My first trip to Mecca in 1974, this is the last remaining picture of that visit. No houses on the point just dune and fynbos. Christmas day dawned with Supers breaking 6-8', it took me 20 minutes to nerve up and drop into a wave. Fear that I would blow a takeoff and get smeared at Boneyards. This is a low tide shot and a bit windblown, locals wouldn't even look at it when it was like this.
Chris Knutsen spent some of his formative teen years here and was one of South Africa's style masters, probably still is. He talked of surfing alone when it was under 8' as the boy's were uninterested in anything below that magic marker.
Six weeks of porch camping, veggie stews with the P.E. boys and Aussies. Watching Larry Levine shape boards, getting boosted from Peter Daniels yard because he already had enough groms camping there. Being blown away by Davey Stolk's surfing.
The long uncomfortable ride to Jbay with the German who played Nazi rally tapes from the 2nd World War. Apropos he thought he had found kindred souls in Apartheid S.A. The craziest full tilt drive back to Durban 750 miles in about 15 hours with a fender bender thrown in for good measure.
Waves so perfect that it changed the way I surfed and looked at waves forever. And I had answered a somewhat sneered question of a classmate, "What will you do if Supertubes breaks?" The ocean dropped off some prezzies that Christmas Day and I pulled the trigger and unwrapped them. Question answered.
1 comment:
Is it purely circumstance that had us both talking of this place? Me dreaming of a trip to come, you remembering one from your youth. Nice pic.
-SV
Post a Comment