Bromdog’s Risky Business – Watch Now

I watched this film and simply marvelled at how how big Bromdog’s balls actually are! He is not afraid to go over the ledge in big waves and thus this short film deserves your time…

Risky Business from Guy Mac on Vimeo.

“…the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved…” “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” – Jack Kerouac

Step out of your comfort zone; explore new places, meet new people and throw all caution to the wind – you never know where you’ll land up! Risky Business is all about putting yourself out there, and the rewards found at the end of the road less travelled.

Risky Business captures the journey of South African surfer Matt Bromley and filmer Guy Macindoe while they travel to some of the riskier places on earth in their pursuit of surf perfection; from surfing between icebergs in Iceland, to charging massive mountains of water at Jaws in Hawaii, to dropping into near-dry tubes over unforgiving ledges in Africa. The idea was to produce a contemporary surf film, one that showed the risks behind the reward of chasing global swells on a shoe string budget, all the while living every surfers dream for a year between South Africa, Europe, Hawaii, Iceland and Indonesia. The hope is that Risky Business will inspire its audiences to stretch the boundaries of their own capacity, flee their comfort zones, and chase all things bigger and better. Matt and Guy both stretched themselves to make this film a reality; traveling in debt and in fear of not knowing what was around the next swell. All their equipment was stolen in Portugal and they suffered many other hardships along the way, but as Matt reports, “It was worth every moment of risk, and made the journey and experience that much more unforgettable.”

Listen to the call of the road, and follow. Risky Business. This is their story in 25-mins.

The Tand grinds in 2016 – Video Highlights

South Africa has some of the best bodyboarders on the planet and amongst those standouts is a wave, called the Tand. For the last few years the boys have held the, Tand Invitational, with all our top riders charging this mean, almost dry rock slab up the west coast. This year the conditions were perfect and made for some super entertaining viewing!

Sacha Specker was on fire from the starting buzzer at the Sniper SA Tand Invitational 2016, boosting big back flips and showing true control in the bigger barrels available. Spex was awarded an impressive total of 19.83 points out of a possible 20, riding every wave in the final like the Champion he has proven himself to be.

The Sniper SA Tand Invitational 2016 ran to completion on Sunday the 10th of July 2016, in 4-6 feet waves. Competitors, and the 300 spectators alike, were greeted with warm weather, clean offshore winds, and groomed swell unloading off the Tand reef. The first two heats of the day were slow due to the higher tide, causing the first upset of the day, with 2015 Tand Champ, Michael Ostler, bowing out early and ending the tradition of back-to-back wins set by past Tand champs Jared Houston and Tristan Roberts.

The final was an incredible showdown with the draining tide playing its part. Hot on Specker’s heels was 2 times World Champion, Andre Botha, as well as Cape Town charger, Charles Pass. Botha and Pass both scored in the excellent range with big maneuvers and deep barrels, earning Pass a second place with 17.5 points, and Botha a third place with 16.5 points out of a possible 20. The youngest participant of the final, Wilder Schultz, performed extremely well throughout the event, but just could not get the waves he needed, which resulted in his 4th place finish.

This year’s Shaggy Choice Award was a tough call between Aden Kleve’s big closeout barrel, and Andre Botha’s madman commitment. In the end though, the Shaggy’s Choice Award for 2016 went to Andre Botha, for going over with the falling lip on one of the crazier waves of the day.

The Sniper SA Tand Invitational was proudly presented by Zion Wetsuits SA, in association with Digicape, Pick n Pay, Flatmountain Roasters, Kingdom Longboards, and Surf Ears ZA. With a massive thanks to Red Bull South Africa, for their continued support and commitment.

Tyler Wright charges!

When I am asked why I say all the time that ladies surfing has turned the corner, from now on I will just point them at this post and let them watch this video clip of Tyler Wright charging, heaving pits. A few years ago this could have been considered unbelievable, but now tis becoming the norm for the world’s best female surfers. So girl groms, if you want to become a pro surfer, best start lining up some serious tubes!

Ladies Of The Sea – Tyler Wright from surfstitch on Vimeo.

