5 Fin Bonzer Surfboard

5 Fin Bonzer Surfboard by Hutchison Hand Crafted

Winter this year is going to be a little more interesting with this crazy Bonza that Johno Hutchison shaped me. It's not a small board 6'2" x 20 1/2" x 2 3/4" and glassed nice and strong. Made for those super round well over head days.

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Coal Ship Runs Aground Richards Bay

Smart Shipwreck off Alkantstrand Richards Bay. Pic M Mersham

A large 230m ship called 'Smart' caring coal has run aground just north of the main surfing beach at Alkanstrand in Richards Bay. With the large swell yesterday the ship had already caused a beautiful A-frame peak. Maybe this is Richards Bays version of the Seli??

The 'Smart' broken in half.

The long ship has broken about two thirds down, and does not look like it is going to be easy to remove. Being in the bay we can only hope that the salvage guys get out there and remove all the fuel oil and other potential pollutants before Richards Bay lands up with a serious environmental disaster.

If all works out well there is potential for Richards Bay to add to its already great surf spots. I can already see some crackers forming on the next cyclone swell.

If you know any more details please post a comment below.

Coatesman

Weekend Big Surf

Da boys ...and girls enjoying a braai at Surfers Lane

Well the weekend started off with a beer and braai at the Lane .... and because the surf was pretty large and outta control it kinda went on all weekend.

Some guys hooked up on the Saturday and did one mean Peri Peri chicken & prawn combo, and Sunday was bacon & egg roles in the sun.

Its really good to see the guys hooking up, its been many many years since Ballito had a local crew that hung out together. And I am sure with the week of surfing that is ahead of us there will be a whole lot more.

The weekend did not end well for all though, some guys up at Vidal flipped their boat in some seriously large surf and one guy drowned. Its a sober reminder of what the sea can do ... and will do.

A pic taken moments before the ill fated launch at Cape Vidal.

So for those of you heading out to Cape Vidal for the Wahoo comp please ensure all your paper work and licences are in order. The officials there have been seriously on spear fisherman's cases lately. And with this incident it will be no surprise to have them all over you on the weekend looking for something to nail you on.

Coatesman

Spearfishing - The Weekend Ahead.

Tiffanies trying its best to hold the swell.

Well if you have not seen the sea and want to dive, dont get your hopes up. The swell is pumping, with solid sets straight from the east with 3-6 waves in each set. The forecast shows the swell will be picking up and will peak tomorrow. It will drop slightly on Sunday and will probably disapate on Monday.

The swell is not great for the north coast and most spots ar not working. The only place that is cooking is Durban. The good news is that all along the coast there are signs of the the brown water moving off. And with some southerlies next week we should get some diving in by Tuesday.

Anyway ... thats that!

The Salty Divers are getting together tonight ... more details Salty's Club Night

And we will be doing some breath hold training and techniques. The weather looks like it will good for a braai ...but if it rains just bring a Pizza!

See you later

Coatesman

Big Surf still Thumping

Sunrise Point in all its Glory..pic by Rat

The conditions again this morning were epic, the swell was still too strong to surf tho. The sets were only about 8ft, but with up to 5 waves in a set and a very small lull. There was still huge amounts of water moving.

Yesterday was massive tho, almost resembling the storm last year. Much of the beach has been washed away and all the rock exposed. I dont think its going to have done our banks any good.

Thursday morning is looking promising, and if the banks are ok we will have a couple waves. looking further along to Sunday .... we might just be having church at the back line with some classic conditions piling up.

Hold thums

Coatesman

Big Swell Bangs Bog

An insider rolling through Bog Bay, the Sets just closed out across the bay.

After a weekend of cold miserable windy weather, the sun came out and the wind conditions were perfect. I grabbed the board I am using, a 5'10" twinfin ... mine snapped a couple weekends ago and went to check out the surf.

I knew it was going to be big, but I though with the high tide I might still get a couple waves. That was not to be, as I drove down Surfers Lane a set pulled in breaking outside of the end of the point and all hopes of getting in were drowned.

I had a look at Bog and it was insane ... even if you could some how get out you would be in for a beating of a life time!!

The conditions seem to hold and with the swell dropping a little maybe tomorrow will have some waves.

Lets see,

Coatesman

August Unlucky Dip

I went for a run past the beach last nite and it looked like there was going to be a dive this morning. The swell was small and there was good enough vis for a good point dive looking for Brusher.

But alas this morning I was greeted by some serious swell, and green offish water. My hopes of a dive dashed I looked to see if there was any chance of a quick surf in Ballito, but with the tide high and the banks still not 100's, there was nothing to write home about.

I hope the swell drops in the next few days and lets us get in on the early morning high tides. The Brusher normally hang around during late winter and soon the Garrick returning from up north will give us some action.

It is strange but my best Garrick months have been in November??? These are the last of the return Garrick and you dont get the shoals of fish like you do in early winter. Brusher on the other hand seem to enjoy the cooler waters and start disappearing mid november ..... but like anything in the sea ... who really knows??

Coatesman

Told you so

Well I did not expect to be eating my words so fast. An hour or so after writing yesterdays report, my mate Rory MMS's me a pic with him and too many Snoek to hold up!

The following sms's:

10min ago at Toti, we all got ten each, biggest about 9kg (no scale). Seething with fish

When I woke up feeling grim, something inside of me said you are missing out yesterday. Knowing the Sards are around and the fact that there was huge swell (now here!) it was one of the window opportunities I saw slipping through my fingers.

Rory sent a mail just to whip me into a frenzy and no where to go:

The resolution on today’s catch was not good enough to send, will get the beach shots downloaded later and forward them if they look OK. To whet your appetite you will find a shot of my kids posing, the 9kg fish is the one in the immediate foreground. The darts the kids are holding were shot first before I realized how many snoek there were around.

Water was epic, clean and warm with small pockets of more or less stationery sards getting hammered by walls of snoek. In a very short time we had maxed out the daily bag limit with fish up to 9kg with the average around 6kg. You could get very selective. With the conditions being so good we jumped in again for a bit of fish spotting and saw a few other species (some high speed tuna coming in from deep and a big iggie mauling the inside wall while my buddy also saw two garrick idling by). As we had switched from hunt to observation mode we now sat watching the snoek barreling in and nailing the shoal –can’t say the trigger finger didn’t get itchy especially watching nice 6-7kg fish floating past within a metre (or less) of you. After each attack there would be uneaten casualties left lying on the bottom with the snoek clearly slashing up way more sards than they could eat. Two things stood out (1) There were no sharks despite 1000’s of dead sardines and all the fish shot (we weren’t the only speoro’s clubbing it) (2) the sardine shoal hardly moved all day even after the wind started cranking.

Now that we are all frothing at the mouth, let me tell you about what the sea is up to for the next few days!

In the words of Spike "UNPRECEDENTED WEEK OF BIG SURF AHEAD"

Gee I guess thats the diving out of the question, and well I looked at the surf in Ballito and the banks are not doing the swell justice. Durban will probably pump ........ but who likes to surf the crowds?

I guess this is a good week to get some work done!

Coatesman