Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Surfari Backpackers

A big thanks to Surfari Backpackers and the Bruitendag family for hosting, feeding and putting up with the surf club for the duration of the USSA event. The food was fantastic, the accommodation far too luxurious and the location absolutely amazing. It's a must stop for any coastal road trip. Check it out @ Surfari Backpackers.

Champions Crowned At Vic Bay

On the final day of USSA 2011 the ocean came to the party and produced the best conditions of the event and the best final day conditions in many a year. The swell lined up perfectly all day and raced down the point producing walls begging to be hacked to pieces. And the remaining competitors duly obliged.
The first heats of the day were the ladies’ quarter finals. The pick of the quarters was Q3, in which Stellenbosch’s Chloe Humby piped the fancied Kerri Hodkinson for the top spot with a wave on the buzzer. The following heat featured Tammy Lee Smith who due to a round one walk through was surfing for the first time in the event. She did not disappoint and immediately established herself as the clear favourite for the ladies’ title.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011


Please feel free to copy any of the photos of USSA 2011 from here.

Visagie Shreds Into The Quarters

With a packed schedule Tuesday was always going to be an interesting day in the water but with Monday night holding a special place in USSA surfing lore, USSA Tuesdays are always eagerly anticipated. The traditional initiation ceremony for first time USSA competitors historically takes place on Monday night. So it was no surprise then that the crowd who filtered down to the pier for the nine am meeting was looking a little worse for wear. For the senior team members the cure was simple a surf and a rehydration drink. But for the newbies, they would have to survive the remainder of the event sporting a motley assortment of hairstyles, designed to maximise the humiliation for the wearer.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Top Seeds Advance On Day One

Monday morning dawned in Victoria Bay with a clear sky and a chilly off-shore breeze caressing the swell lines marching towards the coast. With most of the surfers still tucked up in bed the call was made by contest director, Tasha Mentasti to run the event on schedule with the first buzzer sounding at eight thirty. The swell had cleaned up overnight and the drop in ocean swell hardly registering as double over-head clean-up sets raked the point, with the average waves topping head-high.

NMMU’s Clinton Gravett led the charge into the surf with Kyle Myers (UCT), Marcelle Traub (SU) and Kurt Deinke (UKZN) making up the rest of the first heat. As defending champion Clinton was expected to win his heat, as did other top seeds: Josh Salie (UCT), Brendon Booth-Jones (SU) and Shawn Dennis (Varsity College).

Sunday, June 26, 2011

University Surf Championships 2011 Take-to Vic Bay

To surfers the month of June conjures up special images. Cold fronts pummelling the coast, bringing with them massive swell and epic surf. But for student surfers the month of June holds more than just the prospect of good surf. Exams loom large early in the month but towards the end of June there is a blinding light at the end of the dark tunnel of all night study sessions and exam trauma. In last week of June the top surfers from South Africa’s coastal universities meet for the annual University Surf Championships.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Surf Report


As I write this a massive storm is lashing the Southern Ocean due South of our coastline, sending mammoth swell lines smashing into the Cape Coast. But fortunately its force will be spent by the time Monday morning dawns and all the current evidence suggests a surf packed University Surf Championships.
Here’s what Spike has to say…

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Long Range Surf Report

It’s now less than a week away and eventually the surf reports for the university surf championships are starting to filter in. Wavescape has foggy long range details, Magic Sea Weed is giving a hazy 30% accuracy to their forecast and Wind Guru is only providing information for nearby Wilderness. So all we can do now is wait and speculate.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Vic Bay Teaser

With USSA surf champs now just over a week away here's a little teaser of what the awaits the team next Sunday...
Let's just hope for bigger swell!

Monday, June 6, 2011

The Initiation of Andrew Mandy


If you’ve been to High School, heard about Camp Staaldraat or been on a road trip through the Transkei, then you’ll know that South Africans love initiation ceremonies. And the Maties Surf Team is no different.

Tradition has it that on one’s first USSA trip you are initiated by the senior team members. It’s not a nasty rugby initiation, featuring Deep Heat and physical humiliation. It’s a more playful initiation, featuring a pair of hair clippers and a noxious brew which is certain to have the newbies spewing chunks in the surf the next day. The beauty of the 2011 edition is that the club chairman, Andrew Mandy has confirmed that he will be making the trip to Vic Bay. And that means it’s initiation time for Mr Mandy.

Despite making the trip to the surf champs three times already, Andew has yet to be initiated. He dodged the clippers in 2009 and 2010 through his snaky lawyer speak, which employs the most circular logic and is sure to confuse most into submission. But this year is going to be different, he can’t fall back on the super supporters aren’t team members card, he’s the chairman and his appointment in the barber’s chair is booked. There’ll be no weaselling out of this one.

All that remains to be decided is the hair cut he’ll receive and in the interest of public participation I’d like to open up the floor to all Club members to have their say. The only prerequisites are that the initiate looks like a right chop for the duration of the event and that the cut is performed with the quintessential electric sheep shears.

Here are a few of my favourite options:
The Friar Tuck:
Bald on top and long on the sides. It’s a classic look and Andrew is Catholic which is an added bonus.
The Chess Board:
Like a chess board of alternating blocks of hair and shaven patches. It makes the essential task of applying sun cream to the bald spots nearly impossible but its hard work for the man behind the shears.
The Drunken Hack:
Let the clippers fall where they will and let the initiate suffer the consequences. Quick and easy with the sure-fire result of making the initiate look like a newly hatched eagle. It practically guarantees three days of hilarity at the wearer’s expense.

But don’t let my lack salon imagination hold you back. This is a public process so please use the comments section to offer your own unique suggestion for Andrew’s hair style.

With the initiation planned we need only discover which senior team member will be wielding the shears. And I have a sneaky feeling that they might be lining up to give Andrew’s locks the chop. Because anybody who knows Andrew will know that he won’t go down alone, which means that Ricki Allardice will be losing that dreadful mop of his too…