The Down Side
- The biggest swell of the year (thus far) has wrecked 2 barges – one off Saldhana and one as mentioned above which was “smashed to pieces” on the rocky coast at Knysna (luckily it was unmanned).
- Informal settlements taking a knock with some flooding on Tuesday night and gale-force winds blowing roofs off shacks. (100 homes housing 600 people have been affected so far)
- Several Cape Town suburbs lost power when electricity lines were blown down. For more info contact the Electricity Faults/Street lights & Enquiries Hotline: 0800 220 440
- 29 hikers on the popular Otter Trail had to be rescued when some of their parked cars were swamped by sea water and could not be safely driven. All Otter Trail bookings have been cancelled until further notice.
- 25 Students were stranded on Dassen Island
The Up Side
Surf’s up!
Image: Royden Bryson (RSA) - Had the partisan crowd delirious with moves like this.
The mega-swells (which were measured off Cape Point yesterday) reached above 17 metres, averaging 10 metres, as the peak of the storm and spring tide collided. Today is meant to see waves on average of 8 metres (usually in this area they’re on 3 metres).
Image: Jarred Howse (AUS) - Outed by fellow aussie, and eventual winner, Blake Thornton (AUS) in 2nd semi.
Surfers participating in the O’Neill Cold Water Classic at Kalk Bay managed to find some decent waves to surf although they were not as big along that part of the coast.
Aussie surfer, Blake Thornton, beat local hero Royden Bryson to win the competition.
Image: Blake Thornton (AUS) and Royden Bryson (RSA) - 1st and 2nd places in the Classic
Snow
Sutherland has had its first snowfall, sending locals off in droves and bringing smiles to the faces of B&B and guesthouse owners in the small town which houses the
South African Large Telescope.
Images taken at the O'Neill Cold Water Classic at Kalk Bay on 24th June 2009, by André van Rooyen. Images are licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa
