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.