Archive for the ‘Cape Town News’ Category

Wavescape Surf Film Festival 2008

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Wavescape Surf Film Festival Poster

Wavescape Surf Film Festival Poster

Wavescape has organised another Surf Film Festial between 5 and 14 December in Cape Town, where they will be screening epic surf movies.

They’ll have an art exhibition of nine crafted spoons, as well as a exhibition of underwater photographs by Tom Peschak. The exhibition will be held at the VEO Gallery from Wednesday 26 November until Wednesday 3 December, when we will auction the boards.

The final list of artists is Kim Longhurst, Scott Robertson, Trevor Paul, Ross Turpin, Leonora van Staden, Konradski, Motel7, Mak1, Willie Bester, and ND Mazin.

There will be eulogies to gritty documentaries about surfing in the Vietnam War; from big wave tow-ins at scary spot Aileens in Ireland to classic longboarding in two-foot Robertsport in Liberia; from the lanquid lyricism of longboard ballet in Beneath The Surface to an uplifting South African story about the Zulu surf riders of Umzumbe.

Wavescapes launches it’s Surf FIlm Festival on friday 5 December with a special outdoor screening at Clifton Fourth Beach (Saturday 6th is a weather day in case that southeaster is pumping!)

The venue is then move to the Brass Bell in Kalk Bay from Sunday 7 December until Wednesday 10 before returning to town for screenings twice a day at the Labia Cinema.

infoline 082 360 5231
Brass Bell: 021 788 5456
Labia Cinema (Orange Str): 021 424 5927
VEO Gallery: 021 421 3278

A Ship Wreck in Cape Town

Monday, August 18th, 2008

 

The Seawin ship wreck at Dardestein

The Seawin ship wreck at Dardestein

Last week a ship ran aground, The Seawin, in heavy seas and came around at (a classic surf spot) Derdesteen. The beach is currently closed off, you can make out the tape in the photo after the break.

 

News reports say the ship wreck caused a fair amount of damage to the dune area, and the mostly wooden hull is breaking up.

The ship is sitting on the beach right in front of the surf spot car park, and the car park is currently full with waste removal equipment.

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Cold Front

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

There is a cold front over Cape Town today. The outside temperature has dropped to 22 degrees, and clouds have been intermitant over the city bowl.

I haven’t checked the surf since Monday, and that was small. I am hoping the cold front will push in some well, even if it is onshore!

Nice Shot Of Table Mountain from the V&A Waterfront

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

I was down at the V&A over the holidays, and this is the spot where a billion photo’s of table mountain are taken. This is actually about my 4th photo from that part of town, but despite this looking like the million other photo’s, they all have a flair of individuality.

More surf photos are to follow, the surf hasn’t been all that great recently. But I\m sure someone will disagree.

Table Mountain overlooking the harbour

Glenn Beach, Camps Bay

Thursday, December 21st, 2006

This is the first post about Glenn Beach. I drove all the way through Green Point, Sea Point and Clifton, but nothing seemed to have a wave.
Off the wall was too high, and nothing was breaking. Rocklands wasn’t working with a 1ft closeout. Queens was far too small. To be honest I didn’t catch a glimpse of Clifton.
Glenn Beach didn’t really have a wave either, but a dude at the beach said that Llandudno was heaving and not to bother.

The surf is getting pretty cold now, but the warm air temperature helps a bunch. Here is the pic from yesterday:

Glenn Beach

Always carry a wheel spanner!

Friday, November 17th, 2006

The surf over the last couple of days has been pretty flat, which is why the reports and pictures have not been forthcoming. But the day before yesterday (Wednesday) was special. I had planned to go surfing that morning, because of a tip the guys at Surf Zone in Cape Town gave me, but when I got there in the morning, the swell had not arrived. When I went back later in the day, the swell had jacked and it was going off, but I didn’t have the time to jump in – gutted.

Since the swell has been good, but the wind hasn’t been great, leaving Greenpoint a little bumpy.
So the moral of the story is, when you are driving in South Africa always make sure you have a decent spare wheel, jack and spanner in you car. I was driving home last night and a log was rolling down the road. Rolling log plus the side of your wheel leaves you with what I had in the picture below. Unfortunately for me though, I didn’t have a wheel spanner so I had to wait for a friend to come and help out.

South African Roads are dangerous

Wind in Cape Town – The Cape Doctor is here

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

Posting has been quite the last few days due to the strong South Easterly winds, otherwise known as the Cape Doctor. The wind was gusting up to 60k/h over the weekend and the first half of the week, making loosing your flip flops in the wind a real concern.
The wind reeked havoc around the city, leaving lots of dust and rubbish everywhere, but it blows the nasty cold and flu bugs away for summer.
Coincidentally, it also blows the warm surface water away (on the Atlantic side of Cape Town) which is why False Bay is warmer than the Atlantic side in summer.

Sunny Cape Town, but no swell

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

Well, I finished some work today for Apurimac Media in Cape Town and as it was a sunny day I decided to grad a subway and check the surf.
Take a look at the gorgeous weather!

Moullie Point, Gorgeous Weather

There is not much swell at the moment, it would probably be a good day to go snorkelling if the water wasn’t so cold!

A tiny bit of swell

Misty Surf in Cape Town

Friday, September 29th, 2006

This morning at off the wall was onshore and misty. The sets were taking about 10 minutes to go through and the tide was being weird. Most of the waves were really lame, but one okay one came through.

Off The Wall

Off The Wall

I also drove over to Thermopylae, to see if any of the sets were breaking big enough, but they were not.

Thermopylae, South Africa, Surf Check

There was a big mist over cape town this morning that is still lingering around. The mist has cleared from the city bowl, but is still lingering over the Atlantic coast, causing onshore conditions. As soon as the sun comes out the wind should switch offshore again. See this panorama picture I took at Greenpoint Stadium. You can see the mist looming over the sea, and the clear skies over Cape Town city bowl. Lets hope it clears before everyone gets off work!

Greenpoint stadium panoramic photo

Sunny in Cape Town

Friday, September 29th, 2006

I had a meeting yesterday morning, so I couldn’t check the surf first thing in the morning but I took this snap after I came out of my meeting.
Normally when it is this sunny, and when there is no wind, there tends to be no swell. So we’ll see what happened in a second.

Sunny day in Cape Town