Groundswell's next Surfing Conference

Terry and Fritz are from Virginia Beach on the east coast of the US and spent ten days with Dawn Patrol on surf safari in South Africa. They had been wanting to visit SA for the past ten years. These two Americans are well traveled, having visited numerous countries in search of surf, and were stoked with the whole Dawn Patrol experience……. And the surf, in East London, where Dawn Patrol is based. Terry and Fritz had “the best surf ever” (in their words).

After days of cooking surf in East London, our sources confirmed what we were expecting….When the Roaring Forties gets busy generating large swell, Dawn Patrol begins a road trip to Jeffrey’s Bay and our two amigos were about to have “the waves of their lives.”The three-hour drive down the coast to J Bay is best traveled at night, arriving at Supertubes car park just before first light. Terry and Fritz are like two teenagers, bubbling over with excitement, enthusiasm and a degree of caution. “How big will it be? What about the crowds?” The conversation along the way is focused on the following two days of surfing.Before we know it, I am turning the van into the service station in J.Bay for a quick cup of coffee to warm the boys up. Dawn is 45 minutes away. The excitement grows. We were sitting in the van at Supertubes car park, with just enough light to see 4 foot waves peeling down the point, with a light offshore. “Time to surf!” 

We are in the first in the line-up. There are some good waves coming through and Terry and Fritz are on it. After every wave, Terry would paddle up to Fritz and say, “Fritz we’re surfing J Bay man! Can you believe it!” After a few hours of surfing we are back at the van in the car park, smiling broadly. The guys are stoked and tell me about every wave they caught. “It’s so fast and make able”“Unbelievably hollow.” “The waves are so long”. Half an hour later with a plate of bacon and eggs in front of them, the smiles are still there and so is the stoke.The afternoon session is just as good but I am already thinking of tomorrow ………..

For me, waking up before dawn is second nature. I’m checking out the surf and it’s double overhead and straight off-shore. That’s what greets our tourists. “I can’t believe it!” exclaims Fritz. “I hope my shoulders can take another paddling beating!”As the day un-folds, Supertubes delivers again, but it just keeps gets better and better. The wind backs off slightly and the swell continues to pick up. Paddling back up the point, I see Terry lining up a barrel on a sweet wave. Yeah, he got barrelled on that one. He kicks out next to me and shouts out: “That was the best wave of my frikking life!” Quite a statement for someone who has been surfing for 37 years.

Driving back home late that afternoon, I couldn’t help but smile, thinking of the waves we had and the excitement and stoke on Fritz and Terry’s faces. Although now, they were tired, I could see that familiar shine in their eyes. It’s the look of having had sick surf and been totally blown away by achieving a ten year goal, to surf J Bay. As we headed off over the hill, Fritz and Terry turned around in their seats, to see the sunset over Jeffrey’s Bay. ”We’ll be back.” Says Fritz. “For sure!” replies TerryRemember, it’s just an ocean away.Roger and the other Dawn Patrol crew stayed in East London. We’ll have better surf here!” was the consensus. While Terry, Fritz and Julian were in J-Bay this is what they were surfing in East London

Now you know why they stayed!Roger runs Dawn Patrol, a surf tour operator based in East London on South Africarsquo;s south east coast. They and their support team move up and down the coast, surfing the best waves on offer between Jeffrey’s Bay and the Natal South Coast.

Check out their site on www.dawnpatrol.co.za