As If The Sharks Weren’t Enough To Worry About…

Despite offering plenty of empty, quality surf, the road to South Africa’s aquatic treasures is littered with some of the most unconventional obstacles.

The latest project by Now Now Media — the brainchild of Will Bendix and Alan van Gysen — vividly illustrates the lengths one might go to score secluded waves at the southern tip of the continent. 

Adin Masencamp first surfed what he calls “the closest we get to Pipeline in South Africa” alongside a bodyboarder friend after hearing rumors of its existence.

The thick kelp that thrives in these waters adds an unusual layer of difficulty to an already sketchy wave. Masencamp describes the start of a typical session: “As you jump off the rocks, you’re straight into this massive kelp bed, and you’re almost lifted from the water, you got no control because the kelp is just holding you there.”

As water drains off the reef, “kelp shoots up at you,” making the tube the only safe(r), kelpless zone, until you come out of it, lock fins with the algae, and go straight over the handlebars. 

It’s like surfing through a whale supermarket’s toothbrush aisle, constantly feeling the rub of kelp against your arms and legs, in frigid waters that are also home to grey-suited apex predators.

Masencamp suggests that the kelp might actually work as a shark deterrent. Well, here’s the bad news: great whites not only swim through the kelp but do so regularly. They have been documented interacting with Cape fur seals within the kelp canopy. There’s your additional layer of eeriness, as wiping out usually means ending up beneath all that kelp.

He also observes that the kelp forest doesn’t seem to be shrinking. On the contrary, since abalone grazes on kelp, and abalone poachers loot the area during the summer months, its disappearance — combined with rising sea temperatures — seems to allow the kelp to grow even denser.

Hoping that you’ve read all that in a Sir David Attenborough voice, rest assured, your time won’t be wasted watching Adin negotiate the slabby left.