Drive Thru South Africa - Part 1 of 5

Location : Cape Town
Surf : Small 2-3ft
Events: Fetched guys from airport, Surfed Long Beach, 1st Dinner

The Drive Thru South Afric guys are arriving! I'm not sure what to expect. They seem cool in surf videos but those movies could be edited to make them seem cool... They are international surfing celebrities. Celebs (in general) are known to be spoilt brats... What are they going to be like to live with for 14 days? I'm pretty nervous.

On top of this, the swell is tiny and all the reports say it's due to drop some more! I'm feeling some serious pressure to have to find them perfect video quality surf in bad conditions. At least if there is no swell I have a huge list of other things we can do. But finding them good waves is the main objective.

I fetched Pat o Connell (American Pro Surfer & friendliest, most stoked guy on the planet) from the airport and went to meet up with Nathan "Noodles" Webster (Australian Pro Surfer). Noodles was really bummed that his girlfriend had trashed his brand new, black 500 SLK Mercedes and he had not even seen or driven the car yet!

I took Noodles and Pat for a quick surf at Long Beach in 2-3ft, uncrowded, fun waves - but definitely not worth freezing for!

We went back and chilled out at the beach house before going to fetch Greg Browning (Director, Producer, American Surfer), Donovan Frankenreiter (American Pro Surfer, Musician), Benji Weatherly (American Pro Surfer), Mike Lossness (American Pro Surfer), Ian "Salad" Harris (Camera Man, American Surfer), from the airport. Everyone seems really friendly so far.

Took the guys for dinner at the Red Herring. My right-hand-man, Adam "Adam Ant" Kaptein (Surfing Safari Driver & Surf Trip Co-Ordinator) left dinner early to go to the airport to collect Martin "Pottz" Potter (ex-World Champ Surfer, ex-South African), Seth Stafford (Photographer for Transworld Surf, Surfer) Dave Emgy (14 Day Productions' Camera Man) and Adam Blakey (Writer for Transworld Surf, Goons of Doom Guitarist, Australian Surfer).

Dinner was complete madness! We were the only people in the restaurant, apart from 2 old ladies, and we got crapped on for making too much noise! Donny and Benji are 2 of the funniest people I have ever met! I have never laughed so hard for so long - it was painful!

It was a hectic day of running back and forth to the airport but it was a great day and all the guys seem really cool so far...

I'm looking forward to this trip like you cannot believe!

Location : Cape Town
Surf : Small 2-3ft
Events: Surfed The Hoek, Chapmans Peak

Woke to a perfect day in the Beach House.

The guys spent quite a bit of time checking out their boards and making sure all of them were OK and hadn't gotten damaged during their flights.

Sponsors are hugely important for the surfers! I couldn't believe how much time they spent deciding on where to stick their stickers on their clean, new, beautiful boards.

I couldn't help laugh that every grom around the world loves to cover their boards in logos but these guys were so bummed to have to put stickers onto their brand new, perfect, clean surfboards. Donny has the best looking quiver I have ever seen!!!

The swell wasn't looking good. Very small but beautiful, still conditions. If we could find some swell somewhere we'd score great waves...

I took Donny through to town to try to find him a classic old guitar but he ended up spending a small fortune on a keyboard. The keyboard made some crazy sounds and beats and Donny has everyone constantly entertained with it!

That afternoon we went for our first "group surf" and filming session at The Hoek, Noordhoek. Freezing temperatures but fun 2-3 ft surf. The sun was bright and the water was turquoise blue silhouetting the guys as they had the wedging beach break all to themselves! I was itching to go out but there weren't many waves and I figured that as the guys out there were some of the worlds top surfers, there probably would be any going spare for me to get on.

After surfing The Hoek we took a drive along the world famous Chapman's Peak Drive. Some of the guys were freaking out at how close you get to the edge of some seriously high cliffs! We got to the end in Hout Bay and got some great shots of the sunset.

That evening chilled out back at the Beach House and ordered a huge pizza delivery! I'm sharing a room with Pottz. He's seems like a really cool guy - and fortunately doesn't make any weird noises when he sleeps :)

Location : Cape Town / Stilbaai
Surf : Flat
Events: Table Mountain, Donny to J-Bay, Road Trip

The surf is completely flat! The mission for the day is to get Donny to the airport on time so he can fly to J-Bay to play a gig at the Billabong Pro and then take everyone else up the world famous icon of Cape Town, Table Mountain.

We packed up all our gear and waited for Greg Browning to finish up some more Big Brother style interviews. The guys were watching golf (most of them LOVE golf!) and chilling. Pat taught Seth a simple guitar riff to play with Knocking on Heaven's Door. Pat's guitar skills are way better than I saw in The Endless Summer 2! He's definitely been practicing since those days.

Table mountain was awesome! The ride up in the cable car was mind blowing and again, some of the guys were freaking out at how high we were. The atmosphere amongst the entire crew is fantastic! We are constantly laughing! It's awesome! Such a great bunch of guys!

We ate lunch on top of Table Mountain - the prices were ridiculous! I felt disgusted at how much they can charge for canteen style basic food. Mental note: Open a boerewors (hotdog) stand on top of table mountain.

After being exploited by the restaurant on top of Table Mountain, we set off towards J-Bay and decided to stop over in Stil Baai (Still Bay) to break up the drive. There is no swell expected for a while :(

Our accommodation was very basic. Nothing at all like the first place we stayed in that was right on the beach! But we arrived after dark and left at sunrise so all we really needed was beds.

End of Part 1...

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