Good day everyone it's Klee Strachan here, one of the Ticket to Ride surf guides from beautiful South Africa. I am going to give you a summary of what we have been up to since the group’s arrival.
On our first official surf day the waves were a little testing but definitely good enough to get the guys in the water. Everyone was super amped to get down to the beach (Muizenberg) and into the water. They were all energised up from out welcoming Braai (barbecue) the night before, where they got a good taste of what a South African Braai is about…
So we headed down to the berg (Muizenberg) where they had their first surf lesson, a basic introductory lesson. In the introduction the crew were taught all the basic information on how to warm up, safety in the water, paddling technique and of course standing technique.
The crew had a solid 3 hour surf, and as many had not surfed in a while (and some not at all!), Nikita and I were really stoked and impressed with how well everyone did. Nikita Robb is the other trip leader and she is an amazing surfe who has won pretty much every contest in South Africa. She also spent a few years on the women's WQS and qualified for the elite WCT.
We had our first little accident, where Lucy got a little cut from the fin of her surfboard. She wasn't too phased by it and just paddled over to Nikita to see how it was. When Nikita gave her the thumbs she just turned around and headed back out to catch some more waves. It was good to see such positive attitudes. We ended up getting two surf lessons in on the first day and everyone was super stoked with their surfs, smiles all around but definitely a few sore arms and ribs from paddling.
On the second day we had another good surf session in the morning where everyone could work on his or her various areas that needed improvement. After the surf we took the crew to Kalk Bay harbour where we had amazing fish and chips at Kalkys. After lunch we had a look at the seals in the harbour and fed them some fish scraps I bought from the local ladies who fillet the fish right there. Kalk Bay harbour gets fresh fish caught daily when the sea conditions are safe and not too messy. The guys and girls got a little insight into cape culture and enjoyed Kalk bay with its vivid cobble roads and craft shops.
After the first couple of days we started to hear murmurings from the crew of how tired they were, so we decided to take a chill out day and show the guys and girls some of the beautiful attractions of Cape Town.
We started off the morning with a timed 400m swim that needs to be completed in less than 9 minutes. It’s one of the requirements to get a Basic First Aid Life Saving Qualification, which teaches them the basic skills on first aid such as CPR, Recovery drills, board rescue in the sea and spinal board rescue. They do this course when we get up to Durban.
We headed to the V&A Waterfront after the swim, which is located near the main city centre of Cape Town. After everyone had a look around the shops and grabbed some lunch, we headed down to Clifton 4th beach and played some touch rugby. We even got the privilege of seeing some sea life up close and personal when a sun fish swam pretty much straight into my arms. It was the first time I'd ever seen a sun fish so close in.
The sea is a lot colder at Clifton than our usual surf spot, Muizenberg , this is because Clifton is more exposed to the deep open ocean, whereas Muizenberg is situated in a shallow bay called False Bay. The crew finished of the day with a Potjie, which is like a stew but is cooked in a pot on a fire. The pot is a Traditional South African pot and is made of cast iron. The direct translation of the Afrikaans word “Potjie” is “small pot”.
The girls and guys got a rugby ball and decided to take a walk down to the beach to play some night touch-rugby. During the game we had a mole just stroll through the playing field, it was quite odd to see a mole on the beach. We then headed back to the house and chilled out to some chilled tunes and surf movies.
We woke up early on Monday morning and went for a team run on the beach, we had a few of the boys typically trying to compete with each other and the girls kept up pretty well. After the run I did a push up comp (as many push ups that you can possibly do), just to get some fitness in and get the boys arms ready for the day. We even had a few of the girls keen to get involved which was great to see.
The wind hasn't been playing the game as its been onshore for a few days now but still the conditions are suitable for the crew to get some waves and get in the water. Hopefully we will be blessed with some clean conditions soon or we will just go looking for clean surf somewhere on the Cape coastline with its variety of waves and different favourable wind conditions.