Hello everyone,
I am sure those of you who are family/friends have been wondering what is going on and how everything is going out here! Just to confirm your suspicions, everything is going great! We have been really busy between loads of surfing and seeing different parts of Cape Town it really has been non-stop fun. This is just the beginning of their ten or thirteen week experience, but it has certainly started with a bang.
The first few days were mainly spent getting to know each other and getting in the water. We have a good international crew which is great, and the level of surfing abilities vary a lot as well. This just makes the trip more interesting is really exciting as a coach to be working with people who have done a lot of surfing before. It also means they will get to surf places like Supertubes in Jeffreys Bay which is an advanced wave.
We have been mixing up our surfs between Muizenberg, which is right in front of our Lodge, and Long Beach, on the other side of the Peninsula. Cape Town has the advantage that the wind is always right for the waves somewhere! Long Beach was a little colder than everyone expected, but it only in Cape Town that we surf the the Atlanic ocean and the rest is done in the warmer Indican ocean waters.
Just a few days into the trip we had the perfect day to climb Table Mountain and went for it. Table Mountain is 3000 ft high and has amazing views of the city and the peninsula. The hike is not a long one, but a difficult one and it was quite a challenge getting up but everyone did manage! The cable car down was nice and easy of course, although a few of us did decide to walk back down too, and paid the price with stiff legs for a couple of days, well I did anyway!
Tim Connibear used to run the Ticket to Ride trips and then got more involved in the community side of things and the TTRide Foundation. Now he is involved in his own programme and we always make sure to meet up with him and to get involved with the projects he is doing. Our first meeting with them was the easiest possible one, a surf down at Dunes. It is a good twenty minute walk and the water was freezing but it was great to get to surf with them and to see how fast they are improving as well as just to 'hang out' with them.
Other things on the agenda for Cape Town was the penguins, more surfing, playing soccer with children from the local township, wine tasting and lots more so check back in soon for Cape Town part 2!
Chris