Enter the Boland is dead x)

If you haven't realized by now, EnterTheBoland died almost a year ago. Duncan Campbell and I started EnterTheBoland in 2010. Most of our generation of surfers and bodyboarders were starting blogs at the time, so we decided to start one too. We were two frothing little groms, hyped up on energy drinks, wanting to become famous. We searched Google for a good place to start a blog. Blogspot came up as the first link. I stole the name Enter The Boland from a article on Zigzag.co.za, written by local legend Phillip Nel, which had the same title. Duncan got over the idea of a blog very quickly. I religiously updated the blog for years. Duncan basically stopped surfing midway through 2011. Last year I started questioning why I was still posting to this stupid blog. I was over it. So I stopped.

Now, a year later, I have decided to renew EnterTheBoland. I'm starting a new site on Wordpress. Purely because I need a platform to share my video projects, music and other random shit I find interesting. I will not have regular updates. I will not post updates to facebook like I used to, so if you want to stay updated keep a close eye on this space --> https://entertheboland.wordpress.com/

EnterTheBoland is alive!

WesKus

Here is a clip of our recent trip up the West coast. The quality is a bit bad, but I'll upload a better version at a later stage. Enjoy.


WeskusBeskus from Charl de Waal on Vimeo.

Toob time

Getting a good GoPro clip is hard. There are so many things that can go wrong. Your fingers get in front of the lens, you don't press the record button correctly, you drop the GoPro, water splashes on the lens, etc. I now really respect those surfers who churn out quality GoPro clips week after week. They know what they are doing.

I have only filmed a few sessions, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. The waves have not been too great for filming, but I have managed to get a couple keeper clips.
Here is a quick barrel from yesterday morning at the local. (Watch the HD version on vimeo if you want better quality)

Hohoho from Charl de Waal on Vimeo.

More

GoPro frame grabs from today at Caves:

Monday

I have been trying to nail some barrels on film with the GoPro. The waves didn't play along today, but I got a few little semi use able clips.

Easter

We went on a easter egg hunt at Caves today...and found many.

News Update

Boland News Update:

1.) Davey Gouws is this weeks Surf Ninja on zigzag.co.za! Go check it out!

                              Ninja kick

                              Karate chop

2.) A photo of me, from a recent tube fest at Pringle Bay, got published in the latest issue of Zigzag. Thanks to Chris Troch for his amazing GoPro skillz.

3.) The first solid swell of the year rocked our coastline, lighting up a wide selection of Boland surf spots. The 5.5m, 17seconds swell hit early Wednesday afternoon, staying solid throughout Thursday and finally came to a rest on Friday. Stories are flying around of cooking beachies and points. We lucked out at Bikini Beach, surfing fun waves early Thursday morning on the high tide.

                          Bikini Beach Point

4.) Boland's Adin Masencamp and Steffen Burrows are heading to Ecuador next weekend to compete in the Vissla ISA World Junior Surfing Championships. You can support Adin's trip by going down to Natural Energy Surf Shop in Strand and buying raffle tickets for R50. You will stand a chance of winning some great prizes from Billabong worth R5000!. Adin just got some new shred sticks and he sais they are going really well. Good luck with your trip boys! Bring home the trophy!

                    Adin and his shred sticks

<-Backspace

Recap of the past few weeks:

The Maties team competed in the Billabong Interclub Champs in Jeffreys Bay two weeks ago. The waves were average, but the trip was a lot of fun. We made it to round 3 where we were knocked out by JBU and Jbay boardriders. Congrats to JBU for taking out the win. They were shredding.

                                  #Maties represent!

There have been really good waves at home lately. Caves has been doing its thing, producing tons of deadly barrels. Pringle Bay also had some amazing waves a few weeks ago. We got super barreld for hours long. I ended up snapping my board and leash that day. Back on the crappy 2012 model for now.
Here are a few photos by Coetzer Cooke Photography.

                           Caves wedge deluxe

                        Davey has been charging, finding many waves just like this one

                            Tommy Kruger

                          Me. Pre board snap at Pringle Bay. Photo: Chris Troch

Davey Gouws -> #Sequence01

Sequence 01 from Davey Gouws on Vimeo.

I am on the guest list

I am on the guest list from Charl de Waal on Vimeo.

