In his own words, Brendon Gibbens, does not like the new shorter content drops, made profilic by social media. “It’s seems like everyone is craving instant content on social media, but that doesn’t really do it for me.” I like it, I like it alot! In this video he returns to the original surf film format of incredible surfing, in the best locations, with a pumped up soundtrack. It also is just long enough to watch before a surf, to get the amp up, while not being to long, or filled with arty crap.
The Surfing is Outrageous
I got to hang with Brendon earlier this year for a few days in a wild location at home, in South Africa. It was great to just chat to him and get to know him better. He is a very quiet and calm individual out of the water. Once he settles in with you though, you fast realise he has a wicked sense of humor, bordering on dark. This come through when he dons a wetusit and paddles out. His surfing has a wild abandon, bordering on dangerous sometimes. Personally I could watch him surf all day long.
Brendon Gibbens representing South Africa
Much of Homebody is filmed right here at home in SA. While he travels around the world to some of the best locations on planet earth, he admits to loving being home. The waves are great year round and the crowds are thin. Having seen the crowds in his second home of California, I find it hard to disagree. One thing is for sure, Gibbens is representing for us on the world stage and this video proves that he is at the top of the freesurfing world.
Enjoy watching Homebody
Just click on the link below and go watch on Vimeo (Deals with large mags mean it wont play here.)
Get ready to witness the third installment of Holeshot Glory, brought to you by RECKED INDUSTRIES. Spectators will have the privilege to see some of South Africa’s top MOTOCROSS ATHLETES going head to head, as they gear up and battle it out, during a flat out sprint to the finish line and back, and stake their claim of bragging rights in the winner takes all Holeshot challenge.
Risk vs reward at Holeshot Glory!
The higher the risk, the higher the reward, and that is the name of the game, which guarantees non-stop nail-biting action for the spectators. It’s going to be, what can only be termed, “a day in THE DIRT”. To keep things exciting this year, we have added a little extra action, by teaming up with some of the coolest partners.
Rat Rod Racing
Hot Rod SA has pulled in to introduce Rat Rod Racing, on the flat track, into the mix. Stoos Customs will be presenting Harley Davidson drags and of course, we have the crown of HoleShot Glory up for grabs again which is brought to us by Red Bull South Africa.
Win 2x tickets – just comment and share my FB post HERE
Holeshot Glory sponsored by Red Bull
Whip Off sponsored by GAC Laser
King of the Corner
Harley Drags sponsored by Stoos Customs
Flat Track sponsored by Woodstock Moto / DGR
Flat Track Cars sponsored by Hot Rod SA / Salt River Customs
What’s a day in the dirt without some entertainment? Come and support some local rock and roll heroes on the Jack Daniel’s stage. There will also be great Jack drink specials throughout the course of the day.
All this is happening on Sunday the 23 September 2018, at Zone 7 in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s a great day out for the whole family.
R60 Early Bird Tickets
R100 for Adults
R30 for kids
Surf fans around the planet had been languishing in the hopes that the prodigal son of surfing would return soon. The good news is that he has, if even just hy releasing some unseen footage. John John Florence is still injured, though rumors are rife we will see his return for Europe.
What makes him so good?
It was only when I started watching, Space, that I realised how much I had missed watching Mr Florence surf. He brings a certain wild freedom to the tour, a sense of abandon and noir that no other surf does. The video is dramatic, but it should be. John John’s surfing is dramatic, while at the same time incredibly relaxed. Simply put, the “Championship” tour has not quite been the same without him.
Watch “Space” Now
Watch John John Florence at his best right now, right here:
As is the norm the world’s best X athletes did not dissapoint this last week in Minneapolis. There were some incredible performances during Xgames 2018.
Skateboard
Lets start with skateboarding and Nyjah Huston. The already 7 times Gold medal winner put in a flawless performance to take home the Gold. It has been a while since his last win and was amazing to see Nyjah back to his best.
In the ladies, I was super impressed with Skateboard Park Gold winner, Brighton Zeuner. She pushed the levels of ladies park riding with a pretty impeccable run.
