Table of contents for 42.1 in Zigzag

“Hey, you wanna challenge me to a spinning contest?” asked the freckle-faced teen bodyboarder at Durban’s North Beach. I was around the same age as he was and must’ve looked up for the challenge, wearing my camouflage wetsuit* and riding a bodyboard after a run of bad luck and snapped fibreglass. Recognising the young dude’s face, I politely declined — not quite sure if he was being serious or having a laugh. A year or so later, I watched as the same young charger leaped off the pier into a wild ocean too frightening for me, and he kept paddling until he reached The Mound — the bombie-style peaks that break when the swell is massive in Town, way out past the shark nets where the sand dredged from the…

Here I sit, in a strange mix of my old life and my new one. It’s an old couch in a new flat, an old laptop but a new idea, the old me with a new perspective. It’s weird how every day we change ourselves. We grow in ways we recognise, and some we don’t until much later. For myself it is a stark change, one that I can see with clarity when I look back. Rewind the clock about three years and I was lying in the bath of my old flat, during my old life, a bunch of drugs in one hand and my phone in the other. I’d been through some bad shit a short while before, which had led to the drugs — and the two…

“I HAVE THE FEELING THAT SURFING IS READY TO EXPLODE AGAIN.” Sophie Goldschmidt, CEO of the World Surf League, says this while beaming across the dinner table at an assembled horde of surf journalists. We pretty much all beam back. Sophie is warm and likeable and clearly knows her shit, yet is charmingly self-deprecating — willing to admit to her semi-novice surfing status. “I can do most sports,” she says, and she is an extennis pro, so she’s probably right. “But I couldn’t surf! But here’s what got me about it — although I couldn’t do it, I had ridiculous fun trying.” We’re at Reyna’s Mexican restaurant in Lemoore, California, a joint where for obvious reasons, WSL staff are clearly well known. It’s the WSL’s first step at repairing some…

But if Ziff’s takeover was inspired by the Rebel Tour, in practice it looked nothing like that. The soon-to-be WSL’s plan was pretty simple: test surfing’s value in the big sports entertainment marketplace. Let’s just call it Plan A. The task of drawing up Plan A fell to ZoSea Media, Terry Hardy’s Santa Monica-based sports marketing vehicle. It called for a tour that earned more than its keep. There was a million dollars a pop for each CT’s naming rights. Lucrative tour partnerships with a range of non-endemic companies would be sold across a range of categories: cars, electronics, cosmetics, travel and airline, beverage, the works. This would all be in sync with a range of equally impressive new broadcast deals, securing the partnerships and opening more and more doors…

PART OF THE WAVE-RIDERS’ ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT WERE WELLINGTONS, RUBBER WADERS THEY WORE TO CROSS FIELDS SO SOGGY THE MUD WOULD PLUCK OFF ANY REGULAR SHOE OR BOOT. THE FARMERS IN THE AREA DIDN'T REALLY ENDORSE THE YOUNGER MEN WHO CROSSED THEIR LAND, BUT THEY DIDN'T STOP THEM EITHER. FROM HIS TRACTOR, ONE FARMER SIMPLY ASKED, “ARE YOU MARRIED?”- THE ANSWER TO WHICH WAS MEANT TO GIVE A GUY A CLUE AS TO WHETHER OR NOT HE SHOULD BE DOING WHAT HE WAS PLANNING ON DOING. There was time to think about this, because even getting to the wave required a great deal of slowmotion risk. The fields tilted toward a notch in the top-land that led to the only access point in a series of cliffs staggered around a small…

For the past few decades, the Malherbe name gets mentioned more often than not when talking about Border surfing. The band of brothers, and now their lighties, have been tearing up the waves on their turf, epitomising the strong competitive surfing spirit found in Buffalo City. Along with his older brother David, Andre has racked up an impressive medal haul representing South Africa internationally, particularly with the Masters Team, with whom he has collected two gold medals to add to his handful of national titles. Andre is also happy to pass on the knowledge. “He puts in hours and hours with the lighties on the coaching side, and always has time to talk,” says local lensman Pierre De Villiers. “If there are cooking waves somewhere, Andre is on it. And…

DROP THE ZAG A LINE ON LETTERS@ZIGZAG.C0.ZA AND BE HEARD KINGS OF THE OCEAN Saffa Iain Campbell is the 2017 World Bodyboarding Champ. Share the news, give the sponger some credit. If Jordy wins as well, we’ll be Kings of the Ocean 2017. Tod Ralph, Durban – The news of Iain’s title win was met with stoked cheers at the Zag cave. Having watched him progress from ripping Durban grom to world-beater has been epic. If you remember, Iain also snapped the shot of David van Zyl that appeared on the cover of Zag issue 39.5 – a man of many talents indeed. Well done, Champ. A ROCKING SESSION Howzit Zag, I found another wave rock on the Weskus. Previously I sent you one I found at the Kagga Kamma…

Like all great stories, this one started with a boy and girl – well two boys and a girl to be exact. The year was 1919. The story goes that Heather Price, a student at the University of Cape Town, befriended two US Marines whose ship had stopped over in Cape Town en-route to America after World War I. The marines had brought with them two solid wooden “Hawaiian style” surfboards — also known as alaias — which they used to teach her to surf. According to Price, they unfortunately took their boards back with them when they sailed. There is little documented evidence of stand-up surfing in South Africa after that until 1921, when pilot and veteran Tony Bowman returned from World War I and settled in Muizenberg. After…

