Two bits

The 48th edition of the longest running professional surf event in the world – now the Ballito Pro – came to a climax on Sunday with the very best of the best performances on display at Willard Beach.
Judging from the accents on the beach – Australian, American, French, Portuguese, Cape Town cool and Sandton strident – even laid-back Bluff – absolutely everyone was there. After a week of not absolutely great weather and distinctly wishy-washy surf, the great conditions Collette Bundy had ordered for the final arrived just in the nick of time.
This was the second year of the print media partnership with the Courier and Caxton media, print and online, in KZN and Gauteng.
We pumped the stoke into hundreds of thousands of homes throughout greater Durban, South Coast, North Coast and Zululand, ‘Maritzburg, Gauteng and more, and the effectiveness was proved by the turnout.
Visitors told us many were coming to  Ballito for the first time because this was where their kids wanted to be, for the surf action, the music and so on. Where had they got their information? Local newspapers, 5FM, ZigZag mag – all the media selected by the organisers for effective reach into the relevant market.
The Roots media survey (details out soon) shows that the most effective medium by far are local newspapers, led by the Caxton stable.
Back to the action. The event was epic and all the fans were super stoked. These are the official adjectives for big surf events, though ‘epic’ sometimes sounds like a noun and ‘stoked’ comes across as a state of mind. Whatever, everyone was slinging them around all week.
I’m all little surprised that ‘stoke’ is still in vogue. We were using it back in the 60s, having picked it up from Surfer magazine. Back then there was no local surf mag, so the few Surfer mags imported from California were passed around ‘til they fell apart. There was no money to buy boards, so we hand-built our first surfboards in the back of my father’s factory. Made a helluva mess and while they might not have been pretty, they did the job just great.
Colin Fitch from the World Surf League told me that while 2011 with its massive waves was up to now considered the best Pro, this year’s finish must be a close second. He thought bringing in the women’s and junior events had worked well. Apparently plans are for next year’s women’s event to be even bigger.
Which reminds me – 2017 is the end of the three-year contract between WSL and KwaDukuza municipality. I hope the mayor is thinking already of renewing it? It would be a great shame to lose the Pro back to Durban, God forbid.
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I spent the Sunday morning photographing the action from early, and parked up on the grass pavement in Sable Road. Only to find a R300 parking fine on my return.
C’mon traffic people, what are you thinking? I wasn’t in anyone’s driveway and wasn’t obstructing traffic. I’m pretty irritated and I imagine everyone else who came to the Pro and received gifts from KwaDukuza traffic feels the same way.
Put more marshalls out and help people to find parking. They’ve come to town to see a big event. Relax a little bit, for crying in a bucket!
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Brian Carr reminded me this week of a passage from Ayn Rand’s epic (there’s that word again) novel, ‘Atlas Shrugged’. She was commenting on American society 50 years ago, but it would apply equally to Brexit and even closer to home, just proving that history repeats itself. Here it is:
“Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.”
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Bobby Charlton was asked how he thought the England team of ‘66 would have fared against Iceland. “I think we’d have won 1-0,” he replied. “Only 1-0?” asked the reporter.”Yes,” said Bobby. “Most of us are in our 70s now!”