Zigzag Winter 2022

14.7167° N | 17.4677° W For most South African surfers, the Atlantic Ocean conjures visions of the freezing waters to the west, along with ice-cream headaches and kelp-drenched reefs. But beyond our peripheral vision lies a literal ocean that stretches from Namibia to the North Pole, where much of Africa’s surf potential lies. Dakar, for example, has long shaken off its novelty value as the place that kick-stared The Endless Summer and may well be Africa’s next surfing powerhouse (see page 72). Whether here or closer to home, there is no shortage of emerging talent coming out of these local communities, which are as varied as the waves that have nurtured them (see page 34). Further north, the Atlantic spills over into Europe, where it continues to exert its pull – especially on…

16.5388°N | 23.0418° W OFFSHORE AFRICA Africa is made up of 54 countries, six of which are island nations – Cape Verde, Sao Tomé and Príncipe, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles and Mauritius. There are a number of other islands dotted around the continent, but identity is not necessarily defined by geographical proximity. The Canary Islands, for example, lie a mere 100 kilometres off the northwestern coast of Africa – barely the distance covered during your average Cape Town surf check – yet the islands are part of the EU and very much a Spanish enclave. Run your finger further south and west on a map, out into the deep ocean, and you'll come across Cape Verde, a volcanic island chain located 570km offshore. Although Cape Verde retains ties to Portugal, it’s a proudly African nation…

17.8471° S | 149.2677° W TATIANA WESTON-WEBB, WATERWORLD When surfers think of a map of the world, we typically think in terms of waves breaking along foreign shores, divided up by the different oceans – the silky warm Indian Ocean that dominates Indonesia, the mighty Pacific that explodes onto Polynesian reefs, the briny Atlantic that sprawls across from the Americas, and so on. But according to a recent study, Earth may have been covered by a single global ocean over three billion years ago. The study, which appeared in Nature Geoscience, found distinct chemical signatures in an ancient chunk of ocean crust that indicate Earth may initially have had no continents. According to the scientists who penned the paper, an early Earth without emergent continents may have resembled a "water world". They go…

31.6067° S | 28.7781° E THE ROARING 40s Unlike many other sea-facing countries around the world, South Africa’s 2800 kilometre-long coastline is rarely ever completely flat, thanks to its exposure to multiple swell sources. Any East Coast surfer will tell you that summer is usually the go for easterly swells generated by tropical depressions that spin down from Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel. These swells can travel as far as the Southern Cape and light up those rare east-facing point breaks, which shall not be named. Most of our swell, however, is generated deep in the South Atlantic, along the storm belt known as the Roaring Forties. The Roaring Forties are extremely powerful westerly winds that constantly blow in the Southern Hemisphere between latitudes 40° and 50°. These gale-force, west-to-east currents are the result…

An ambitious project to build a series of rock groynes along the beach at St Francis Bay is one step closer to becoming a reality after the Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT) granted authorisation for the Long-Term Coastal Protection Scheme. For decades, sand flow along St Francis Bay has been halted by development along the famous point that became immortalised as Bruce’s Beauties. As a result, there are currently no beaches at St Francis Bay, and the spit separating the ocean from the canals has started breaching on large south swells, threatening beach-front properties. The proposed scheme entails dredging sand onto the beach to create a 40-metre wide beach, and constructing a series of groynes to hold the sand in place. If you surf, the first question you’ll…

Growing up surfing Llands, I never surfed The Gat until years later. That was always the scary, gnarly peak that all the pros and locals would ride. But as I got older and my surfing got better, I moved closer and closer towards the rocks. It’s like a rite of passage, working your way up the beach until finally, you’re taking off right next to the rocks. When it’s really on you see some crazy wedges there, but the sand needs to be just right and packed into the northern corner of the bay. You know it’s a good one when you see the backwash from the previous swell coming off the side of the rocks. Those are the crazy ones that hit the oncoming swell and double-up, but the trick…