Breakfast at Tiffany's

When you've just done the long-haul out of town to get away from the crowds at your local spot and arrived to find the waves cranking at the most fickle reef break on your coastline, I doubt you ever stop to wonder how the break got its name or who the first surfers were to paddle out and ride the virgin peaks. It's more likely these days that your mind is on car security and getting out there before anyone else realises the session is on.

On the KwaZulu Natal north coast lies a fickle reef break called Tiffany's. I have known about it since I was a boy. Before my teens I didn't take much notice of my dad when he told the story about when he (Jimmy Whittle) and Geoff Scallen discovered the spot in 1961, five years before I was born.

Only once I got to ride Tiffany's in my mid-teens and experience the power and unpredictability of the break, did I begin to wonder if he really did surf it first and name the spot. The offshore reef is exposed to different swell and wind directions, which gives it many moods. Some days there are lefts, sometimes rights, presenting different experiences determined on the day by the prevailing conditions.

Recently while interviewing Geoff, he recounted the event to confirm the story from my youth.

One Saturday in 1961 Jimmy Whittle travelled up the coast with Geoff, a surfboard building pioneer from Durban, in his old Renault Frégate. Their girlfriends Lorraine (later to become my Mom) and Annette accompanied them with the two imported Australian balsa boards that were always on the roof when they travelled. Jimmy and Geoff were early adventurers on the North Coast out of Durban and had surfed a few spots, and would often seek out new destinations for the Durban Surf Lifesaving Club's 'Lost Weekends'. This weekend was different from the usual surf missions they were used to – they had been invited to a 21st birthday party on a wealthy sugar baron's farm near Salt Rock.  

The details of their ejection from the party that night are not fully known but as Geoff puts it, a "scuffle" broke out and "the gentlemen we were, we chose to leave”. The surfers and their partners spent the night on the beach in the area and awoke to glassy surf conditions the next morning. Leaving the girls, Geoff and Jimmy unstrapped the boards and wandered down to where they saw a sight they couldn't understand. The waves seemed to pick up out of nowhere with incredible speed and steepness – a reef break. As they were about to enter the water two fisherman in a Land Rover drove up to them to inquire if they still felt they should enter the water?

Seeing the large shark hanging out the back of the truck, Jimmy replied, “well it's out the water now, so it's safe for us to go in”.

After the session, the guys returned to the beach to enjoy the breakfast that the girls had scouted. Milk from a local delivery driver and Indian delights from a local store nearby were shared by the group on the beach. The romantic comedy, Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard had recently premiered in Durban which gave rise to the spot being named there and then – Tiffany's.

I am a nostalgic person generally which adds a mystical dimension to my modern day surfing experiences and stories like this link me to the people of the past. Take a moment next time you enter the water to ponder your link to that surf spot's heritage.