Aterra South African Tour 2018

Join Aterra in 2018-2019 South African tour, read more at the bottom.  Its some weeks ago since we came home from South Africa with me back home I had a nice flu that tok all my energy, no time and energy left for the blogg. Also when you are in SA its not allways we have wifi and as on all trips its hectic sometimes.

The roundtrip started in Durban, Greg at REVO kayaks told me it should be a early morning. And offcourse i missed a flight so I was late in the bed. Around seven next day we were out in the REVO skis, ouh was I rusty. Both morning, no breakfast and not much paddling the last months. Greg have taken most of the photos below but I forgot to put the camera on auto… thats why the photos looks cool but different. On sunday Jan and Sara joined us but then the wind hade left Durban, though we went out a bit and could catch some massive swell waves.

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Den orange REVO skin är en REVO R4. Deras nybörjarski, en stabil maskin med samma mått som R3 och den är helt baserad på R3.an, skillnaden är att skrovet är bredare och stabilare nedtill. R4.an vi provade var en prototyp och det har gjorts några justeringar vet jag men vi hinner få något ex hit tidigt i vår. Väldigt snygg ski som både ser snabb och rank ut, dock är det en instegsski.

REVO SS2 ännu en prototyp som var fantastisk att paddla, väldigt stabil kändes den men ändå snabb, skrovet är baserat på REVO R1/R2. Blev överraskad av hur bra den gick när jag var ute med Neil Evans, REVO.s teampaddlare. Tyvärr hinner vi inte få med en dubbel hit i vår då projektet ännu är i sin linda och det skall testas mer.

Oups nu blev det svenska… Vi går över till min dåliga engelska igen…

Next stop Port Elizabeth. We started with a beach tour on the amazing Sardinia Bay south of the city. And the morning after we got a amazing breakfast in the area. South African food is supergreat!

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Next morning we went to the Carbonology factory. Carbonology has grown and are one of the big surfski companys now.  At the nice and clean factory we could have a first glimpse of the new Carbonology Boost LV. The Boost is comming in a low volume verison to fit smaller paddlers. This will be the first full length ski in the class for smaller paddlers. The Boost LV will have same stability, speed and measure as the original, but its lower with less volume. Smaller seat, lower hump and easier to get a snug catch for short persons. And as its lower it will be much easier to remount in. As in all CS skis you sit with the bum is higher than the heels.

Carbonology Boost LV

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Now to some cool adventure, we went to a game reserve in two days. A nice experience and we had such a luck and saw more or less all the species the first day. You are so close to the big five so yes you can sometimes feel their breath. Magnificent experience.

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I think now its time for some surfski paddling and we went down to Carbonology Training Center in St. Francis. Here we did some waveplay and nice downwinds. Everywere you are you see surfskis on the water in gardens, on the beaches. And the same as here you meet both young and old paddlers. Did you know that the first ever surfski race was held in Port Elizabeth allready 1958.

The Cruze SS2 double is also a new ski from Carbonology. Its a recreational ski. But it surfs as a godess though its not made for downwindpaddling. Its a cruise machine but it can handle most weather and its very fun to play with in the waves. The waves on the photos are clean but me an Eva (Kajak Kalmarsund) went out in some nasty wind and played with the Cruze double, superfun.

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St. Francis is a nice place to stay and the hospitality from the Carbonology bosses Hein and Jason was fantastic every evening ended with a nice braii.

After St Francis we rented a car and drove down to Cape Town on the Garden Route. We had a nice stop in Plettenberg. Not so much time there but we went out hiking on the Robberg peninsula, very nice walk were we saw seals, dolphins, birds and I dont know what… Dont miss if you pass Plettenberg at your way on Garden Route. Garden Route need some time to explore unfourtunately we was most in the car as we only had less than two days to get down to Cape Town. The last 2/3 of the ride is scenic but most farming and beautifull mountains. At least we learned why they have so good meat in SA.

Beautifull Knysna

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Cape Town! Fish Hoek was offcourse were we should stay a week. Its a speciall surfski atmosphere in Fish Hoek. Our CS boats were late but Mocke could help us out and rent out som skis to us. Thanks! Time for Millers Run! Its was around 10 m/s and its a perfect start. Our guide Ian Troutman at GoDownwind had booked Millers Taxi for our afternoonsession and the first Millers. The job that Vinnie does with his Millers taxi is fantastic and everything is so smoth and easy. You could actally go for severall downwinds a day. Tuesday evening we hade a fantastic braii at our local sweddish friend Lennart house. Oh yes it was a late evening and so fun to listen to all stories. In the morning we should go for a reall tough downwind with Lennart, yes the evening before was still in the body for sure. But its such a fantastic ride so you forget anything and the focus is on the surf.  See the movie below from this fantastic morning.

After the morning Millers Run I was waisted and called Vinnie and cancelled my afternoon ride. Though 16:00 I went to the beach together with Eva and Sara who went out in doubles with Ian and Lee from GoDownwind. Lucky me Millers Taxi had room for one more. I was tired but when do you get this chanse again, after they told us it was the ride of the whole season. 20m/s (40 knots) from the ”right” direction. We were around twenty paddlers and many of them were aiming for a new personal record, Jasper Mocke wich have the fastest time so far was there with some of the worlds best surfskipaddles. Some did break their records, Rob Moesly told me he did and six other guys.  This was one of my coolest and toughest experience in a ski, I was mostly alone even if I could see the doubles after a while. I managed even to be afraid once in a big steep wave were my boat broached of and the wave started to brake over me. But as the surfer I am I maganed to trust the wave and throw my paddle in to it and drive the ski with some strokes up in speed again and down we went. Yes the heart beat was 199 for a while… Maybe the Viking god Njord helped me a bit… For sure this was one of my best moments in a ski ever!

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Friday evening its allways Sea Dog Race, a never cancelled surfski race that collect 60-120 paddlers each friday. Fantastic event and here you also compete with some of the best surfski paddlers in the world. Well I shouldnt say that I compete with them, more like I started in the same race ;). They are fast…

Last day me and Viktoria got the flu so we missed the last downwindpaddling. In all this was a fantastic tour in South Africa. So many nice people and so many adventures we had explored. Thanks to my travelpartners Eva, Viktoria, Sara and Jan.

Also big thanks to: Greg and the REVO team. Hein and Jason at Carbonology for the fantastic hosting and paddling. Chloe and Pete for a fun evening. Dawid Mocke for the help when our boats was delayed. Ian Troutman at GoDownwind for safe and fun downwinds. Lee because you paddling the best boat ;). And Lennart who tok us out alone on a amazing downwind morning after the delicate braii, eh and the good gin…

Join us for the next Aterra South African Tour 2018-2019. Interested? Send Aterra a mail and we put you up on the list and send you more information later this spring, this is without obligations. info@aterra.se

Aterra South African Tour 2018-2019:

• Tour: Port Elizabeth, St. Francis, Cape Town, Fish Hoek. The tour is 2 weeks.
• Paddling, downwind, game reserv, eating, adventures, races and more downwinds…
• Date december 2018 or jan-feb 2019, we decide this later.

And at last some whales, orcas or dolphins, at least it was big animals, about 4-5 of them. We saw them in the morningpaddle but the photos are from the hotel later.

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Oh the white long things are Sara and Jan in surfskis 😉