Arbitrary

Lately waves have become pretty scarce and I've been spending more time on the beach than doing any actual surfing. There have been some fun waves here and there in the last two weeks, ranging from freezing cylindrical funnels to overhead, bone crunching wedges. But this whole week the ocean has been pretty flat.

We are heading up to Still Bay and Mossel Bay for the next couple of weeks to surf and party, but will be returning around Christmas time to get slotted at home.

Some photos by Coetzer Cooke Photography a.k.a @CoetzerPhoto:

                       Adin takes to the sky

                             Davey Gouws (@yobrodavey) GoPro selfie

                    I took this using Coetzers camera. Caves beauty.

                              Myself airborne

                           Adin's office...

                       Sunset tubes at Crons

Get Some

I haven't  posted anything in a while. The reason being that we haven't really had any good surf in a long time. My studies have also been keeping my ass glued to my desk chair. It's exam time... again.

A lot has happened since my last post. My car has been broken into twice. Right outside our apartment in Stellenbosch. The thieves getting away with my camera lenses the first time, which I was stupid enough to leave under a towel in my car. The second time, they tried to remove my radio, which they failed at horribly, leaving me with only a broken window to get repaired. Tik koppe.

Over our short midterm break in Sept, Marthinus and I had a amazing trip up to Mozambique. The ocean was dead flatt, but we had a amazing time soaking up the sun and experiencing the local scene. On our return, Marthinus got several strains of malaria, after only being bitten twice. He was really sick for a bit, but is back to full health. I now know where most of the best waves are located, so next time we are klapping it hard.

Davey ''Dawid" Gouws and I have hit a dry patch in our endless hunt for Boland barrels. Getting completely skunked on numerous occasions. Wrong wind, wrong swell, wrong sand. Don't worry, summer is creeping ever closer and soon all the elements will align. Talk of no waves will be long gone in the South Easterly wind. Watch this space.

Here are a few photos of Betties a while back, taken by Coetzer Cooke. If you haven't seen Coetzer's photo's in the Binne Die Boland article in the new zag, I suggest you go pick up a copy. It is also a really well written article by local charger Phillip Nel. Worth the read.

                                Charl de Waal, little runner

                         A right

                                    A left

                              Adin Masencamp about to get slotted

All photos by Coetzer Cooke. Give him a follow on insta: @CoetzerPhoto.

Ice Cold

Spent most of my weekend frolicking in the icy cold waters of Koeel Bay. Waves were real fun on both Friday and Saturday, but the water was absolutely freezing before the sun came out from behind the mountain. Only on our way home on Friday, did we discover that the mountain tops were covered in snow.

Coetzer Cooke Photography tagged along to capture the action. Here are a few photos: All photo's by Coetzer Cooke.

                       Ice tunnel

                          Empty

                          Power

                       Premium wedge

                         Yup, thats snow

                             Insider running off

Delayed Reactions

A week ago, our two month long winter break came to an end. I was fortunate enough to spend most of the holiday tripping through the country. Got to visit all my favorite points up the east coast: Mossel Bay, J-Bay and Vic Bay. We scored good waves on every trip.

Surfed USSA's in Vic Bay for the Maties surf team. The waves were small but really fun. Vic beachie had really good banks and we had some solid free surfs there. We ended up coming 4th overall. Next year we'll take the gold, I'm shure of it haha. Harde partytjies, good surfing and a amazing group of people. Everyone had a good time. Looking forward to next year.

The next few months will be spent studying back in Stellenbosch and tracking down big winter barrels at home. Always fun.

Here are a bunch of photos from the past month, I havent posted any in a while:

                 Maties initiation: I got a great new hairstyle

                    Maties initiation

                       Myself in J-Bay. Photo by Nita Oosthuizen

                        Setting up at Super's car park section. Photo by Nita Oosthuizen

                         Victoria Bay

                     Davey Gouws busting one of a million airs in the beachie

                      Me at Vic beachie

                         Davey, Aaron, Lauren and myself. Initiation night.

                            Stoked

                             Me

                          In the bushes

                               2013 Maties surf team

Weekend up the coast

Just got back from a epic long weekend in Mossel Bay. Solid waves lit up the points. We got to surf all day, every day. Epic.

Spending a week or two here at home and then we are going up to J-Bay to get barreled off our heads!

Mossel Bay and Sunset in die Strand:

                               Outer Pool looking too inviting

                               Fishing boat

                                         Steenbras

                         Coetzer Cooke

                                                       Golden Strand