Along with the ocean, pro surfing has always relied on the kindness of strangers. It’s pretty much in constant need of new recruits. I reckon this might be because as a sport, it’s both magnificently unique, and terribly, fatally flawed. What other pro sport has to sit around for days or weeks or even longer, just kinda…waiting for the playing field to show up, thanks to some furious weather event that is or isn’t out there over the horizon somewhere? I will tell you! None. I love that, by the way. The unpredictable ocean and its moods; that storm over the horizon being there, or not. It truly is, on some fundamental level, the reason I surf — because every day is different. This gives surfing its goofy seductive power,…

I MEAN, WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT A SPORT WHOSE FINEST EVENT, THE EDDIE AIKAU INVITATIONAL, GOES ON HOLD FOR YEARS? In 2016 the Plan A edifice began to crumble. The trigger was Samsung’s decision not to renew their sponsorship. On the surface it was all, “It’s been great! Thanks! See ya!” Behind that lay what sounds like a bit of a mixed bag. One independent source, who works at a high level advising corporation on their sports marketing deals, told me the Samsung people had felt dudded almost from the outset. They’d believed the deal would give them not just the sport, but the entire global surf culture — that every surf shop would have a Samsung screen, every surfer a Samsung phone. That they’d have access not just…

In the Azores, when you drink beer the preferred bar snack is a broad yellow lupini bean, pickled in brine and chili, known as tremocos. High in antioxidants and Vitamin E, it’s a Mediterranean snack enjoyed in the middle of the Atlantic, but that shows where the Azores sits in terms of its dominant influences. This is Portugal, twice removed. A set of nine islands often thought of as a kind of European Hawaii. So you bite, twist and suck the bean out of its rubbery skin, flick the skin into the rocks, chew and wash it down with a crisp slug of Sagres cerveza from a titchy 200ml bottle. Back in SA, it’s all about size and value, we prize our 750ml man-size quarts. Out here, they’re more refined…

NAME/ MANOA JYE ROBB DATE OF BIRTH/ 25/04/2002 HOMETOWN/ KOMMETJIE SPONSORS/ QUIKSILVER / DVG / SCARFINI How did you start surfing? Paddled out at Vic Bay with my dad when I was four and stood up first time. Favourite shape? My 5’5” DVG squashtail. Biggest mistake you’ve made? Face-planting into concrete at Inner Kom. Favourite wave? Down the beach. Worst wave you’ve ever surfed? Onshore Muizenberg. Favourite surfer? Dane Reynolds. Who inspires you? John John Florence. Proudest moment this past year? Getting good grades. What would you like to see more of in SA surfing? More local contests. Best hidden talent? What’s the point of hiding your talent? Where will surfing be in five years? Hopefully everyone will be in a wave pool, so there’s more space in the sea.…

BUT MAN, IT STILL CAME AS A SHOCK WHEN KELLY TURNED OUT TO BE THE PUTATIVE PARADIGM-BUSTER I’ve never interviewed Dirk Ziff or his wife Natasha. No surf journalist has. No journalist of any kind, in fact. The Ziffs are awesomely private, as maybe you or I might be if we had approximately R68 billion. Still, everyone with whom we share a mutual acquaintance says they’re warm, intelligent, stoked on surfing, and generous almost to a fault. (Sophie calls them “philanthropic”.) But...private. So much so that it took almost a year before Ziff was outed as the money guy behind the takeover of the ASP. There’s still no public account of how he was brought into contact with the sport, though I reckon it’s no coincidence that Terry Hardy, KS’s…

The WSL Surf Ranch, or “Kelly’s pool” as we all tend to call it, is an amazing thing. It truly is. The day after the dinner with Sophie, we all drove out there to survey it and surf it — this very human miracle of technology, imagination, persistence, and sheer hard work. I wish I could tell you all about that day. Sadly, in keeping with the WSL’s ongoing reputation for iron control even in a culture that barely knows the meaning of the term, I signed a document that embargoes any reporting of my experience there until 31 January, 2018. It’s a bummer, because the thing needs reporting — real reporting, not the flawless video edits you’re getting on socials. It’s waaaay more interesting than that. The technology in…

WHEN TO GO Perched out in the middle of the Atlantic, the Northern Hemisphere winters obviously deliver the most swell to the Azores, but sometimes it can be a bit too much, making late Autumn (August - October) and Spring (February - April) periods just as good. Summer can deliver too, but as usual, you’ll run the risk of being skunked. GETTING AROUND Although there is a European style bus system, you’re going to want to hire a car. There are several car hire companies to choose from and the prices are very reasonable, by European standards. If you do strike missions to other islands in the chain, best to fly between the islands, as the ferries are slow (and that kind of takes the “Strike” out of the “Mission”).…

Some of you reading this will have just finished matric and might be wondering what to do in 2018. No, you can’t surf every day. You have to get a job. Every break is already jammed with the unemployed so please don’t make a bad situation worse. Unless you’re going to work for the family business or become a career criminal — there’s no difference in some cases — it’s likely you’ll soon be faced with the horrible prospect of job interviews. Here’s some free advice. Actually, I suppose it’s only free if you stole the mag. Well done if you did. You have a bright future working for the municipality. The first thing to remember is to arrive late for the interview. By keeping the panel waiting, you are…