Surfers Lane's New Deck

Artist impression of the proposed new deck at Surfers Lane by Jeremy De Beer.

Surfers Lane as been a bit of an eyesore and neglected for the last few years. So we (North Coast Surfers Union) have finally got our act together and trying to get the project off the ground. Jeremy De Beer has designed some initial concepts and Kevin Ginsberg from Dolphin Deck Maintenance is helping with the design and implementation.

We still need to get all the necessary approvals from the Kwa Dukuza Municipality which I am sure will be no easy task. We will also need to either raise the R30 000 for the deck or get a sponsor on board to help us out.

It looks good tho ...hope we can pull it off.

Coatesman

East Swell Drain Pipes

Brad Johns about to get shacked up properly on on of the barrels of the day.

 The monster east swell turned slightly south and we have had some interesting waves the last few days in Ballito. For the most part its just been solid hard hitting close outs across the bay. But every now and then one lines up and funnels across the very straight and shallow sand bank.

Yesterday the conditions were perfect which made it impossible not to surf. But it wasnt easy with the prospect of being caught by the sets or breaking your board always lurking in the back of your mind. ...and I am already one board down this swell!!

Scotty the Style master in the sweet spot.

The sea is a bit all over the place this morning, but there is still a bit of swell left. My only hope is that the swell has not taken away all the sand that we had a week ago. ....It was looking the best its been in years (the sand banks that is)

Anyway more big swell coming this weekend and probably no diving ...I guess we will have to go surf

Damn!

Coatesman

Slabs and Sick Pits

Picture perfect, but more of an evil temptress than anything.

The last weekend saw some crazy swell coming out the east. So much so that any hope of diving was blasted by the swell. On the bright side we got some cooker waves at Salmon bay so we were not too bummed about missing out on the clean water that was around.

The tides were also low in the morning giving us a good opportunity to go and ride a slab that operated on a strong medium sized east swell. We dont often get it right or good but this weekend it was ON!!
The slab as so sick and ledging this time that I only caight a few waves, but for the most part I just sat on the shoulder like a little girl! Hence we have nicknamed the spot Barbie Dolls .... as it will make a Barbie Doll out of even the toughest man.

Steve Burel about to get smashed by a 6ft thick lip!!

Steve Burel joined me on the mission and got some incredible barrels and tubes. I eventually went in and grabbed the water cam hoping to get Steve in some crazy sick pits. Unfortunately I only caught his last wave, it was a thick short wedge that just mauled him. The lip was as thick as he was and it drove him down straight into the reef ending his session. He said we should maybe call it Rag Dolls after his beating ... which he said was one of his worst ever, even worse than the worst at G-Land!!

We will have to wait for the next east swell.

Coatesman

Magic Week Over

Every year usually around mi February there is a week or so where everything comes right and the diving on the North Coast is insane. I friend of mine used to say this is the week that you pull out all the stops to dive coz when its over you have to wait until the next year to get it ON like that again. The way you know its that week when you have dived 6 straight days in a row, got more than a couple Couta each day and you cant get your self out of bed to go and dive perfect conditions because your body is broken.

Well I hare to break it to you but that was the last 10 days ending on Sunday!! It was late this year ..but I guess everything is late including my SARS return!! Yesterday the sea turned and the water temp dropped to 23deg on a south wind and current. So short of some really fortunate currents and conditions I think the Magic week of 2011 has come and gone.

Its not to say that there wont be more fish, but it generally gets quieter and quieter now with only the odd big Couta ..which is nice coming through.
The bummer was that I had a burst ear the whole of last week and missed the whole affair ... I did catch the beginning of the run tho so cant be too bummed.

The view we all love.thanks to Morne

 My good mate Morne' was fortunate to get into the fish last week and by the weekend and one full deep freeze the trigger finger was very mallow, and he grabbed his digital cam instead. This is the mail he sent me with these pics:

Hey Coates I finally made the call after shooting my first couta today to rather take photo's the rest of my dive. I've must have taken 15 individual photo's of shoals 6 - 12kg couta's swimming past every 20 min but only 5 came out OK. It took me 4 years to actually do and tame the natural hunting instinct of just shooting.
cheers
Morne

Another epic pic of free swimming Couta ...nice very nice!

So unless things change we will have to wait til next year for that 'Magic Week' ... for me I am going to start looking for the BEEG Couta lurking in the deep. Its a bit of a luck shot but who knows.

Coatesman

Hooked Up in Chedenguele

Hey Guys here is the webisode Hooked Up Eps 2 that I was fortunate to be involved in. The shot on location in Chedenguele Mozambique with Shaun Reid. It was an exiting time with big swell, some long paddles and plenty time puzzling out where the fish were on the kilometers of endless reef. Anyway check it out.....

Coatesman