DVS Beach Raid hits K-Bay

Thursday 13 May 2010

Cape Town: The DVS Beach Raid at K-Bay left a lucky local with a thicker wallet and a massive grin, writes Chris Mason.

The aim of the DVS Beach Raid is to make a sneaky appearance at one of Cape Town’s beaches when it’s firing, and give an on-the-spot cash prize of R1,000 to the best wave, air or barrel. It's not a competition in the traditional sense, but more like an unexpected and lucrative pat on the back for all those deserving surfers out there ripping on any given day.

So with a big south sell pushing into False Bay and light NW winds, the infamous ‘Reef” was a perfect location for the DVS Beach Raid on the 12th May. The Raid, like any good military strike, was unknown of before hand, and arrived to the thumping of fat barrels against the reef. The local guys were on it as well as several visiting enthusiasts, and it was nice and cosy on the take off spot, with people quite literally rubbing shoulders.

After a quick paddle to suss out the possible candidates I went in to make sure no one went home with naked feet, and thanks to DVS they were a sandal-clad bunch of surfers if I’ve ever seen some. There were a couple of valiant efforts made by some very good barrel riders including respected local Alan Robb, and K-Bay Stalwart Andrew, who would have won the wipeout of the day prize (if there had been one) for flinging himself headfirst over the ledge on a big, evil set wave.

However, at the end of the day everyone agreed that Mick’s barrel was the longest and most impressive and it earned him a thousand clams to spend at his leisure. Mick was visibly stoked and told Wavescape that he would be investing his winnings wisely - in a new surfboard.

So congratulations to Mick and thanks to DVS for putting up the cash and products and Simone Robb for the images of Mick’s winning wave. You can expect to see the DVS Beach Raids take place systematically through out winter. We’ll be there when it’s firing with a wad of cash and lots of freebies, and all you guys have to do is surf!