Boland Surf Guide

Stellenbosch might well be landlocked, but it is quite centrally located which means if you watch the charts and are willing to put in the kilometres there are plenty of options for the Maties surfers. The secret is knowing your spots and getting the call right, because there are few things are frustrating as driving around looking for waves when it’s onshore and flat.

Strand

Maties Surf Champs at Strand

The nearest but not necessarily the best option is Strand. Strand or St. Rand, is a rather average (at best) beach-break set-up, conveniently only 22 kilometres from Stellenbosch. It works best in wind-still conditions, but it you’re not too fussy it can still be fun in anything from light to moderate winds. The prevailing summer South Easter is onshore to cross onshore and the winter North Wester is more cross-shore than off. The main break at Strand is located on the Western edge of the beach-front and is known as Pipe. Its name is taken from a rather unfortunate waste water pipeline rather than the form of the wave itself. At its best Strand Pipe can be punchy and fun with lefts and rights running across the sand-bars. The Pipe works best when the swell is in the three meter range, but when the swell crests four to four and a half meters the outside banks begin to play havoc with the lines, reducing the spot to a mushy mess.

Moving east along the beach from Pipe you’ll find Ducks which is roughly in front of the life-saving club house. ‘Ducks’ can handle a bit more wind and a little more swell that Pipe and is also generally a little heavier when it’s working. Further down the beach towards the town centre you’ll find Silkies which works in big swell when the outside banks start to break-up the lines too much for the other spots to break decently. It’s generally a last option spot but it can be fun if you’re not expecting too much.


Click for Strand Surf report. This covers the region from Strand to Koelbaai. 

Surf for Life 2011

On Saturday the 22^nd of October, the Strand Pipeline will play host to Natural Energy’s Surf for Life contest a fundraising event for Natural Energy’s Tarryn Pratt who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

All proceeds from the contest will go to assisting Tarryn with the costs of her treatment and to help her start a charity to support other surfers battling cancer.

It’s undoubtedly a worthy cause and with six surfing divisions it promises to be a great day of surfing too. For the competitive surfers entries are open until the 18^th of October and the entry form can be downloaded here.

The contest is divided into an Open men’s division, an over 30’s division, a junior event, an open ladies division and events for both ladies and gents stand-up-paddleboarders.

2012 Committee

With 2011 drawing to an end the Surf Club put the new committee to a vote on the 4^th of October. Current chairman Andrew Mandy is set to graduate come December so his boots needed to be filled.

Leadership positions in the Surf Club tend to be filled more by necessity than a hunger for power, and 2012 will see Peter Thorpe take over the burden of organising the ragged group of nearly 150 university surfers.

Breaking-Up Of The Seli I

Seli I, In One Piece Two Years Ago. Photo: Jaclyn Archer

The massive swell of Friday the 2^nd of September was the death blow for the stranded Seli I. The abandoned vessel had been driven fast by a late winter cape storm nearly two years ago and with the owners, insurers and the City of Cape Town all failing to remove it, the break-up was inevitable.

The Seli I, 4 September 2011

Rebel Sessions Day 2 Video

Rebel Sessions

Mike's Cover Shot

With the demise of the Red Bull Big Wave Africa event a few years ago a void was left in competitive big wave surfing in South Africa. But with an exciting new concept Rebel Media have launched the Rebel Sessions event, which is aiming to fill that void.

The event is staged over the ten best days of surf from July to October at either Dungeons or Sunsets. With prizes for the best paddle-in wave surfed (R50 000), the biggest tow-in wave surfed (30 000), the biggest paddle-in wave (R20 000) and the biggest wipe-out (R10 000) being awarded.

Elandsbaai

The Point and the Crowd

If you’ve ridden a surf board in South Africa you will know there are two places which loom large in the imagination of all South African surfers: The iconic Jeffreys’ Bay on the East Coast and its West Coast incarnation, Elandsbaai.

Second Semester

With the USSA Surf Championships now behind us the club can look forward to the second semester. And it’s going to be jam packed as usual.

The third term is the traditional party term at Stellenbosch and for all the surf club members that means a braai or two at 33 Cluver, a trip to Elandsbaai and one or two friendly exchange students. So keep an eye on the Facebook page because Andrew will be keeping you posted.

