Zombie Apocalypse

Well thats a wrap everyone. 2012 is officially over. The end of the world didn't happen. There was no big ball of fire, zombie apocalypse or monstor end of the world swell. 2013 here we come.

The beaches are so packed at the moment. There is no parking available and you actually have to pay for parking in Strand (unless the back roads are empty). There has also not been any real swell around, but there have been amazing waves in a few hidden corners.

I made a little clip of all my footage from the past few months for th Derevko Shootout video contest, so please check it out and vote for me by Liking the video.

Here are some snapshots from the footage:

Haai

There were some fun waves at Caves this morning. I dragged my mom with me to get some new footage. Things didn't work out so great as we were chased out of the water by another haai about 6 waves into my surf. The ocean was quite powerful. Spent like 15minutes at one stage trying to get out the back, haha.

I started putting all the video footage I have of everyone from 2008 together in one massive surf fliek. So funny going through the footage from when we were like 14. There's some classic funny clips of Duncan and JP from all our competition trips. Good old days.

Here are some photos I took today after the shark payed us a visit:

West Coast Boardriders Event 4

Competed in the last WCB event of this year this past weekend. The event took place at Big Bay. West Coast Boardriders events are great to compete in. They are really well organised and the overall vibe is always great. The waves for the fourth event were not too good, but everyone still ripped. The short, puchy waves at Big Bay forced everyone to take to the sky and the event kind of turned into a air show. People were just busting out everywhere and it was a really fun event to watch. I made it to the quarters, but then fell out as I didn't have a proper backup wave. Pretty bummed to get knocked out. I spent the rest of the day just free surfing which was pretty fun.

I didn't take any photos, but here are some of me that Claire Butler took at the event:

Here and there

Waves have been really scarce lately. There have been moments of brilliance at some spots, but good solid surf is really inconsistent. The South Easter has been pumping for weeks without end. We've found good waves here and there, in between all the wind and lack of real swell. Summer is near. Strand is as flat as a dam. All the sand is back and there are good banks everywhere. Caves has really turned on a few times in the past few weeks. Betties side also delivered some good waves last weekend for a few hours before the wind turned again.

Men in grey suits are also back in business in False Bay. There has been a shark sighting every day this week at Caves. So don't be stupid and surf if visibility is poor.

Oppie Weskus: Part 2

Yoyo's had fun waves everyday of our trip and we never even needed to go look for waves anywhere else. The swell was too small for Elands and the wind too strong for anywhere else. We had two or three sessions everyday and we were the only guys out there most of the time.

We went for a skate sesh in town. After finding and skating two smooth hills, we decided it was time to find something better. We found another good spot and started skating. Halfway down the hill, a cop pulled me over while Thinus and Coetzer darted to safety around the bend. "Goeie more officer". He tuned me that we were not allowed to skate in Lamberts Bay. "Ok dis reg. Ons sal iewers anders vind om te skate". He then replied by saying: "As ek julle vind, gaan ek julle voetter!" and drove down the street, stopped and wrote some poor guy a parking ticket. That was the end of our skate session. We headed back to camp for another surf and a braai.

Oppie Weskus: Part 1

We embarked on our journey up the West Coast early Sunday morning. The car had been fully packed the night before with a whole lot of food, a big ass tent, two dslr cameras, a GoPro and a bunch of useless supplies we thought might come in handy. Weather and swell forecasts were carefully analyzed for weeks. Everything was perfect for our second Weskus mission this year.


About an hour into our journey the roof racks decided that they were tired of holding onto our precious surfboards. We heard a loud bang and looked back to see our boards flying across the highway. Luckily there were no other cars around. The road gave our boards a good beating and most of them were damaged. We threw the boards inside the car and drove on.

We arrived at the campsite. We were greeted by a half asleep receptionist who was sitting outside on a chair, basking in the Weskus sun. She was grumpy and didn't really want to talk to us. As we paid, a cat jumped up on the counter and startled her. "Ooh jinne Sokkies!", she shouted at the cat in her weskus Afrikaans accent. The phrase stuck with us and was repeated way too many times throughout our trip.

After a quick surf check we quickly decided to set up camp at a later stage. The waves were pumping at Yoyo's. Fun clean waves with sick ramps on the inside. We used some of that new UV resin stuff I got from Natural Energy (It works way better than Suncure by the way) to quickly repair our damaged boards and then got out there.

End Part 1

Well done Adin!

Boland's Adin Masencamp took out the U13 Boys devision at the Hurley SA Junior Champs held at Point in JBay this week! Congrats Adin!

"Adin Masencamp (Boland), who had held the lead in the Citroën Highest Heat Score award for the first four days of the tournament, successfully defended his U13 boys’ title, finishing just ahead of arch-rival Ethan Fletcher (WP). Jose Faulkner (EP) took third and Max Elkington (WP) placed fourth."

Steffen Burrows aslo performed well all week and made the semi-finals. Boland ended up in fourth place just behind Western Province and KZN. Eastern Province took out the Freedom Cup.

From above

From above from Enter The Boland on Vimeo.

A few waves at Caves filmed from the cliff. The waves were kinda small and really inconsistant. Still fun though. One of those perfect summer days where you can't get a parking spot. Everyone is out in the water, but there aren't any real waves. haha. I'm having a bit of trouble with converting videos, so quality is bad. Working on putting together a few quality vids.

JBAY

Cruising: JBay

Cruising: JBay from Enter The Boland on Vimeo.

One Blurry Wave

One Blurry Wave from Enter The Boland on Vimeo.

Morning sessions

I feel sorry for all the groms in school. The wind hates them. While they are in school the wind decides to blow light offshore or not at all. As soon as school ends... the wind blows till the sun goes down. Haha. Sorry kids. So glad to be out of school!

Oh yeah, and the waves have been pristine in the mornings for the past few weeks. Really fun.

Most of us Boland youngsters are off to JBay this week for the Billabong Pro Junior at Seal point. The forecast is looking prime and we should be in for some good waves. I'm leaving super early tomorrow morning so I can get some time in at Supers.

Here are some older photos to look at:

     Adin Masencamp, small Caves

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The Long Weekend

Had a pretty fun weekend. Drove around looking for surf with friends. We scored some fun waves at Betties at the end of last week. We went around to the west coast side to go look at the monster swell and sat at home watching lots of movies while the weather was bad.

I have been surfing a lot recently and scoring good waves all over. Amped to make a few missions up the coast soon!

kommetjie

Drove over to Long Beach today for a quick session. The waves were really fun even though they were quite pap. Crowds were thin (all the kinders were still in school).
Photos by Megan de Kok:

Where Wine Meets Waves

Check out this cool feature of the Boland written by Phil Nel: http://www.zigzag.co.za/featured/where-wine-meets-waves-an-ode-to-the-boland/

Weekend Waves

We surfed a fun little reef this weekend. It's kinda like a mirror version of Inner Pool. It was my first session there and it was really fun. Hope to score it again soon.