Howzit everyone,
I trust and hope you have had a great weekend. We are now in Jeffreys Bay having had a really enjoyable stay in Plett. Everyone enjoyed their time there and it was an adrenalin and surfing packed week. Jeffreys Bay has started off with a bang with good waves everyone is enjoying the lively backpackers, Island Vibe.

Where we left off last was with the rather terrifying prospect of jumping off a bridge. Whilst some were excited most of the group were just a little scared/nervous. Whilst jumping out of a plane and freefalling 35-seconds is quite an experience, throwing yourself off a bridge definitely ups the adrenalin as you are so near the ground and the experience is indeed quite scary. The initial view you get of the bridge (see photo attached) is possibly more scary than even jumping. One person who had intended to jump changed their mind just from that sight! Most of the group jumped though and all who did did so with very brave faces and not too many tears were spilled. Yes it is that scary that people regularly cry before jumping off! It was loads of fun though, and Tom Allport was literally jumping around on the bridge after it just wanting to do it again.

The next day was time for J-Bay, home to the best point break in the world. And we were greeted with Supertubes, the top section of the wave, really doing its thing. With some of the country’s best surfers in the water Pete and myself joined them to get a part of the action. It was 4-5 foot (meaning about 2-2.5m in surfers feet!!). Jeffreys Bay and Supertubes is a really special place, being one of the world’s best waves and knowing that all the best surfers in the world and sat on the same benches as you watching the waves and surfed the same waves. It has a great setup to watch the waves from too in amongst the indigenous aloe trees overlooking the waves.

The wave which the group has been surfing is called Kitchen Windows and our backpackers literally overlooks the wave. It is a perfectly running right and left reef. A really fun reef and the perfect step-up from Plett. There is a serious extra fear factor for everyone with the rocks below but everyone has managed to avoid them so far and a lot of the group have had the best wave of their life out there already!!! The lessons with their coach, Etienne Venter, start tomorrow. He has recently been over in New Zealand coaching the South African Junior team at the World Games, so he will no doubt have some great tips to share with everyone.

This afternoon was spent at ‘the waterfall’ as the onshore wind came up. It is better known for its rockjump and zipline than the actual waterfall but is a lot of fun and a good way to get out of the wind. If you look at the pictures you will see what this was all about, but things that have stuck in my mind were Pete doing some front-flip thing off the smaller jump, and Freddie Lloyd-Jones sitting up at the top for about an hour before jumping. Henrik also showed his cool nonchalance again, going straight to the high jump and throwing himself off before most of the group were even in their costumes yet!

Well, a busy and fun start to Jeffreys Bay, and with good waves coming this week I’ll let you know on Wednesday how everything is going and who has been doing what!

Cheers
Chris and Pete

Well it’s amazing to think we’ve been in J-Bay almost a week now. Whilst the waves have been small it has still been good and we had a little pulse today that was nice. Surfing a reef-break has been both a challenge for everyone, and also a great learning playground as the wave breaks in the same place every time. Everyone has been getting great rides going both left and right on the clean open faces.

Etienne is the coach here and everyone has really enjoyed the lessons and complimented his attitude, support and criticism (constructive of course) in the water. His focus is on the technical aspects and he is really good at picking up the little things which make the difference. In order to control for the size of the group we only go out in small groups at a time to ensure the best coaching from Etienne and to not ‘crowd out’ the line-up. Kitchen Windows (the spot in front of where we are staying, see pics) is a right and left A-frame reef. The right runs for longer than the left but the left still offers enough to allow for the group to get good practice going both ways. Most people find it easier going on their forehand (when there stomach faces the wave) but all the group have been getting good rides on their backhand here too.

Island Vibe backpackers has lots going on, and whether it be football games, helping clean the beach, or sitting on the deck watching the pod of 200+ dolphins that sometimes swim by in the evenings, everyone is getting the perfect balance of surfing, chilling and having fun. Jeffreys Bay is also home to some of the cheapest surf clothing in the factory shops, so I better include shopping as well on that list! Yesterday we also did a small tour of Mikey Meyer’s surfboard factory where Tom Allport’s board was in the process of being built. Being a surfer it is always good to know how the thing you are riding is actually made and the effort that goes into a handcrafted shortboard. The group will in fact get an opportunity to shape a board when they are in Ballito if they so desire.

On Monday we helped Tom (the bar/kitchen owner/manager here at the backpackers) in a project of his teaching the streetkids how to surf and some lifesaving skills. They are literally the children who we see begging and sleeping on the streets, but seeing them surf and the excitement they get out of it is both sad and exciting. It is exciting to see the potential these children have, but sad to know it may all go to waste for reasons out of our control. We have a busy time ahead of us here in J-Bay with lots of helping out in the community; helping fix up a school, doing a massive beach clean up and serving up some nutritious food at a local school in the township. On the surfing front we are going out to the famous Cape St. Francis in the search of its perfect waves. Whether we score waves or not we can’t tell but it’s always worth the search…

We’ll keep you posted. Check out the second video too, done by Rob and Jeremy of Plett!

