Table of contents for September 2020 - 44.4 in Zigzag

Fear, illness, uncertainty. 2020 has been a hard one. Rugs pulled. Illusions of security shattered. We’ve all had to adjust and learn new ways of doing the old things we took for granted. At the same time, that old magical cosmic seesaw served up one of the finest winters in living memory, from a South African surfing perspective. And surf we did… and continue to do, with renewed enthusiasm. When we look back, 2020 will be a bitter-sweet memory of disruption and weirdness against a backdrop of natural splendour. An experience that pulled us towards ourselves. Surfing has always been an existential pursuit. At its heart, a transformative, transcendental experience. For many, this ugly year has made it clear that surfing matters, at the deepest level. As our working lives…

Shamali Sanjaya, a confident, 30-year-old mother and surfer from the small Sri Lankan town of Arugam Bay, serves as the president of the country’s first all-female surf club. She leads group meetings, organises beach cleanups and co-ordinates surf trips for the small yet growing group of 17 local women surfers. But just a few years ago, Shamali’s experience as a surfer in Arugam Bay was very different to what it is today. When Shamali learned how to surf about eight years ago, she was the only woman in the lineup. “No girls were surfing in the village at that time,” Shamali says. “My brother is the number one surfer in Sri Lanka and my father is also a good surfer. When my cousin taught me how to surf he said,…

On an icy cold morning in June 2004, Dave Weare had the best surf of his considerable surfing life. To this day, he claims the perfect points of Mexico, the grinding bowls of Teahupoo, or multiple boat trips to the Mentawais have not come close. As we peeled off the N2 early that morning, we saw lines stacked out to sea, followed by instant butterflies as the fear and excitement rolled into one. From the foam line, barely distinguishable in the twilight, we knew it was big. Really big. Froth filled the cab. What happened for the next six hours changed surfing for us forever. Eight to ten-foot waves that were as wide as they were tall, so perfect you couldn’t help but turn and go, hour after hour, even…

We decided to go west during the onslaught of winter swells. Conditions were looking really good up the West Coast and there was snow predicted inland, which normally creates the east winds you need for the more exposed breaks – bitterly cold, but straight offshore at waves that often get ravaged by the southerlies. The only problem was, after months of being homebound, the majority of Cape Town surfers were thinking the same thing. So we decided to go even further west…northwest to be exact, trying to escape the crowds. You’re always taking a chance though, heading that far up. A high-pressure system will often sit up there creating a different weather pattern. It can be 20 knots offshore at Lambert’s Bay, but the coastal system further north can kill…

The first week of lockdown, everyone was at home and quarantining because the police were all over Pelsrus. Then people started making this pineapple beer. They went to the supermarket, bought packets of pineapples, yeast, sugar and I don’t know what else and made these big buckets, full of pineapple beer. You should’ve seen them bra, they couldn’t even walk! A lot of people in Pelsrus struggled during lockdown. But the community really pulled together and organisations based in J-Bay also helped out with food parcels and support. That stuff usually doesn’t happen here. Then some of the local fishermen started giving out fish they caught to help feed people who were struggling, too. It was sick to see that. We also found a new wave down the beach from…

The seal was bigger and stronger than I’d anticipated. I had his neck pinned to the ground and was busy using my Leatherman to cut through the tangle of fishing tackle wrapped around his flippers when somehow, he managed to spin out of the hold I had him in and bit me on the forearm. The piercing jab of its long teeth was followed by a deep, throbbing pain, like a bite from a big dog. The wound would require a visit to the hospital and a number of stitches to close up but it would have to wait until later. We still had work to do. The bite was inevitable. We’ve been rescuing seals around Pelican Point for seven years now and I knew it was only a matter…

Sunset Reef, a slab of primeval rock that sits in the middle of Kommetjie Bay, is something of a beauty and a beast. From the shore, framed by the Sentinel and Noordhoek peaks, it is beauty-in-motion as it catches the offshore wind and peels symmetrically into the kelp beds. From close up, it can be a beast, a thing of fear as it wedges, sucks and then explodes in a thrust of Jurassic energy. Who first surfed it is not my brief here (Johnny Paarman and Peter Bashford will know better) but rather, recounting a defining point in its history from the late 1980s, when Cape surfers were beginning to push the big-wave envelope. But first, what are big waves down south? The average Cape surfer will never paddle out…

