Sunday 11 December 2010
Marcel Habets loves to travel. He recently packed the wife, kids, brother and mates into his Pajero and went off on a "fishing trip" in Namibia. Boy did he score, but did he catch any fish?
I have had the opportunity to surf very good waves in my life, from Hawaii; Indo to our own East and West coasts, this wave is the best left I have ever surfed. Period.
The waves are truly amazing, it beaks at two distinct take off zones, the Cory Lopez You Tube is how we had it.
On top of the trailer one could see 8 waves breaking in a set, pity I did not think of taking a photo – was too rushed to get in the water and experience the wave. When the big set surge came, the birds that were scavenging on the side would be chased up, I marked them as locals. In my photos you will see how the set waves were flaring; the surge would cause a peak to run back onto the set. The image looking back to the Light house shows you how hard the sets were bombing.
We surfed the 2nd peak, which is 300 meters long, into a shore break. I bailed on most of the end sections – it was an 8 foot bomb. One would walk 100 meters past the takeoff point, jump in and get washed down the point before you had paddled 20 meters – that is how close the wave breaks from the shore. The one time I got my timing wrong and was blown over by a 4 foot surge. I ended up getting out and walking all the way back again.
The one thing the stays in my mind was that every wave that broke would hit the surface so hard that it sounded like a canon shot, imagine being in a lineup where you are sitting 30 meters from the side and it sounds like a battle raging. Len recons that inside the tube the wave sounds like rocks falling all around you. The acoustics of this place blow that vuvuzela right out of the stadium.
The water is dark green and there is a seal colony at the light house, so every few minutes a seal would come past surfing the waves. I sat deeper waiting for the big sets and had a few sketchy episodes with seals jumping around me. There are 200+kg bronze whalers (that’s a beeeg shark) that are caught in the area and who knows what else swims in that fish rich sea.
There was a cruise ship in the harbour, my kids called it Zak & Cody (think I am getting old – don’t know who they are – must be some TV show), I took a shot with the local flamingo community in the front. There are huge salt pans in the area, there was a blue light brigade there after our surf – the Nam president came to visit – they missed our session (did not take pic’s as the cops wanted to get harregat with me when I did not stop when he said pull off). The locals all had 4x4 ‘s (all 3 of them) and it looks like they got stuck on the sand at one or other stage as they parked their Toyota’s on the land side of the small dunes.
My wife was behind the camera for a while and only took shots of us – when I got out I took shots of Johanes, this was the 1st time he had surfed it – he was taking the smaller inside waves, the two other locals were riding the 1st peak and with sets we could not see them. It was a wind still day and there was a lot of spray in the air.
One thing that amused me no end was a German lady that does seal / dolphin tours in kayaks. During our trip to the light house I stopped next to her to ask directions to the elusive left hander. I asked her if there was an easier way to drive, as back via the salt mines, the sand was very loose and there were few car tracks. She showed me a back way that they use and went on to say she would tow us out if we got stuck. She drives a 1990 Toyota 4x4 bakkie and she thinks she can tow out a late 2007 Pajero with trailer – she’s got no idea. I have been doing beach driving for 20 years and very rarely get stuck – I have rescued many a Vaalie with Touaregs, Jeeps, Ford / Mazda’s that got stuck along the coast. There is a shot where I am helping NW farmers to get their bakkie out, wheels were spinning dry air and the chassis was lying flat on the sand. Oh the joys of the desert.
The locals really don’t mind us saffas invading them again, but they do seem to have a problem with a certain crew of surfers from that land that likes to invade small third world countries for their oil. They seem to have a habit of keeping an eye on the swell charts, flying in at the drop of a hat, hiring fleets of 4x4 and just taking over the spot with no regard for the locals that surf there regularly. Kinda leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
More shots and stories from the battlefront of Nam to follow so check back soon. We hit up a few more spots on this barren coastline. Marcel
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