Signing out,
Chris

This is the video from Plett, check it out!!!

Well we’re winding down towards the end of our stay in J-Bay and everyone has really enjoyed it here. You really are in a proper surfing town here, with surf shops everywhere and it seems that every person you meet surfs. The reason that the town exists is because of the great waves, and being the mecca of surfing in South Africa many a surfer has moved to J-Bay purely to enjoy its perfect waves.

Tomorrow we are heading to St. Francis bay, made famous in the first Endless Summer movie where the travelling surfers found amazing waves at Bruce’s Beauties. Bruce’s no longer breaks very consistently as the housing on the dunes stops the sand from being blown into the ocean which the break needs to be at its best. Despite this there are still great waves in the area and the swell forecast looks good for it.

The group did a great job helping the Supertubes Foundation by doing a massive beach cleanup near the backpackers we are staying at. This was followed by Pete sharing some of his knowledge of lifesaving to the group. Being a surfer it is really important to have skills in both first aid and lifesaving as you never know when you may need it given the nature of the sport.

Friday night was a dressup party at the backpackers we are staying at, and without giving away too much there were some pretty impressive outfits worn! With a strong onshore wind on Saturday it was a bit of a relaxing day with another trip to the Waterfall. We were also graced by our second snake of the trip, this time a beautiful slim green water snake in the pool we had just been swimming in.

Today we headed off to Seaview Lion Park. Whilst it does seem a little sad seeing them fenced in, the area they live in is a good size and it gives us the opportunity to see these creatures so close up. When face to face with them you really can understand why they are referred to as the King of the Beasts. They really are massive, and one of their claws is about the size of one of my fingers! Their animal instincts were also really interesting to observe, with Freddie Lloyd-Jones sitting on the grass outside the fence and turning his back one of the lions started stalking him. Also Tom and Hilde, two of the smaller members in the group were the two who the lions had their eyes on the whole time as they licked their lips! You also get the chance to touch lion cubs here, but at 8 months old you already feel that they would be able to savage you in a second if they felt like it.

Alright Cape St. Francis road trip tomorrow, hold thumbs for us and hopefully I’ll have some photographic and video evidence of the waves we get. Hope you’re all doing great in your respective corners of the world.

Cheers from South Africa.
Chris

Welcome back to Ticket to Ride’s SA trip 2 2010 blog. Well, a lot has happened since we were last in touch, for one we are now in Chinsta and have departed J-Bay but we have also been very busy surfing and helping out in the townships.

St Francis was a great day out, it is a half-hour drive from J-Bay and a very ‘chilled’ town (may as well start throwing some of the lingo in so you can get used to it). Whilst the waves weren’t the best we’ve had, they were still good and a challenge to the group. The perfect, relatively easy, waves at Kitchen Windows made everyone a little too much in their comfort zone, and St. Francis broke them out of that with shifty peaks and a better idea of what the waves will be like as we move up the coast.

One of the most fun days so far was when we went to a school in the local township and painted the bathrooms inside. To give you an idea, this school has 140 children between the ages of four and six. Each child pays R130 (£10) per month and only about 60% pay their fees. Only one of the teachers gets a salary from the government and the other three members of staff share what is left after all the children have been fed lunch every day and the bills paid. So, the school gets about £1000 per month to feed 140 children per day, pay electricity and water, do any maintenance, purchase materials and then pay three teachers salaries! Crazy.

Ok, well when we arrived at the school we could see immediately that the school needs a LOT of attention. The outside walls are massively warped wooden sheets and the roof is not doing a very good job at keeping it waterproof. When we arrived the children were still in school so we got to spend some time playing with the children and the whole group sang several songs to the children while Tom Hills played the guitar. The children loved it, definitely not their average day! We chose to help out a bit on the inside and paint the bathrooms, where all the paint was peeling off the walls and generally looking very shabby. There was also a room that they are turning into a library soon that we painted. The group really took on this task, working in teams so some were scraping, others sanding and finally the painters. Painting like this isn’t always as easy as it seems and as the hours moved on more and more paint seemed to be landing on the group instead of the walls. This may have been the paint fumes though getting to people’s heads!! What really made the day special to me was overhearing the parents speaking to each other in Afrikaans (one of our 11 official languages), they were really so grateful and thankful that we were there and that they were getting help at their school. That to me is when you know you are making a difference! So I must thank the group for their contribution here.

Well we are now in Chinsta, and this place is just absolutely amazing. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it is right where we are staying, but if you are a little patient I will give you photographic evidence on Sunday of the view from our rooms. We are now much more ‘in the bush’ and snakes, spiders and insects of all sorts are making people feel a little more like they are in Africa, and a little nervous too! As Paul Botha who we met earlier in the trip loves to say “Africa is not for sissies”.

Sala Kakuhle,
Chris