Wednesday 13th March
We woke up early and had a quick breakfast and packed the van for our journey to the Bluff in Durban. It's a long drive to Durban, around 8 hours, but a beautiful journey. On our arrival on the Bluff we checked in at Ansteys Backpackers and headed for supper. Ansteys Backpackers is run by Tash and Rudy Palmboom. It's an awesome stop on our trip and has great facilities. The Palmbooms are an awesome family and have a lot of surfing history behind them; from Heidi being the S.A ladies u20 champ, Rudy junior a professional surf and Rudy snr a legend in his own and used to compete in the Red bull Big Wave which was held at Dungeons in Cape Town. Everyone headed to bed early, to get some rest for their first day of the Lifesaving course tomorrow.
We woke up early Thursday morning and headed to Durban central where the lifesaving course is done. It was the first day of the course and they get taught how to use a rescue kneeboard, the recovery method and vomit drill procedure. Mike, who is doing the Durban Surf Camp, has joined us in Durban for the 3 weeks we are here. He had his first surf and did really well having surfed a little before. I took a few minutes to see how Ben Howarth was finding the trip so far.
Klee: Ben we just left coffee bay, how was it?
Ben: Well Klee, being right in the middle of the bush, the coffee shack was the perfect place to get away from civilization and experience the real Africa. Coffee bay truly is Africa at its best, the local community is incredibly raw and powerful, the perfect place to concentrate on surfing and enjoy the evenings with the group.
Klee: How's your surfing been going?
Ben: I definitely feel as though I have improved a great deal from the start of the trip in Muizenberg. Coming in to the trip having never surfed before, my focus is now on riding the open face both ways consistently rather than simply catching foamies. I look forward to every session and enjoy every wave I catch.
Klee: Can you describe to me your best wave of the trip so far?
Ben: I'm glad you asked that Klee. Surfing all along the coast of South Africa has given us the chance to experience a variety of different waves. Occasionally we get the chance to surf some big sets and the feeling of catching a bigger wave is unparalleled. During a great day surfing at Coffee bay I caught a great left, I was stoked as it was the biggest wave anyone had caught so far!
Me: How are you finding the experience with the group?
Ben: It's interesting that we came on this trip as 17 strangers and 7 weeks in to it we are like a family. On this trip we have so many opportunities to experience so many amazing things together.
We had a full day on Friday. The group did CPR and spinal board training for their Lifesaving course. They also did torpedo buoy rescue and kneeboard rescue. They did their 400m swim test. Everyone passed the test the first time. It was the first time everyone has passed the swim test the first attempt on a Ticket to Ride trip. The times were Charles: 7:42, Will: 8:00, Matt: 8:23, Ryan: 7:42, Alex: 6:49, Ben: 8:36, Tom: 6:10, George: 7:10, Ronan: 8:20, Lucy: 6:55, Sarah: 8:05. Nikita and I were very proud of them.
Saturday we spent the whole day at the beach in Durban central. Durban is like the home of surfing in South Africa. It has got a lot of different breaks to surf. It also has produced a number of professional surfs from Paul Canning, Travis Logie, Jordy Smith and a number of others. The piers being the most popular spots to be surfed. Being able to use the rip next to the pier to paddle out is fun and helps conserve energy for riding waves. The group were getting some good rides and taking advantage of the clean glassy 2-3ft waves.
The nightlife in Durban is pretty good, and having not been out in a while we decided Saturday was the night. We went to a club that's called Origin and is a well known club in Durban. It has 3 levels and different music on every level. After a good night dancing and a couple drinks we caught the taxi home.
On Sunday we woke up late after having a good night out. We went to Durban piers for a surf around mid day and the conditions Were good. Tom, Alex, Ben and Lucy got some good waves. The water was warm and sun was out once again in Durban. We then packed up and headed home for supper. We had pizzas for dinner and settled in for the night.
Ansteys is a really chilled area and has some world class waves on offer; from Ansteys beach break that offers good waves for the intermediate surfer to Cave rock that offers big barrels for the more advanced surfer. On Monday the conditions were really good all day and the group surfed loads in the morning and made the most of the clean 3-4ft waves. In Durban the group get the opportunity to order a custom made board from Clayton Surfboards. Clayton's are ridden by many people in South Africa and overseas. We took the group to order new custom board and were they excited. Getting a custom board made just for your height and weight and level of surfing really helps improve your surfing. Almost everyone ordered a board and were all very excited and can’t wait to get them. When we got back to Ansteys backpackers the waves were still super fun. So a few of us went out and surfed till the sunset, it was an awesome way to end a great day.
The group has been doing the Lifesaving course since we arrived in Durban as it is one of the requirements to become a surf instructor. In the instructors course you learn all the basics on teaching someone to surf. It covers the safety side, all about surfboards, standing up, paddling, the legal side and planning a beginner surf lesson. They started the ISA Level 1 Instructor course on Tuesday where they had a surfing assessment. They have to go surf and catch two lefts and two rights with control and confidence. In the evening they started the theory part back at the backpackers.
It's been an awesome last 6 days in Durban and we are looking forward to the next few weeks before we leave to Mozambique.
Signing out,
Klee