Big Wave Africa Weblog Two

The Swell is Building

By Miles Masterson

The swell in Cape Town has been growing throughout the day, prompting a bunch of the Big Wave Africa 2008 crew to make the trek up the muddy saddle path between Hout Bay's Sentinel and Karbonkelberg mountains to see what Dungeons was up to.

In the fading late afternoon light and chilly SW onshore, 8-10 foot sets were stacking up under the cliffs, the WSW direction obviously perfect as the sets feathered across the main peak and rolled through the inside bowl at the Big Wave Africa venue.

The tide was a bit full, and as the swell needs to top the solid 10-foot mark to break properly at Dungeons, the waves weren’t epic - yet, although a lone tow-in crew, Jason Ribbink, and Gig Cilliers I think, were carving up the bloated peaks best they could.

Whilst contest directors Johnny Paarman and Gary Linden discussed and deliberated over the swell forecasts, and conferred with Big Wave Africa weatherman Steve Pike on the phone, a few of the surfers, including Grant Washburn, John Whittle, Twiggy Baker, Carlos Burle (fresh off the plane) and others couldn’t contain their delight and became more and more amped as they could see the swell below jacking, literally, in front of their eyes.

Whilst the size of the waves is set to build steadily over the next 36 hours, peaking sometime on Saturday, there is a bit of uncertainty regarding what the wind is going to do. Still, the opportunity to surf has presented itself a mere two days into the waiting period, prompting the Amber status and the chance for a practice session tomorrow afternoon.

There’s also maybe the possibility the event might get the Green Light on Saturday if the charts remain looking as positive as they are currently...

A final decision on the practice session will be made mid-morning tomorrow (Friday), so please check back then.