The Highlights Video you must watch! Red Bull Cape Fear 2016

I could go into a whole lot of expletives, rants about the WSL banning their surfers and of course the sometimes brilliant, sometimes absolutely terrible commentary, but what you really need to know is that a bunch of surfers charged some of the scariest slab ever witnessed in a competition and it was awesome!

An 18 year old took the win, see the cover picture, Russel Bierke showed up all the old chargers with a huge smile on his face. Watch the video, be amazed,

Red Bull Cape Fear Stomach-Turning Highlights from MSW on Vimeo.

Boogie Man – Andre Botha slays monsters on the North Shore

When you meet Andre Botha, your first impression is a very quiet and almost distant person, then as you spend more time with him you realise he is not distant, simply focussed on the next heaving mass of water he plans on entombing himself in. The guy feeds off heavy water. On a long day at Donkey Bay, where everyone else is taking the 3km walk back as slow as possible, Andre spent the day running back up the point and charging right back down again. In this video he spends as much time on the foam ball in serious Hawaiian waves as possible, literally the only thing that knows the feeling he does must be the corn kernel caught in your drunken nights projectile vomit, he gets spit out that hard, that often. Its just terrifying madness and thats why he is called, the Boogie Man.

Boogie Man from Andre Botha on Vimeo.

Pumping Kegs at Red Bull Cape Fear 2014

On the very last day of the official waiting period the wave came to life to make an event two-years-in-the-making possible. And while the surfing gods didn’t offer up the 10—12 monsters competitors and event organisers anticipated, there was no shortage of barrels or wipe-outs.

Ryan Hipwood and Jamie O’Brien are two renowned tube trackers who faced off for the first ever Red Bull Cape Fear battle and they didn’t disappoint. Both surfers powered through dredging deep tubes, but it was Hipwood who snared the longer, deeper tube and scored the nod from the judges, the prestigious Battle win and the award for Best Barrel of the day.

“This event has been a massive roller coaster ride,” said Ryan Hipwood. “I’ve been planning on doing something like this for six or seven years and for it now to be finish is a massive weight off my shoulders. I’m really stoked with the event and that all these international surfers came. Hopefully this is the beginning of a lot of exciting events to come.”

Battle 2 with Mark Mathews (AUS) defeating Shane Dorian (HAW) was the battle of the event. Dorian is one of surfing’s journeymen after going from chasing the World Tour alongside Kelly Slater, to now spending his days catching the world’s biggest and deadliest waves. Mathews is the brains behind Red Bull Cape Fear and Australia’s most renowned big wave surfer — the stage was set for a clash of the titans. Both surfers found similar scoring rides and the heat had them finishing within fractions of a point and it was the Cape Fear’s own Mark Mathews that took the narrow win.

“This has been a day I’ll never forget, I got to surf at one of my favourite spots, against who I believe is the greatest big wave surfer of all time — Shane Dorian.” said Mark Mathews. “I’m really happy with this event, the surf is not big enough to tow, but still one of the best days of the year out there and everyone has been going for it.”

Eight winners were crowned from their respective one-on-one bouts, with locals Laurie Towner, Richie Vaculik, Kirk Flintoff, Koby Abberton and Jesse Polock also claiming victories. An untouchable Dean Morrison rounded out the winners’ list to ensure an Australian clean-sweep against their US and Hawaiian counterparts.

Best Namibia video yet! Diamond of the Desert with LNF

By now we all know about the absolutely perfect, terrifying and mind blowing tubes on offer at a certain sandbar in Namibia. This video though will simply blow your mind and possibly induce you to make a voodoo doll of Koa Smith, as your jealousy levels may spike rather dramatically from watching the length and utter perfection of his tube rides. Sit down, take some deep breaths and just enjoy the view…

A LastNameFirst.tv short film feat. Koa Smith + Alex Smith, Travis Smith and Dylan Goodale.
In this arid African Desert, 1/5 of all the diamonds in the world exist. They were so common at one point that the locals could walk across the dunes on a full moon and spot them shimmering from a far. We went to this rumored place and found a diamond of our own.

LNF: Diamond of the Desert from LastNameFirst.tv on Vimeo.