For the new members the busses will be going to Strand on Tuesdays and Thursday. And we offer beginner surf lessons through the very competent team at Son Surf, so please sign-up if you are keen. All you need to do is email either Andrew at surf@sun.ac.za or Candice at candicea@sun.ac.za

Brad Beck Wins The University Surfing Champs

Brad Beck

Now that the damp wetsuits are dry and the dings in the boards have been patched, we can look back on the 2011 University Sport South Africa Surf Championships. It was a competition packed with great surf, the ecstasy of victory and the pain of elimination. For the Maties team unfortunately the former was tasted more regularly than the latter, but once again Lisa Mace’s progressive surfing helped the team to a top three finish.

The 2011 edition was hosted by the George Campus of NMMU at the legendry Southern Cape break, Victoria Bay. Teams from UCT, CPUT, Varsity College, Rhodes University, NMMU, UKZN and of course Stellenbosch, gathered on the evening Sunday the 26^th of June for the opening function, before taking to the water on Monday morning for round one. In the first round the Maties men did remarkably well in sizable and difficult conditions. Of the eight men only Nic Van Wyngaard, who made a disastrous tactical decision, was relegated to the repo-change round. Nic made up for his first round mistake in the second round by winning his heat and thereby joining the rest of the team in round three.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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…

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.

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!

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…

2010 Results

Below are the results of last years’ event at Victoria Bay:
Men’s Competition
Teams
1. NMMU
2. UCT
3. Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
4. University of Stellenbosch (US)
5. Rhodes University
6. University Kwazulu Natal (UKZN)
Individual
1. Clinton Gravett – NMMU
2. Kyle Beach – UKZN
3. Gary Muller – NMMU
4. Kyle Jacobs – NMMU

Ladies’ Competition
Teams
1. UCT
2. US
3. NMMU
4. CPUT
5. Rhodes University
Individual
1. Sarah Nicholson – UCT
2. Lisa Auditore – US
3. Kerry Hodgkinson – UCT
4. Jessica Genrich – Rhodes

The Venue

Victoria Bay is a small bay about 5km East of George, with a right-hand point break running off its Western edge. The point is the primary wave in the bay, but there is also a slaby left on the far side of the bay and a beach break. The point can get heavy when the swell jacks which can make the paddle out a little nervy. To make matters worse when making the jump there is a blind section where you simply have to commit, if you get it right it’s a dry hair paddle out, if you get it wrong, it can end in broken fins and embarrassment in front of the crowed on the pier.

For the super supporters if the contest is running there are a few other waves in the area which are worth a surf. Just south of Vic Bay there is Herold’s Bay which picks up more swell and can get super heavy. Less than an hour back down the N2 is Mossel Bay with Inner Pool and Outer Pool. While further up the coast you will also find waves at Wilderness and Buffalo Bay.

Vic Bay is situated a comfortable 4 hour drive from Stellenbosch so it makes the ideal first stop on a winter road trip. Many an epic university road trip has centred on the event before venturing further up the coast to Jeffries Bay and for the more intrepid travellers, even further north to the Transkei.

If you are interested in making the trip as part of the super support crew speak to Ricki Allardice who is standing in the club chairman Andrew Mandy as the prim of the Maties Surf Club at the event.

The Competition

The Maties team will be taking on the best surfers that Cape Peninsula University of Technology (C.P.U.T), Independent Institute of Education, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (N.M.M.U), Rhodes University, University Cape Town (U.C.T.) and KZN University have to offer.

The traditional powerhouses of South African university surfing are without a doubt, N.M.M.U. and U.C.T. who have shared the overall spoils between them for the past few years. Maties meanwhile have competed well in the ladies division but the men have begun to be regarded as a more socially orientated outfit. Since rejoining the fold in 2009, Rhodes University has given the Maties men a run for their money in that particular category though.

The inclusion of new boys the Independent Institute of Education, an umbrella institution which includes Cape Town’s Varsity College and Vega will defiantly shake things up. They along with C.P.U.T. can be counted as the dark horses of the event.

The competition itself takes place from Monday the 27th of June until Wednesday the 29th. The surfers competing in four person heats, with the top two waves counting and the best placed two surfers progressing to the following round.

