I prefer to do sport rather than watch sport if I get the chance. Even in the light of the recent Corona Cero Open J-Bay, I would rather ride a wave than watch a pro.
This holds true for fishing too. James Prosek’s The Complete Angler is my favourite fishing documentary but drifting down the river with a rod in my hands still beats a documentary about doing it.
Granted the Corona WSL J-Bay was a great opportunity to see old friends and engage one of the seven wonders of the surfing world but catching a wave to ride during this event is not easy.
As the Corona finished, scholars went back to school and another freezing cold front appeared on the charts. All the flags popped up for J-Bay this past weekend.
I gave my buddy Eric Scheepers a call: “have you seen the charts?”
Eric has just been overseas and missed the Corona J-Bay as well. I also had too much going on at the time and missed going down to the event.
This last weekend looked like prime time to have a less crowded trip and walk the hallowed sands and catch a few waves in the town where surfing dreams are made.
At 2.30am on Saturday we were out of bed and on the road at 3am.
On account of the time, the roads were reasonably quiet, and the trip was quick enough for us to arrive at our destination, Albatross, at first light. The trip is about 3½ to four hours.
Because we had time and tide on our hands we did a quick scout of Point, Tubes, Supers, Boneyards, Magnas, Secrets and Kitchen Window.
The swell was not as big as promised — perhaps a good thing — but certainly good enough.
A little bit storm wobbly and at an unusual angle, the surf was bigger at Point and Albatross than it was at Supers and Kitchen Window, which is unusual.
In the light of the growing crowd at Point we chose Albatross.
It was nice to share a few speedy right hand walls with SA champion Mike Burness and a small friendly crew. Having had a few waves we moseyed off for breakfast.
The constant tourist flow has generated excellent restaurants in J-Bay.
I recommend In Food and their egg mushroom breakfast. What a lovely venue. A large brown mushroom about the size of a saucer, filled with mozzarella cheese and an egg on top with artisanal toast.
Almost worth the drive just for the breakfast alone.
Then coffee with Jason Mendonca from Christian Surfers SA and a visit to Thys Strydom from Rebel Surfboards, before booking into the extremely pleasant Marina Martinique Bed and Breakfast with Oom Chris.
A spritely man at age 82 with titanium knees, this ex-Comrades runner was full of humour and he and his wife were excellent hosts — even though our booking agent had the wrong page open and booked us in on August 23 and not July 26.
We effectively ambushed Oom Chris but he made a plan.
“Sorry,” he said looking at the king-size bed and the two of us. Ja, nee, bromance it is.
We caught a quick surf at Kitchen Window and headed for supper at the fabulous and famous Nina’s. Establishment of the late great Alistair Smith.
It was a joy to see Zoe Smith waiting tables and managing the floor.
Blow me down, up on the wall in the restaurant among all the other boards was a Simon Anderson Thruster of particular spray design.
My surfboard from the mid 1980s. How did it get there? I wish it could talk.
On Sunday morning, we caught a quick surf at Albatross again and bumped into Phillip Malherbe, Mike Burness (again) and Renier from Still Bay.
We made a quick stop off in Gqeberha with Michael “Fires” van Vuuren to pick up a Levin Surfboard and zoom home to Buffalo City just before sunset, ready for work on Monday. Happy.
The juice was worth the squeeze.
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