In men’s Park, Alex Sorgente blew minds with his variety and combinations in the park, fighting off big names like Alex Barros to take Gold.
Bmx
In the Bmx it was a mad day of riding, with the boys pushing the limits of the sport. After seeing some of these guys at Ultimate X earlier this year, I was pumped to see some of the guys were out here, dominating at XGames.
In the dirt it was Brandon Loupos with an astounding run for Gold. He had a backflip into the double backflip, then a cash rollto triple tailwhip and then the big finish of a flare doible tailwhip.
Logan Martin was one of the guys who really impressed me in SA. We did not get to see him in heavy bowl sections though, where he blew up at Bmx Park at Xgames.
James Foster stepped up the game in the Bmx Big Air with a massive superman over the jump to the first Quadruple Tailwhip in the competition.
Fmx
In the FMX the levels keep just going up, though how I just dont know. Jackson “Jacko” Strong took gold in the Fmx Best Trick with a Doube frontflip no hander.
When you open your Fmx Freestyle run with a double backflip no hander, you are going for Gold.The French heavyweight, Tom Pages smashed his second run for Gold.
Those are my top picks! remember you can go check out the full event videos on the Xgames Youtube Page with Monster Energy. Enjoy your Monday.
Davey Van Zyl finds some glorious West Kegs on the far West Coast of South Africa.
West Kegs are Best
With a large crew of SA’s top surfers up on the West Coast, I decided to take my video rig with for the Vans Surf Pro Classic at Lamberts Bay. We had some insane waves over the event and the forecast for the far reaches of the coast just after the event were looking magical.
We found a heaving beachbreak, easily overhead, but with shifty peaks, loads of current and some heavy, heavy sections. The boys tried hard to find the nugs though and were rewarded with some gaping Kegs.
This coastline has so many spots, especially when the NE and East winds blow. You just need to drive along the coast and look for the lip lines. Great accomodation is easy to find and the locals are always ready to help, or feed you incredible food. They are so happy to see people, they literally open up their doors. While some crowd and fight at the more well known spots, many score by simply going a little further.
With the start of the City Surf Series, now in its second year, with a new event added in Port Alfred and two of the events going to QS 1500, its set to be a good year for Pro Surfers in South Africa. The series started with the first 3 events back to back, starting in Port Elizabeth, then Port Alfred and then East London. Events in Cape Town, the SA Open back in PE and an event in Durban making it the biggest surf series in Africa for a long time. There is also the Vans West Coast Surf Classic (QS 1500) and of course the Ballito Pro (QS 10000).
Nelson Mandela Bay Pro Presented by Billabong
There has been a lot of talk about Kai Woolf, with surf raconteur Derek Hynd long expounding her skills and talents as world class. Growing up on the walls of Lower Point and then Supertubes in J-Bay, she has honed her backhand skills to a point where she can often seems totally unbeatable.
Not known as ‘The Windy City’ for nothing, the contest site had the full wind switch during the event, that made for some challenging conditions through a few of the finals. After blowing light onshore and making the waves difficult to find walls and thus high scores, there was a story that a gale-force west wind was heading up the coast. As forecast, it hit the contest site during the women’s final, causing the surfers to change their approaches somewhat.
It didn’t faze young Kai though, who is used to surfing the waves of J-Bay in the howling offshore winds that are common there, and which see surfers carving off the top or turning mid-face to ensure that they don’t get stuck in the lip and blown off the back of the wave. Her approach was successful, and she put Sophie Bell, Anna Jellema-Butler and Olivia Izzard into the minor placings in the JQS final, and defeated Nicole Pallet in the Women’s final.
Kai has a long and illustrious professional surfing career ahead of her. Her brave approach when the waves get solid at places like Supertubes draws admiration from surfers and spectators, and she has been winning junior events for a good few years now.
