RIP Vernon Castle
Tuesday 13 January 2015 A paddle-out and wake to celebrate the life of 1970s and 80s South African surfing legend Vernon Castle was held at Long Beach in Kommetjie on Saturday.
A popular, strong-paddling goofy-foot who manufactured surfboards under his own Surflite label, he won multiple WP surfing titles in various age divisions between 1974 and 1986 and featured in several trials for Springbok selection.
He became the WP team coach and a committee member in the ‘80’s before being appointed Springbok surfing coach in 1987. Vernon was also a co-founder and the Contest director for the Spur Steak Ranch Surfabout, Cape Town’s first ASP rated surfing event, in 1984 and 1985.
After spending all of the 90’s in Europe, he returned to the Southern Cape in the new millennium and stayed in Hermanus and Plettenberg Bay before succumbing to a heart attack on Boxing Day.
At his request, his ashes were sprinkled in the ocean at Kommetjie with his closest friends and family in attendance.
RIP Vernon – gone but never forgotten.