“Don't cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”-Dr Seuss A huge thank you to all the photographers, writers and surfers who helped bring this special issue of Zigzag to life. When it comes to making a magazine, the whole is inevitably greater than the sum of its parts, but what excellent parts they all are. Last but not least, a massive thanks to you, the reader, for supporting SA’s core surf mag. Until next time. – Will & AVG, guest editors…

The Cape Peninsula dangles off the bottom of Africa like a rough fishhook, curling round from the frigid waters of the Atlantic Coast into the broad expanse of False Bay. Ask any local and they’ll tell you this island-like geography has created a plethora of waves, from spitting beach breaks and big wave reefs, to the beginners’ paradise of Muizenberg. Yet despite the abundance of setups, the peninsula is far more famous for its other marine attractions. Since the early 2000s, False Bay has become a world-renowned location for cage diving with great white sharks, or to witness the spectacular breaching phenomenon – where these sharks launch themselves into the air while hunting seals. Less spectacular is encountering one of these leviathans while surfing, which also became a far more…

It was the first morning of Level 3 and a standoff was looming. On one side, 50 odd surfers whose wax hadn’t hit water in nearly two months. On the other, what looked to be most of the False Bay police force. Nobody – including the police – knew what the new regulations meant for surfing. Was it allowed? Wasn’t it? Government announcements had only raised more questions than answers. My biggest concern was that there was going to be a bust up and that it would solidify the ban on surfing everywhere in South Africa. Muizenberg had already been in the national news multiple times as surfers pushed to get back in the water, and the only upshot had been authorities clamping down harder across the country. Just as…

Hand sanitiser. Whoever thought it would become part of our everyday lives? From going to the shops, to accepting a parcel or walking inside any public building, you can’t get away from the stuff nowadays. But it was also my passport to empty waves during lockdown. Like everywhere else, East London ground to a halt after the president’s late night address. You’d drive down the coast and whole communities were suddenly empty. I’d be in the water looking back and the beaches and hills were empty; houses shuttered up like a ghost town. I’ve been photographing the ocean in some way or another for almost ten years now and while I make some of my living from it, it’s never felt like a job. Over the years I became more…

It was water that led me back to Cape Town. I’d been living along the Garden Route for some years and loved it, but it was a struggle to find work as a chemical engineer – especially in the field I’m most interested in, which is water treatment. When a good job lead popped up back in Cape Town, I made the transition, this time basing myself in Kommetjie. I never lost interest in surfing big waves but after eight years away, you do lose some of the motivation and conditioning needed. Ironically, the lockdown was the best cure for this. I’ve injured both my knees over the years – MCL injuries in tiny, shitty waves, and I always lacked the discipline to work on them. The first four weeks…

We’ve been on boats and around islands for as long as I can remember. My younger brother Indie and I are old enough now to drive the boats, so we go off on our own and choose when and where we want to surf. When there’s no swell, we’ll spearfish and skate. Spearfishing has been an awesome way to learn about the different types of fish, coral reefs and the ocean environment. There’s also nothing better than spearing a fish and then putting it straight onto the braai! The island we live on was a pretty ideal place to be locked down during COVID-19. My dad reckons we are experiencing the Ments like it was 20 years ago, with empty lineups and no tourism. It has been a strange but…

No one likes a 4am wakeup call after an uneasy night’s rest. It doesn’t help when you are standing at the launch site and staring in the direction of a very loud ocean and all your eyes can see are angry foamies rushing up the beach. We load up the boat and wait for the first bit of light so Captain Steve can navigate us through what we can now see is a six to 10-foot beach break. We’ve got that long period on our side to help sneak through the sets but still, none of us thinks it’s a good idea. Luckily Captain Steve is a machine at the wheel and on the throttle. He’s the set dodger every wheelhouse needs. A good hour at sea and a few…

This photo of Jordy Maree was taken with the GoPro Fusion, which is essentially a 360 degree camera. It’s a tricky setup because it accentuates any imperfections, making it very hit and miss – even when your subject is whizzing past you a hair’s breadth away. The success rate is pretty much one out of 30! The real challenge is you have to duck underwater to avoid the camera picking you up in the frame. There isn’t a trigger on the pole, so you have to press the trigger on the camera, duck under without splashing or making the water swirl around you, and then hope everything lines up. Like I said, one out of 30. Besides the perspective, I love the sense of isolation this image gives, which is…

