Art surfboards raise record R170k
Wednesday 9 December 2009 About 150 surfers, artists, fundis and luminaries pulled into the 2009 Wavescape Surf Art charity auction to raise a record R170,000. Photos: Cheryl-Samantha Owen, Save Our Seas Foundation
See synopses of films, the film schedule, artist info and photos of boards, art poster, festival poster
Held at the trendy café Depasco this year, the Surf Art exhibition was a party to be remembered.The event, which also served as the launch of the Wavesapes Surf Festival, aimed to raise R100,000 for ocean charities such as the NSRI and Shark Spotters this year, but ended up over-shooting the mark by R70,000.
Chris Mason, event co-director said, “We are very happy with the way things turned out. I could hardly believe the amount of money we raised, and it’s nice to know that surfers are on the front line of ocean conservation and ready to put their money where their mouths are”.
The Surf Art exhibition featured 13 of South Africa’s top artists, including Brett Murray, whose board went for a record setting R24,000 (bought by a phone bidder), possibly the highest amount of money paid for a surfboard in South Africa.
The auction contained a surfboard made of ice by media guru and big wave surfer Conn Bertish, who approached Wavescape and Save our Seas with the idea of the board as a “simple metaphor for global warming”, in lieu of the recent climate change summit in Copenhagen. The ice board melted over a 12 hour period.
