SA Drops Back In

After two years of relative quiet we’ve bolted out of the gates with two big events on the calendar, being the Dungeons big wave event, as well as the J-Bay WCT event. As you can see, both events don’t come with a sponsor title for the simple reason that as of right now, both events do not have a sponsor.

Kind of weird isn’t it? Both events are part of the ASP’s respective tours, and both are going to be funded by the ASP this year while there are no sponsorships coming forward, but both events have been deemed worthy of inclusion on two pretty classy tours. Let’s face it – J-Bay is the crème of right hand point breaks, and Dungeons has been home to enough groundbreaking big wave awards to hold it in good stead going forward.

The Dungeons event is going to happen during the winter, with the waiting period from middle April to end August. It’s all going to happen when one of those enormous swells come careering down from the west and head for the Cape of Storms.

While the people of the Mother City brace themselves, the surfers will be flying in, joining with the local crew, preparing themselves for the big monster pits smashing over the outside reefs. With a good legacy of big wave surfing in the country left over from the decade of Red Bull Big Wave Africa events, it’s going to be great to move the sport of big wave surfing another notch forward after 5 years of competitive dormancy.

While the people of the Mother City brace themselves, the surfers will be flying in, joining with the local crew, preparing themselves for the big monster pits smashing over the outside reefs. With a good legacy of big wave surfing in the country left over from the decade of Red Bull Big Wave Africa events, it’s going to be great to move the sport of big wave surfing another notch forward after 5 years of competitive dormancy.

Then we have J-Bay on again. With the ‘new ASP’ and the ZoSea at the helm, there have been some remarkable changes over the last few months. New tour sponsors (Samsung), new formats, new tours (BWWT) and a kick-arse new approach to webcasts that are going to blow minds throughout the upcoming year, as well as a penchant to listen to the surfers and their needs and requirements. Bodes well for the future of the sport.

For South Africans, we have our most popular surfing event back, the event that Jordy Smith won twice, that Sean Holmes beat the best in the world again and again, that saw sterling performances from the last Andy Irons, and a personal favourite destination of Kelly Slater. It’s back – world’s best surfers world’s best waves indeed. No one can deny the goose bumps and the thrill of watching a solid six-foot set start to unload at Boneyards and line itself up to run the 300metres race track that goes past the carpark and to the gulley and sometimes through Impossibles and ‘to infinity and beyond’, as Buzz Lightyear would say.

Behind-the-scenes to pulling off two events of such stature without sponsors is a complicated and convoluted world. Without delving into the complicated world of surf event organization and coordination, it would suffice to say that both events have been on the negotiating table for a long time and both the ASP and South African contest organizers and governing bodies have been hard at work for months. Surfing South Africa have gone the hard yards to help pull it all off, and we’re all systems go for the months ahead. The even better news is that both events are on long-term plans, with tentative 3-year and 4-year plans hopefully set up for both events respectively.

In Durban we still have the Mr Price Pro, and there is strong rumours of another event, but that remains to be seem whether it comes to fruition. For now we have a busy year ahead in competitive surfing, and we’re going to be visited by the best pro surfers and big wave surfers in the world, which is all quite exciting isn’t it?