I’ve had Wollie for over 16 years now; he grew up on the beach at Supertubes. I trained him so that I could leave him on the beach when I went surfing, but he used to howl like crazy at first. He would follow me along the point, up and down, up and down. He’d come stand on the rocks and cry and cry and cry. People would freak out! I’d come back from a surf and there’d be voicemails on my phone from all kinds of strangers who got my number off his tags and thought I’d abandoned him. Once there was a voicemail from this lady who said, “Your dog’s on the beach and he’s crying! He loves you so much; you will never, ever find a woman…

I missed the previous storm. Three years ago, with a bucket of Coronitas and a tumbler of Tajín-rimmed margarita, life seemed pretty sweet in Mexico. Then I saw the footage of a Sea Point cyclist casually disappearing under a tsunami of foam that washed past the Shell garage and turned the vehicles into a bumper car attraction. Not that a raging storm was more attractive than the sparkling, hot Pacific. But doing surf and beach reports for the past 25 years, the weather extremes are special, especially when you live with their daily rhythms. A small change in wind or swell direction, a waxing moon, the promise of a new beachbreak where the river broke through… All subtle indicators of what might lie ahead. The weeklong build up to what…

The 2020 Mentawais season was already in full swing when we got wind that the pandemic was starting to severely impact the world and global travel arrangements. Before that, it was only mentioned in passing, something that was happening somewhere else, far away from our remote island paradise. Then, at the drop of a hat, countries started closing their borders and flights were cancelled. Within a matter of days, the world had been turned upside down. Our guests at the resort were in shock. Everyone was worrying whether they should cut their trip short and try get home to loved ones before the situation got worse, or take the risk and stick it out longer. A few guests made an immediate dash for it, one of whom had only arrived…

The day before lockdown started we had one fantastic day of surf. Everyone surfed themselves out, not knowing what was going to happen. That kept the stoke initially, but it was pretty tough – as locals and a community doing our bit, we felt strongly that it was important to stick to the restrictions of no beach access and no surfing, but that meant watching some incredible days of waves going by completely unridden. The timing, when they announced that the worst of the restrictions were over and people started getting back in the water, couldn’t have been better. We had back-to-back swells and offshore winds for a couple of weeks straight. With the inter-provincial travel ban still in place, it was one of the most uncrowded runs of really…

Hey! We’re back. It was touch and go there for a while. When the pandemic pulled in, Zag kingpin Andy Davis went dark. Dropped right off the radar. Word on the street was that the mag wasn’t closing down, but it wasn't staying open either. It was Schrödinger’s magazine. I also went to ground, reckoning that if Andy had anything to tell me, he'd know how to get in touch. People have made this mistake before. They've grown old and frail waiting for Andy to get back to them. I wasn't going to let this happen to me. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into a meaningless jumble of letters and numbers, and still no word. Eventually I cracked and fired off an email. There was no reply. I considered…

One evening I was in my workshop looking at all the stuff people had discarded – redundant, broken parts. A local junk shop owner had dumped boxes of the stuff after he bought it on auction but couldn’t sell it. I picked up an old showerhead and thought, this would make an interesting fish. Looking back, it’s as if the fish chose me. I ended up using half of the showerhead as gills and a tail. I made the first one out of curiosity, then the next, and it snowballed from there. Finding materials is never a problem. I find good stuff all over the place; most of it has no practical use anymore, but there’s still beauty and functionality to be found in these objects when they’re repurposed. A…

The first time I met Nigel Savel, I broke his board in half. It wasn’t intentional. I’d joined the thronging crowd in the lineup at Elands, trying to pick off the odd wave that snuck past the pack. I wasn’t having much luck at the top of the point, so I drifted down to the middle section where waves that miss the main reef occasionally double up over the kelp beds. The only problem was, there were about 20 other surfers with the same idea. After a half hour of futile scratching, a good one focussed on the inside ledge and I was in position. I caught a glimpse of someone much deeper turning to paddle, but the wave was already pitching and shutting down between us. No ways was…