The Craig Jarvis Column.

The waves started absolutely firing...........

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 8 November, 2005 : - - Friday saw clean waves at New Pier, with Jason Ribbink sneaking a set wave to get slotted for a solid ten seconds. Jason is calling it the best wave he has ever had at New Pier, and probably the best wave he has ever had in his life. Witnesses Craig Daniel and Hugh Thompson reckoned it was the most ridiculous barrel they have ever seen. Fully slotted and deep for ten seconds. To celebrate the cooking surf a bunch of us ended up at Joe Kools, so there was no ways I was gonna send out a column after a few "quiet ones." Haha.

Saturday saw New Pier going completely mental. some of the longest, most perfect barrels seen there this year. The crowds were rampant and evil, the rip was surging, survival of the fittest. Richard Sills got barreled off his dome on one wave, Lee van Vuuren got a long one on his backhand as well. Steve Price got one massive lip on the head whilst surfing the Wedge with me and lost his new, R2k watch in the process. And Saturday night saw yours truly at a mates 40th, with a dodgy gay guy giving me hassles, and an older(but fairly attractive to be brutally honest) lady who had drunk far too much sangria trying to kiss me with her tongue in front of my fiance. Again, a bit of a stuff up, to say the least.

Sunday was a late start, but we welcomed the day in by watching a poor swimmer getting washed into the Bay Pier and get cut to pieces as the lifeguards sat around drinking coffer and talking about last nite`s jorl. Useless people, but the waves eventually turned on again, with the New Pier being the choice again. Not like it`s much of a secret. Around lunch time it was more crowded than the Golden Circle at a Robbie Williams concert. Damien Fahrenfort was getting some good ones and dropping in on a few people. Chad du Toit was blasting, Johnny Whittle was cruising. Even Gary Freeman graced us with his presence. We surfed until sunset. Now i`m drinking a glass of fine wine, thinking about the last few days, and just soooo stoked to be a surfer right now.

David Weare..........

Congrats to Davey Weare for winning the Oakley Big Air presented by Zigzag, and qualifying on the `CT. Naaas wun bruvva.

Overheard On The Beach........

Who was the smallish blunt magazine guy who had a large, well-built boy hankering after his rig for a bit of possible man-love at the jorl on the weekend?

Who was the top surfer who was in the toilets feeling unwell at a recent jorl, where he was forced to celebrate his recent achievements with Stroh rum?

Which top local surfer scored with a lady quite a few years his senior at the Oakley jorl? It would have been all cool, but he still has to go to her office to pick up his ticket to Hawaii. Blind.

Today`s report.........

A solid eight-foot but wild and unruly swell hit the New Pier this morning, and with makeable waves few and far between the decision was made to hold the Quiksilver Goodwave contest over for tomorrow. Spike from wavescape.co.za, who has been tracking this swell from it`s inception, has been spot - on with his calls and is forecasting an exceptional day of surf tomorrow.

As soon as the decision was made to hold over, the majority of invited surfers hit the water in front of the crowded pier, to give some of the outside bombs a go.

There were massive drops, and ledging doube-ups exploding all over the place, but with very few good waves going down. Big take-offs by goofy-footers Mike Frew, Mogwai and Canning showed us all that the sets were difficult to make on your backhand. Matthew Kruger raced a bomb and picked up so much speed that someone on the pier mentioned that he should be given a fine for going so fast. Jason Ribbink got towed into some bombs outside the North Pier, surfing a peak way out of the way of the paddle surfers, and pulled into some of the biggest barrels seen on the Durban beach front in a few years.

Barrel of the morning goes to last years` event champion Simon Nicholson, who stood up straight into a tall, sandy double-up bomb and travel for ages, to get spat out onto the shoulder in front of a cheering crew in the channel. Still, despite the fact that he scored the wave of the morning, Simon still came in after his surf and said, `good call not to have it today guys. The wind is getting really fresh, and the swell is definitely gonna stick around. There might be some 10-pointers out there, but there`s definitely not enough for everyone in a heat.`

Stay tuned.

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Jarvi

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