It was an exciting men’s final, and a proud moment for David Van Zyl, who took the win from Adin Masencamp. Van Zyl is a hard-working WQS campaigner and this win might see him off on a trajectory that could get him into the big leagues that he is striving for. Without wishing to detract from Adin’s performance throughout the event – he was electric from his first heat – Van Zyl is relentless on the Qualifying Series, and this excellent result is just what is needed to get him fired up and winning more heats and events. He’s highly skilled in all conditions, charges when it gets bigger, and has the full repertoire of aerial moves when it’s smaller and punchy. Van Zyl could possibly be the next South African to climb on and represent on the Championship Tour alongside Jordy Smith and Michael February.
Royal St Andrews Port Alfred Classic Pic: ian Thurtell
Royal St Andrews Port Alfred Classic
Port Alfred – Solid right-handers poured through for the final day of the Royal St Andrews Hotel Port Alfred Classic and it was the goofy-footers who displayed the best surfing all day in the chunky conditions.
The right-foot forward duo of Josefina Ane from Argentina and South African Zoë Steyn paddled out for their Women’s QS 1,000 Final, and the waves continued unabated. While the big swell that was forecast for the day had still not materialized, the waves were highly contestable and the girls went to town.
It was the international surfer Ane who showed her experience by banking an awesome display of surfing for a 6.25 and a 7.5 to put her in an unassailable lead total of 13.75. While young Steyn put on a valiant catch-up effort towards the end of the Final she was unable to better the Argentinean’s total, and bowed out in second place.
By the time the Men’s Longboarding final hit the water, the predicted swell had started filling in, and the next two goofy-footers in Matthew Moir and Steven Sawyer spent some of their time dodging bigger sets and picking up the lined-up mid-size waves. Both of them were charging hard, but it was Moir who picked up the better waves, and banked some massive close-out turns on the inside, as well as a number of classic longboarding moves to sneak the win from Sawyer. After a long layoff due to injury, Sawyer was still incredibly stoked to be surfing a WSL Longboarding event in South Africa.
Mens longboarding champion, Mathew Moir. Pic: Ian thurtell
a row, with Jordy Maree facing off against the Australian powerhouse goofy-footer Jordan Lawler.
Both surfers were on fire during their Semifinal heats, with Maree surfing a fast and exciting heat against Dylan Lightfoot, showing no pressure as he unleashed his lethal backhand against his determined natural-footed opponent. At the end of the heat Maree proved the heel is mightier than the toe as his backhand power hooks outshone Lightfoot’s fast forehand carves.
“I was just really glad the waves came to me during that heat,” said Maree afterwards.
The second Semifinal was even more electrifying with the fresh-faced Australian Lawler coming up against experienced competitor and Championship Tour strategy-savvy Greg Emslie. Lawler started off with a great 8-point ride, but then he picked up a bomb running along the sandbank and unleashed.
Lawler found rhythm and put together a series of radical backhand moves, carves and big hits, and finished off with a massive beyond vertical backhand crack to score the first 10-point ride of the event and leave the veteran in a combination situation at the end of the heat.
The Final was an intense affair, with Maree putting on some incredible backhand surfing against the focused Lawler. A few bigger sets rumbled through the line-up during the final as the two surfers went toe-to-toe amongst the lined-up inside sections.
Maree showed determination and perseverance as he put together a great show for the screaming local fans, being awarded a solid 7.25 for his best wave, and a back-up wave of 6.45 to give him a decent total and a hard reach for the Australian.
Lawler put together an incredible series of radical backhand moves including a long re-entry to air-drop floater, but his 6.9 score wasn’t enough to get him the lead, and the very stoked and proud South African took his first QS win.
Dylan lightfoot at firing Nahoon Reef. Pic: Ian Thurtell
Mitchum Buffalo City Pro presented by Reef Wetsuits
Nahoon Reef – It was a glorious April morning in East London as the competitors started filing in for finals day of the Mitchum Buffalo City Surf Pro pres by Reef Wetsuits. Despite the ominous forecasts of monster surf and onshore winds that had been swirling around the whole weekend, the swell filled in to about six-foot on a few of the sets, the wind puffed a little, backed off, and then disappeared altogether, and the waves fired throughout the afternoon’s pushing tide. Powerful, high-performance right-hand walls reeling down the reef for competitors to get busy with.
