It is no secret, the Kowie River Mouth in Port Alfred is a spectacular surf spot.
The break is well known to all top SA surfers and even as far as Kelly Slater of the US.
Slater and the pro’s have had some good sessions on the Kowie.
The day you get good waves in Port Alfred is not something you are quickly going to forget.
Being stuck half way between Gqeberha and Buffalo City, the break is almost self protected from crowds because surfing there means you have had to drive away from Nahoon Reef or J-Bay to get there. This is not a bad thing.
With the likes of Mickey Witthuhn and Warwick Heny living in PA, the Kowie Boardriders Association is a well-run operation.
They have attracted top-tier collaborators like The Royal St Andrews Hotel, Rip Curl and the SA Open Surfing Championships.
This last long weekend the premier local hotel’s Easter Festival included a music festival, deep-sea fishing, golf, bowls and of course surfing.
Surfing events The Open, The Grom Search and the Rip Curl Cup are great for the local economy, boosting tourism and the Kowie, but a bit tough on home-break surfers shutting down their main break for six days of competition.
The beauty of the Kowie River Mouth is created by the two piers, the long pier creating an offset underwater sandbar delta off the short pier, running a spectacular right breaking wave from the river mouth to the beach.
Buffalo City sent a top open surfing team to the championships including Tom Lindhorst, Clinton Gravett, Tristan Johnson, Josh Malherbe, Tyrell Johnson and Zitobile Msesiwe.
The women, Adriel Wolmarans, Taylor Emslie, Zia Hendricks and Mahle Nstebeza carried our flag.
We sent a fine representation of youth, experience and diversity, highlighting growth and future for local surfing in the BC/Border/Kei.
While the Open SA Surfing Championships was blessed with a touch of offshore west wind to sculpt first-class rides, the greater condition was an east wind with bone-crunching difficulty.
To this end one of our favourite sons, David Emslie, hit an angry lip at an unfortunate angle and compromised his ankle, going home in his wetsuit in an ambulance.
His girlfriend, Michaela, is not complaining about the extra time David now spends out of the water.
The Emslie cousins are a bit hard hit by injury of late. Daniel Emslie is also out of the water after recent shoulder surgery, as a result of the same Kowie surf break recently.
Two Emslies out is a sore injury for the current Buffalo City surf team prospects.
Visiting team eThekwini (5,506 points) from KZN took advantage of our wounds to post a close victory over Buffalo City (4,723) in second place, with third, Nelson Mandela Bay (4,541), followed by iLembe (3,636), Cape Town (3,560), Cape winelands (3,543), Ugu (3,440) and seventh Eden (2,663) from the Southern Cape.
Posting a credible fourth position in the open final, Buffalo City masters surfer Gravett was surfing in a much tougher division than his usual station.
Ahead of him, former Buffalo City surfer Mitch du Preez brought home a welcome third position for Nelson Mandela Bay.
With universities and work opportunities drawing surfers like Aimee du Preez, Bryce du Preez and Zoe Steyn away from BC, the Border province is often hard hit by departures.
It is however a good thing for our athletes to still be able to stay in the game while away.
At the long end of the day, green-and-gold blazers are still available to our surfers when they move to other provinces.
When the SA flag flew high at the recent Costa Rica WSL with Jordy Smith (SA) first and Matt McGillivray (SA) second, nobody was displeased.
Second in the Kowie Open men’s was Andrew La Verge and third, the new open SA champion, Hayden McNicol from Ugu (Southern Natal).
In the women’s division, an on-form Louise Lepront (ESA/eThekwini) sneaked the victory from Natasha van Greunen (CTS), third was Aimee du Preez (NMB) and fourth Leah Lepront (ESA).
Hats off to eThekwini for travelling the distance to the long away event, a well-deserved team win.
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