fins in the back. In reality, it was not exactly the best board in the world, and I probably could have done with something slightly less waterlogged. No wonder we managed to buy it for R300 ($35)

So, I began surfing. No boardshorts, no wetsuit, just an 7'2" surfboard with no wax. I surfed in kakhi shorts and a t-shirt, trying endlessly to catch the whitewater and actually stand up. I got on my feet a few times, but only stayed on for around 2 seconds, if I was lucky. After 6 hours straight of trying to drown myself, my legs and balls where raw, bloody from the friction of sand and wet shorts. But I had a smile on my face as I walked with my legs spread out. On the third day of this torture I at least bought some wax, and I eventually got a suit donated by friends of my grandparents who have sons that surf.

But the big challenge was getting peeling waves once I could ride the foamies. You see, the beachbreaks where I live rarely have any waves that don't close out, and all the decent waves break along rocky pointbreaks or over sharp reefs. So after a total of about 2 weeks of riding foam, and learning to swim well enough that I won't drown, I headed down to a local pointbreak called "the point" (the surfers in the 60's where to stoned to think of anything more original.) This point, has two distinct waves, the one, on your right hand side (if you are facing the ocean) is called innerpool, the other, on your left hand side, is called outerpool. Innerpool is a softer wave, but breaks closer to the rocks, especially on smaller days. Outerpool is a heavier wave, and tends to get more swell than innerpool, because the swell doesn't have to wrap around so much. I decided I want to go to innerpool. So I sat on the rocks contemplating the jump off and what I will do when I want to get out again. And I sat for an hour straight. Eventually I mustered up the courage to do my very first rock jump. It would take 2 months of constant perseverance, countless wounds, millions of failed attempts,.a bucket load of pissed off locals, and many moments of pure fear, before I caught my first real wave and rode it to the end. From this moment on, I was a surfer, and that I will always stay, till the day I die.

Now, 4 years down the line, I have managed to become a fairly decent surfer. Although I am no where near pro level, I surf way better than I ever dreamed of surfing when I started out. I developed a love affair with Outerpool, with it's powerful walls and deep tubes still giving me the best waves of my life. I have developed a massive respect for this spot, as I am yet to encounter a spot with an equally powerful, exhilarating ride. I have surfed all the local surf spots, the reef breaks Ding Dangs and Mystery Reef, with their powerful A-frame bombs, the slab Banzai, with it's surfboard eating shallowness, and a super fickle pointbreak, Railways, which to my knowledge has never been surfed, or if it was, was never named, other than the short section right at the bottom of the point, called Aids, as well as a secret spot similar to Railways in both fickleness and wave shape. None came close to what Outerpool can produce on the right day. I have not surfed J-bay though, and it seems to me J-bay is likely to be Outerpools big brother. My dream is to surf J-bay on a perfect 6ft-8ft day, and make a wave from Boneyards to Point.