Dale Staples, from St. Francis Bay, has been looking the business at this QS 1,000 event, and he continued with this streak by eliminating local legend and former Championship Tour competitor Greg Emslie from the event, despite breaking a board during their Semifinal heat.
Staples has been groomed on the right-hand pointbreaks of his home turf, and has surfed East London’s Nahoon Reef enough times to know where to find the good ones. While not a massively-scored heat, (Staples won with 12.25 total) it was exciting and high-performance, with both surfers going all-out to impress the judges and claim the win.
In the second Semifinal Diran Zakarian from Cape Town was in the lead for most of the heat, surfing impressively on his backhand in the excellent surf. Matthew McGillivray from J-Bay, currently the highest-ranked surfer on the International QS rankings, was left scratching for a back-up wave, which he found. A clean, walled-up bomb, on which McGillivray unleashed to extract a score of 9.25 and the heat win, to advance to the Final.
“The swell picked up today, and there was supposed to be a light onshore coming through today but it never happened,” said McGillivray after his heat victory. “Conditions are really nice to surf heats, you just need to be selective on your wave choice and make sure you catch the waves that allow opportunities to get those critical moves in.”
McGillivray picked up a bomb and made good use of it for the 9.25 score. “Diran got a wave first and I saw it was a nice, walled up one and he just cracked it in front of me and I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m definitely going to need a score now,” said McGillivray. “Right behind his wave was a second wave with a nice wall and I took it. I saw the first section and it looked good for an air, so I did an air-reverse and thankfully stuck it, and straight after that there was another section to do a top turn, and it went well and I got the score.”
Over at the JQS 1,000 the future of South African men’s surfing were laying it down, streaking along the excellent Nahoon walls, and going for broke on the sets. Spectators’ eyes were locked onto Mitch Du Preez, who had been surfing on-point the whole event, as well as on Luke Slijpen, who was hungry after missing the Royal St Andrews Hotel Port Alfred Classic last week.
The placings changed throughout the Final, with Luke Thompson, Thomas Lindhorst, Du Preez and Slijpen all leading at some stage of the heat, but at the final siren it was Thompson winning from Lindhorst, Slijpen and Du Preez.
Staples opened up the QS 1,000 final with an 8.5 in the high tide conditions, surfing powerfully and with confidence. He followed this up immediately with a great back up score of 7 points, and McGillivray was on the ropes and in deep in combo-land only a few minutes into the heat.
Expecting the plucky J-bay surfer to fight back with tenacity, McGillivray unfortunately suffered an interference call with Staples, and with a zero score included in his tally, there was no way he could extricate himself from the runner-up position. A stoked Dale Staples emerged from the waters of Nahoon Reef as the Mitchum Buffalo City Surf Pro 2018 champion.
Conclusion
A great start to the year for SA surfing woth three incredible events – all with insane waves. Best part for me was seeing the inclusion of longboard again and the crew came to the party with some of the best surfing on the series in the longboard heats. Next up the tour heads for Durban, then Lamberts Bay and Cape Town.
As the DarkFEST course nears completion, the boys have been smashing it all week with the diggers and with a few tiny sprinkles of rain and some spade work, have managed to compact most of the line. Mountain Bike heaven or hell depending on who you ask…
Mountain Bike Gods bless with more rain!
With a little more much needed rain on the forecast, the guys got everything ready for it and took advantage of getting some time behind the bars on the big line at Hellsend Dirt Compound with Brendog and a few locals.
The course is complete and now the line just needs to be tweaked for the arrival of the rest of the world’s best free ride Mountain Bikers next week.
Week 3 Video
Tune into the week 3 video of the DarkFEST prequel, as next week the mayhem begins! Remember I will be live, on site from next Thursday, so be sure to follow my Instagram channel – Captain Kais World
Join the Mayhem
Tickets are available online to come and witness the mayhem live, on Saturday 10 February, just outside Stellenbosch.
Space on the mountain is at a premium and believe me when I say, you do not want to miss this! The world’s craziest free ride specialists charging one of the biggest lines ever built, including a monster 80ft Gap Jump. (See Sam testing it in the picture above.)