Inside Eddie: Final of the Cold Water Classic

Zigzag received word early on Saturday that fifty five Pilot Whales had beached themselves along Long Beach and Krans in Kommetjie, Cape Town, early on Saturday morning. The news quickly spread and many in the Kommetjie surfing community arrived to help the stranded Whales.

Zigzag did some brief online investigating into why this extraordinary phenomenon occurs. According to Wikipedia there is no confirmed cause for the mass strandings of whales and dolphins. Some theories mention that a single stranded whale could prompt the entire pod to respond to its distress signals and become stranded. Another proposed cause is that the echolocation system used by many whales can have difficulty picking up very gently-sloping coastlines. Meanwhile there is also a contentious theory, that says the strange behaviour is due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field which could interfere with whales ability to navigate.

Check out the video scenes above, captured by keen Cape Town surfer, Nicholas Preen. For more, see the press release from SAPA of the incident below.

So it wasn’t heaving, death-defying terrifying pits that was predicted at Kalk Bay, but it was damn cooking and the atmosphere was electric. It was like the 25 years since the last Spur Surfabout was yesterday. The crowds pulled in, the Cape Town crew came and gave their support, and the surfers in the water got completely slotted.

After some discussion on the beach it was decided to go for man-on-man heats due to the low tide and the lack of waves coming through. To make the day playable time-wise the heats were dropped to 20mins man-on-man and it was game on.

The first heats were a bit sketchy, seen as the reef was sticking a foot out of the water, and there was some serious rock dodging to be done. Jordy couldn’t find a wave with a barrel, nor with a puntable section and fell to the small Micro Hall, Aussie surfer trading under an Irish passport. By the time this heat was on, the Brass Bell was already full to heaving and some stupid drunken local fools were having a shouting match with anyone who stood up to watch a gaping barrel, as they were spoiling their view. Nice and intelligent people… Seen as there was no carnage on the reef there would undoubtedly have to be blood spilled on the floor at the Bell. Three cheers to drunken hippies!

The Royden/Micro semi was a battle of the small people, and was reminiscent of Tommy Carrol and Derek Ho battling it out at the Banzai, with Royden winning through. The second semi saw sick sets streaming shorewards, sealing sudden (what else begins with ’s?’) victory for Blake Thornton.

The final was full of tension, emotion, brandy and other local flavours. Some people were really getting into it, feeling the patriotic blood rush whenever Royden caught a wave, cheering him on at the top of their voices when he smashed a lip, exited a tube or slid a tail on the inside. Roy held the lead for the first half of the heat until Blake sneaked into the lead. With about 7 minutes to go the wave of the final popped up on the indicators and started bee-lining for the reef and for Slummies-dog Royden who was holding priority. The safety marshal on the jetski looked on impassively from the channel, Blake watched helplessly at the prioritised surfer, a seal took off early on the shoulder and started surfing the wave, somewhere in the distance a dog barked. Time stood still.

Royden paddled for the wave of the final. Five-foot and walling all the way to those drunken pseudo-hippie wannabees at the Brass Bell who had probably brought out their bongo drums and were chanting ‘hari gia rama chaka khan chaka khan’ or whatever these pricks do, while Royden paddled into the bomb. He made the drop. He pulled into the barrel. He set his line. He fell.

“Just too casual,” was what he said to me after the final, as he froze his cock off in the car park. Maybe so, maybe the wave had a high-tide wobble from the reverbs off the train wall. Either way, Blake Thornton took the victory , and dedicated it to his mate who’s dad had recently passed on. Sick contest. Great surfing. Awesome future potential. Good setup. Good night…