Fun and farewells in Durban

It’s commonly said that all good things come to an end, I’m not too certain if that’s true or not but I do know that that was the case here. Our 10 week adventure together had come to an end although our epic journey together will be remembered for years to come I’m sure. Our last stop on our travels up the east coast of South Africa will be a particularly memorable one as our busy schedule and fun filled agenda distracted us from the little time we had left together. Here is some of what we got up to while in Durban, South Africa.

Durban is considered the business end of our trip given that this is where all the final practical assessments get attempted and completed for all the guys on the trip who are doing their ISA level 1 surf instructor course. The group has been immersed in surf culture and have spent plenty hours in the water throughout the past 10 weeks practicing and honing their skills and knowledge both in and out the water. This was no different in Durban regardless of the course and some of the guys really saved their best surfing for last and hit a progression phase at the perfect time. We didn’t always get the best conditions but when we did we made them count and even when the waves were tricky and not looking as good as we’d hoped we were still out there doing our best even though it was more challenging and not always easy, but as a wise surf coach once told me “you don’t learn much when you’re surfing well, you learn more about your surfing when you’re struggling” and this was certainly the case whilst in Durban.

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When we weren’t surfing in Durban we had a few other extremely fun activities on the agenda, our first was the ever popular trip to the flow-rider at the Wavehouse. I know from the pictures it doesn’t look that tricky but trust me it takes a few goes before you get the hang of it and we had plenty of fun laughing at each others bails and competing to see who could stay on the longest or do the best manoeuvres.

While we were in Plettenberg Bay back in week 3 of the trip we unfortunately never got to Sky-Dive because at the time the plane was in for routine maintenance. It was a long wait for those who were really looking forward to it but whilst in Durban we were able to get the jumps done. The nerves were ever present in the vehicle as we made the hour drive outside of the city into the very scenic farm regions of Pietermaritzburg. Fearful faces went up and ecstatic faces came down as most of the crew got to tick another thing off of their Bucket list.

A trip to South Africa wouldn’t be complete without visiting a game park, we drove up to the Imfolozi Game Reserve which is home to the famous ‘Big 5’ in the hope that we’d get to see as many animals as possible. We unfortunately didn’t get to see a few of the major animals like Lion but we did manage to see many others like Rhino, Elephants, Warthog, Buck, Monkey’s, Baboons, Buffalo and Giraffe. It was a great experience seeing these animals naturally in the wild with the Game Park boasting almost 1000 square kilometers of space for the wildlife.

Thanks to a little bit of inside information we got to go and visit what is soon to be one of many ‘pump tracks’ in Durban, the technique and fitness required for this type of skating can potentially really translate well into ones surfing and it was really fun having a go at the 100m loop track in Ballito, we had a blast!

Check out some of our surfing and the pump track in this little video I made of some of our stay in Durban.

So the trip has officially come to and end and what a crazy and fun adventure it has been, it’s been a great and challenging experience as well as a personal privilege to have shared the past 10 weeks with everybody involved. As is customary we had our last evening farewell braai night and shared a few words and memories of everything we’ve accomplished together and I wish everybody the best going forward.