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.
I managed to sneak a little surf in last night. 1-2ft light offshore, mid pushing tide at Llandudno. I went in for a paddle, but managed to sneak a couple of wedgy ones. Pretty nice vibe in the water, Winston surfing his long board and some nutter doing hand stands on a 6-0 on a what was a 1 foot wave – I gave him 10 points for style and decided to not bother going switch as the nutter had already out done anything ‘crazy’ I could’ve done.
As for today, the surf is evern small, with Seapoint and Greenpoint having better conditions for Wakeboarding than surfing – no jokes. It’s like a pond/oil slick out there.
Bring on some more swell.
There is a bit of wind over Cape Town at the moment, and there is no swell hanging around the Greenpoint area today. I am hoping for some swell soon, and less work so I can hit it!
So Sunday came again and I hadn’t been surfing since last Sunday! Well, I went on Friday but I had 10 minutes! I drove and drove.
The wind seemed to be pretty westerly, the tide was very low, and the swell was small, which only means one spot will have wave – Llandudno.
Llandudno on a Sunday, for me at least, normally means I put myself in the mindset of being happy with just 1 wave.
But unfortunately, and I know stories of locals are nothing new, but there are several boys at Llandudno that insist on catching every single wave that comes through, leaving nothing for anyone else. In addition to this they think it is their god given right to do so, claiming to be locals and that they live there. The thing is I’ve been surfing at Llandudno for years now and I can say last Sunday I have my first run in with a complete and utter twat.
I’ve seen the guy many times, and given him space like I do any surfer. I’ve even seen him go nuts at some people, but naively thought he was justified because he had never said anything to me, so I didn’t say anything. If anyone reading this does surf at Llandudno, you’ll have seen the guy I am talking about. He is about 5′8″, later 30’s, black and grey hair, he always wears a Zero wetsuit and he surfs very well as a natural footer.
So after I managed to squeeze in 3 really bad waves, this dude tells me not to sit deeper than him? He declares that I should not be catching his waves, and insists that I should show respect to people that “Live Here” [I wasn't sure if he meant living in Llandudno or Cape Town, because he certainly doesn't live in Llandudno], and should he see me sitting deeper that him again he will “Burn Me”. Now I was kind of shocked at this coming from this guy. I mean I’d seen this guy surfing a lot, and we have even exchanged pleasantries from time to time. He was yelling at me claiming I was sitting deeper to “Command respect” [What a load of bollocks], and then shouted at me basically saying I should respect him by not catching any waves. He also muttered something about me being a goofy footer and not being as good as the other people there.
So needless to say I didn’t get out of the water, I stayed and sat close to him and got one or two waves before it got dark before I headed in.
So now the response. Normally people that demand or command respect by shouting, like our subject in this story, are scared themselves. Unfortunately this guy likes to do the talking so basically shouts until he catches a wave and then says nothing after he paddled back out. In addition to this I will not be giving this guy any space in the water, and if I see him unnecessarily shouting at anyone else I’ll try and help. Here is the plan.
But why should I do this?
Once this idiot shouted at me, he merely lost all the respect he did have – which is the opposite of what he wanted.
Here is a picture of Glenn Beach before I went to Llandudno. At the time it didn’t look that great, but to be fair, I probably wouldn’t have bumped into this trouble maker!
This Sunday surf session was at Off The Wall at a reasonably low tide. When I arrived there was only one guy out, pictured below, and he had been surfing by himself for an hour and a half.
The surf was good with some sets being head high, and the end section was hollow enough for me to pull in most times and even get barreled.
The wind also seemed to switch from the west to the south eastish, which made the inside a little less bumpy.
Happy surfing.
The surf last weekend was a little bit disappointing. The set waves were coming in little big at Llandudno, and they were closing out. This is normally not such a problem because you can always find one that peels, but check out the crowd! It was a zoo! A mate from the Surf Zone surf shop said he’d never seen half the people there, and it was insanely crowded.
Llandudno on a summer’s weekend is not a quite place – even after the school holidays.
There wasn’t much surf this day, but there were some waves at Queens, a surf spot at the bottom of Queens road in Sea Point. I have yet to surf it, but on it’s day it looks pretty potent.
Look out for the surf spot review int he future!
Well, it was a windy and wet night, and when I woke up there was wind and mist everywhere – not a recipe for a good surf.
So I went back to bed.
The weather is nicer now, clear and sunny, not a lot of wind b ut there is just a little bit there.
More surf checks tomorrow I reckon.
I braved the Llandudno Christmas crowd this morning, and luckily got there before 10am – so I managed to get a car park pretty easily.
I didn’t check the surf before I jumped in. I was expecting an hour paddle in a swimming pool, but Llandudno produced some nice little, about 2 feet, rights and lefts, with the wedge making things interesting.
The surf at Llandudno this morning officially breaks my one wave session streak I was on and I am happy to say that I surfed really well.
Here are the shots from the surf today. The waves were better when I got in, and deteriorated as the tide came in.
I had a fairly long surf at Glenn Beach, but the waves were pretty closey outy, with rips everywhere. After about an hour and a half I think I had five waves or something stupid! This whole wave count/surf session ratio is getting pretty bad. I think I am going to check out Llandudno this morning.
On the way out of the surf I spotted this on the floor. It reads “LOCALS ONLY”. Personally I don’t feel Glenn Beach is Localized at all. To be honest the banks have been pretty bad recently and the people I have talked to are convinced the banks have been bad for about 2 years now. Which would suggest that any local of Glenn Beach would be a little bit coocked, surfing bad waves all the time.
Loading ...
