I remember as a primary school kid being up at the top of the Chalumna River with my dad.
We were having a braai next to the river. All of a sudden, the river rose up in a rage.
It was a massive surge and swamped our braai fire.
It was the equinox and ever since then I have known that the equinox is a special time in the sea. Twice a year, equal day and equal night.
Somewhere along the line, I discovered that the summer and winter solstices have similar effects on the ocean and tides.
I also learnt a long time back during winter varsity holidays and SAU surfing at Seal Point close to Wimbledon, that June 21 is midwinter, saturated in west wind and a fantastic time to be a surfer.
Closest to solstice and equinox, spring tides are magnified, and if you catch a tube ride at low tide at Kowie East Beach during a winter solstice low spring tide, it might just be one of the best rides of your life.
A low spring tide close to the solstice can be a great time to collect mussels or oysters from the rocks but as the swamped braai with my dad taught me, it is not a great time to turn your back on the sea or be unaware.
Rogue waves or giant surges are not uncommon at this time of year.
Dylan Cloete and Kelvin Herman are very well-experienced ocean athletes.
They have both done the Gqeberha to KuGompo ocean surf ski challenge, as well as multiple river races. These chaps know how to deal with moving water.
Last Saturday morning, they headed off on a downwind paddle from Nahoon Beach to Gonubie.
The following west wind picks up waves behind the surf ski, and the long ocean rides are a surf paddler’s delight.
As they left Nahoon Beach, they set their sights on Three Sisters and began their evaluation on the inside line or outside line.
Three Sisters is a reef outcrop of rocks quite far out to sea off Mzamomhle on the way to Gonubie.
The pull from Nahoon to Sisters takes about 15 minutes so the lads had quite a long time to evaluate the break on their approach, and all looked good.
The inside line is the faster line with favourable swell and current.
That is to say, paddle through on the landward side of Sisters rather than the deep ocean side.
As they were passing through, with Kelvin slightly ahead and Dylan a bit behind, a freak wave made its appearance.
Dylan made an emergency left turn trying to run into deeper water, putting the wave behind him, circling back towards Nahoon Beach trying to make a run for the left shoulder of the wave and escape over the edge.
The best-laid plans of mice and men, or so they say.
Kelvin, in the meantime, was far enough ahead to escape over the right shoulder of the peak and make it through clean, shaken, but safe.
As he looked over, he saw Dylan going over the falls backwards on the giant wave.
Crash. A vacuum-glassed full-carbon ski worth about R30K smashed to pieces. He turned back to help Dylan.
Dylan is well aware that land-based spearfishermen swim out to Sisters, shoot fish, and back without too much off a problem.
He was rather concerned, though, that in between him and terra firma was a boiling cauldron of a bait ball full of sardines, diving birds and predator fish.
Not a fun line to swim through. Kelvin came back to help.
While the lads were discussing their evacuation plan, a second rogue wave came through, and boom, the second ski was smashed and both paddlers were now in the drink, planning the big swim home.
Fortunately, Kelvin is NSRI trained and river rapid trained too. Dylan is ex-rubber duck green and gold; big water is his forte.
For 40 minutes, they endured the bait ball, giant waves, the rocky reef ledge and a barnacle exit and, praise the Lord, escaped onto the beach without a scratch, though fairly well shaken.
The long walk back to the Bonza Bay car park was chilly after the warm ocean but, nonetheless, filled with gratitude.
Both Dylan and Kelvin had life jackets, cellphones, GPS tracking devices, pencil flares and, most of all, clear wits.
Yes, it is safer to paddle on flat water on the river and if you stay at home and wrap yourself in cottonwool you will never get hurt, but that isn’t living, is it?
The smart lesson here is choose the right partner to paddle with, do not paddle alone, have all the right gear, be aware of what can go wrong, train for every eventuality and don’t fly into a panic.
The wealth of experience that exists at the EL Surf Livesaving Club and Border Canoe Club is not to be underestimated.
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