Winter starts

With a flick of a switch the cold chills of winter where felt in CT. Although winter is on it's way by no means are the waves subsiding. We have had awesome waves every week on both Altantic and Indian oceans. We had a pretty good False bay swell last week, but due so many public holidays – Freedom day producing the best of them all the crowds where around lapping up waves in Nelsons memory. Amongst the many lenseman shooting Kalk Bay Greg Chapman – Chappie endured the longest session to snap some epic pic’s:




Whilst most people are at the grind, I have been on the bike doing the miles in the mornings and then sneaking off to find a secluded wave- o how I love my life right now.

Here is a taste of the East coast late night session in a pretty well known location for it's shark infested waters but all I saw was crisp clean 6-8ft waves on an awesome evening:

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Another isolated day on a random beachie with some round glassy bowls:




And then we have had big storms and wild sea's, this day saw two of us paddle out at about 10 foot plus with some shifty righthanders breaking off some vertical cliff's:




Hope everyone is bring out their ugg's and waxing up the guns, next up for me is the Sani2C MTB stage race on 19th-21 May... laters

Westkis

Well I think everyone in Western and Southern Cape has a tale to tell about the past swell this week! It was soild for two days with some spots going dilly and many surfed out bodies around the place. We drove a few hours up the west coast and got some fun waves.. Totally unprepared with no sleepbags or sheets but with the joys of having the rooftop tent we managed to get few good hours sleep and get few fun waves on Sat morning and then rushed back to CT for Sowing the Seeds which lined some of South Africa's top bands (aKing who played a sweet mellow set, Hot Water and Jeremy Loops)in an epic location near Cape Point which turned out to be a great day/night!

A certain town waves we surfed on the Friday with a bit more size on it on the Saturday morning:

Sowing the seeds festival, great bands, great vibe, great mates and few too many beers to flush it all down on a windy CT evening in Cape Point:

First Kalk Bay session 7th April

So it feels like summer in Cape Town although it's not!With howling SE'ers and a flat Alantic ocean there could only be one spot to score once the tide pushed. I checked it in the morning which was no good but the late arvo session offered lightish winds and some fun late drops. The whole crew (Warren, Andrew W, Mickey D, Alan Robb, George, Steve Gadd just to mention a few) where hungry to score some waves at the reef which hasn't really broken for the past month. The contours didn't really happen but was good to find my feet again at my childhood local after a year of not surfing the Reef. A few fun bowls to snap: Theres not many waves that deliver such a thrill in such a short ride: After riding 38hrs and 707km in the Cape Epic my legs still felt good to do few turns: Even found the odd right, only because was too late to go left! Hidden away from the Howling SE while Chris Bertish was using himself as a sail to SUP 110km from the Waterfront to Langebaan! More late drops and stoked to get out with one board: Hope everyone is having as good a time as I am, will keep you posted...

Zebra's finish after 8 days 707 km Complete!

This morning things were looking better for the final stage riding from oak valley to Lourensford. Roeloff although now a bit run down with cold and flu after depleting his system the past few days was able to stomach a decent feed for dinner and packed in a average breakfast and we were feeling happy and positive for the race to the finish, along with only 64km of riding to be had till reaching the beautiful Lorensford wine estate.

The ride went as well as it could have, but we just really had to pace it slow and hold back a bit from the race around us as the Ox was just doing his best to maintain. But he was eating well on the bike and determined to cross the line in reasonable time. And in the end we managed to move up a few places and put ourselves back under the 100 mark -91st out of 550 teams in the GC and 67th in the mens catagory for the day. Which after a day of serious bike malfunction (when lost pedals!) and three days of crook guts for Roeloff it could have been a lot worse!

We are happy to just have finished and not cringe too much on the elements of disappointment that if things had gone a bit smoother we would have really been happiest to challange ourselves to stay at the pointy end of the field especially when taking into account the year of commitment to training and the huge finacial cost of completing this race. But our set backs on the course were certainly not the most tragic as there were many unable to finish and many who fell out along the way do to serious injury and insurmountable fatigue. So in retrospect to finishing within the top 100 in a race as tough as the Epic and +-35 of them being full time Pro's team mixed with all the top riders around the globe isn't bad with the hinderances we had to overcome.

A big thanks to Carrie for supporting us and doing the race bottle nutrition everyday for 8 days and massaging the lactic out of my legs for 1:30hr each day!

Last thanks, goes to BOS ice tea for dressing us in the coolest outfits in the Epic(so many people just wanted there picture taken with us, even on route people would try stop us!). Everyone on the sideline would yell go BOS or go Zebra's (such a good branding building excerise), it was cool to be an African animal amoungst so many foriegn riders and were certainly a stand out in the crowd. And now I'll be focusing on new exciting challanges to come and i'm sure there will be many! Next up the exclusive Sani2c race in May, which has come hugely recommended by all riders and believe will surpass the Epic in many area's. So for now will be updating the blog with mostly surf related movements as I engulf myself in sickest waves possible for the next fews and take it easy on the bike! so keep em peeled...

zebras in the veld







Team Bos one woman Support Crew!

walk to the podium


Finishers!

Social ride

Well last night after the longest day in the epic ever of 143km, Roeloff did his best to get a substantial amount of dinner into him to try replenish from the day but it was not to be as shortly after walking out the dining tent his dinner came back out. In the morning he was feeling pretty weak but managed to keep a bit of breakfast down and get ready for our 7am start. But we took our time and didnt want to rush things and actually missed the start gun. We started about five minutes after theA,B by ourselves in front of the crowd, but it actually worked out for the best as the start entered straight into some great single track and we could just enjoy riding it without the pressure of the race around us. And that is pretty much how the day went.

For me it was an enjoyable social 120km ride. When not worrying about the race was actually pretty fun to just cruise and take in the scenery and the epic trails. It was the first time in a 100km race that I stopped to take a leak and a dump.

For Roeloff however it was a bit of a strain. over two days covering nearly 300km with nothing more than a few mouthfulls of food most of which didnt stay down, it was hard to have the energy to keep those legs turning and it was a monumental effort for him just to finish the past two days.

Tonight the Ox is feeling a bit shattered but doing his best to recover and get some food down to see out the final 89km stage into Lourensford. At this stage whatever energy is getting used is eating his muscles as opposed to using fuel, cause therejust isnt any in the tank.

And as for the race, we are still in the top half of the field at 117th but unfortunatley today confirmed that we are no longer in it for postion, now it is just getting through to the end and working as a team to get to the finish. See you all there tomorrow!

enjoying a bit of single track
time to have fun in good spirits getting in some energy at water point into water point 2 finish