The 2011 Team

The Maties Surf Club team for the 2011 edition has some big shoes to fill, as some of Boland surfing’s finest underground chargers having graced the USSA stage before them. The likes of Mikhail Thompson, has won the event previously and Nils von Delft, strung a succession of finals together in the first decade of the new millennium. The Maties men will therefore have to step-up if they are to make an impression in the water.

Men’s Team:
1 Brendon Booth-Jones
2 Devon James Ramages
3 Peter Thorpe
4 Gabriel Steyn Botha
5 Nick Van Wyngaard
6 Marcel Traub
7 Christopher Kenneth Fauré
8 Max Van Baarsel

The Maties Ladies have had more surfing success than their male counter parts in recent years with Lisa Mace having won the event in 2009 and Lisa Auditory having secured the runners-up spot in 2010. The ladies also managed a second position in the 2008 team competition when both Angelique Laurie and Lara Humby made the final. With both Lisa’s returning to Vic Bay in 2011 the ladies team is once again Maties most realistic source of medals.

Ladies’ Team:
1 Lisa Mace
2 Lisa Auditory
3 Chloe Humby
4 Sarah Havard

In previous years the club was able to send two reserve male surfers and one reserve lady to the event, but with the tough financial climate prevailing over the purse strings there is no such luxury in 2011. There will however be a dedicated crew of super supporters who make the trip with the team to ensure that Maties maintain their legacy of providing the entertainment for the other teams.

So if you’d like to make the trip up to the Southern Cape to support the Maties surfers feel free to join the super support crew.

University Sport South Africa Surf Championships 2011

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 late June the top surfers from South Africa’s coastal universities meet for the annual University Surf Championships.

Dating back to 1968, the fierce rivalry in the water is equally matched by the unique party atmosphere on land. The competitive atmosphere was fostered in the first 26 years of the event by alternating the venue between Durban and the Cape. But then in 1994 the newly formed University Sport governing body took over the organising of the event and decided to make Seal Point the championships official home. For 16 years the sleepy holiday resort of Cape St. Francis was battered by hordes of students every June, before the decision was made to move the 2010 event south to Victoria Bay. The 2011 event sees the amphitheatre like Vic Bay once again hosting the eventfrom the 26th to the 30th of June, with Reef Wetsuits coming onboard as the title sponsors.

And so, with no further ado, this is the Maties Surf Club guide to the REEF WETSUITS SA STUDENTS SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS:

And Now the Judges Adjudicate on the 2011 Rebel Sessions

With the waiting period now officially over the wait will begin for all involved to see who the judges finally reward with a share of R110 000.

In the mix is ex-Matie, Mad Mike Baleta, who made it into the footage of five of the six Rebel Sessions this winter. Mike’s hell for leather approach saw him possibly snap the most boards during the waiting period, but whether or not that translates into accolades is for the judges to decide.

Dungeons from the Air

The favourite for the wave of the event must surely be Andy Marr, who was whipped into a massive bomb which made the cover of the Cape Times. The photo caused a great deal of confusion however as the e-edition claimed Mad Mike to be the surfer in question while the print edition proved to be correctly naming Marr as the man in the tow-straps.

Also making his dungeons debut during the waiting period was current surf club member James Lowe, the nephew of Cape big-wave ledged Simon Lowe.

Air dropping, during a BWA event

The contest was held over a hundred days of winter and spring from the 15^th of July until the 22^nd of October. In a unique approach to a surf event, the organisers had a maximum of ten sessions over the waiting period, which were all captured on film and still by the Fixerfilm crew. Eventually the ocean failed to come to the party completely and only six of the possible ten sessions were called. A purple patch in late August produced quality conditions enough to make up for the lack of quantity and so the judges will have their work cut out for them to decide on the winners.

Mad Mike on a solo Sunsets session

The categories and prizes up for grabs are:

• Best Paddle Wave - R50 000
• Best Tow-in Wave - R30 000
• Biggest Paddle Wave - R20 000
• Biggest Wipeout (Tow or Paddle) - R10 000

Check-out the videos from the event to make your own decision on who deserves the cash…