Hello everybody on Hive and especially the SurfHive community! Last time I posted I told the story about how I have made a New Year's Resolution to surf a new wave every month of 2023 - as fate would have it, the last time I surfed two weeks ago I landed up at a reef I had surfed ONCE before in my life... so it didn't count! Here's that post:
@jasperdick/surfing-a-brief-respite-from
Then the following weekend the focus was my first gig of the year at a lovely venue in the far South of Cape Town (you'll notice that most of my other Hive posts are around my music).
Here's a taste of that gig... @clairemobey/wake-me-up-avicii-mobeydick-174894e0257a2
So... as the 25th of February rolled up, I realised that I was running out of time to honour my commitment!!
The good news was that we drove off on Saturday to a coastal holiday town about 2 hours drive from Cape Town, where there could potentially be a number of new spots for me to discover! The bad news - when we arrived I noticed that the swell was very large and messy, and most of the normal surf spots looked horrendous!
I got the idea in my head to drive around and search for something a mortal person like me might want to attempt.
And I found it! About 10 minutes away in the next coastal village there are two bays... one is a consistent beach break exposed to swells that I have surfed a couple of times already. It was looking big and messed up...
And the second bay? Well it is deeper, rocky and seems to be protected by outer reefs that apparently are quite hectic surf spots on their day. I had occasionally seen the swells then reform into the bay itself... and nearly think about standing up to break... well today this was actually happening! I made the call to paddle out alone for a closer look...
The arrow marks the spot - a relatively clean and organised wave reforming next to 3 dry rocks to mark the spot!
Compared to everywhere else I saw - this was like a mini miracle in how clean the swell was when it reformed to break inside the bay - can you see the rocks I am using to judge where I should be?
And I'm off! My first wave at a brand new spot for me - honouring my New Year's Resolution just before February ended!
Interesting angle looking back at my wake...
The tide was a bit low and so the kelp (tough seaweed) was quite thick in places
Third and final wave...
But why? I was having fun!...
Well after the third wave, a slightly larger wave came by that I needed to duck under. The problem was my board was quite large as I had chosen a bigger board to help me catch the weaker, flatter reforms nice and early... this meant that the board got away from me during the duck-dive attempt and here I am under-water coming back up to the surface...
Unfortunately, in a bit of a little freak accident, my boards fin was waiting on the surface exactly where my mouth came up for air...
The results was a cut to my lip... this is not a part of the world where you want to be bleeding in the water...
So unfortunately I had to end the session early and paddle in... I actually landed up getting a stitch in my lip, and have been told to stay out of the water until about Wednesday! Oh dear, I guess I will have to focus on work until March starts... and then look around for the brand new wave of March!
All in all, I'm quite proud of my searching skills and paddling out alone into a spot that I wasn't sure was a real spot, but turned out to be quite nice and well within my abilities! The lip cut was a bit of a freak accident that could have happened anywhere, so I won't let it discourage me!
I have a local friend in the area. I tried to describe where I was and he told me it was a rare novelty wave that only happens on massive swells that need to get past all the outer mess to reform in the bay. He said the spot had a name... the Afrikaans word for "Blood bank" - how ironic!!
THE END