Slightly Off
Issue 87 / Thu 10th Jun, 2021
When things don’t go as planned, you’ve got to get creative. After getting taken down by South Africa’s second wave of Covid-19, Matt Maxwell wanted nothing more than to get back on the water. Find out how he fared in ‘Slightly Off’!
The past year has been, without a doubt, ‘Slightly Off’. South Africa had one of the world’s hardest lockdowns, which dragged on through most of our winter season. By the time summer came around near the end of 2020, we were all dying to get back in the water.
Unfortunately for me, the second wave of Covid-19 hit hard in Cape Town right as the summer winds were in full swing. I, along with some of my family and friends, caught Covid. I got pretty sick - the sickest I’ve felt since as far as I can remember. Since it was just before Christmas and I was scared of transferring the virus to family members, some of whom are a lot older than me and more at risk, I took the isolation very seriously. Naturally, by the time I was finished with my isolation period, sitting alone in my room for two weeks, I was dying to get back out on the water again.
Just as I recovered and could finally get back onto the water, new regulations arrived, intended to avoid crowded beaches over the festive season. The police in some areas were selectively stopping people from practising their water sports, depending on how they chose to interpret the new regulations.
The strict enforcement of the new beach lockdown regulations around Cape Town caused me to head an hour North to my second home, Langebaan - a small West Coast Town known for its vast blue lagoon and reliable winds. The local authorities told us that the lagoon was still open to kite surfers, provided that we launched from boats and stayed off the beaches. Fortunately for us, we had a boat, and my family and friends all flocked up to the mudflats of Shark Bay for some flat-water freestyle and big air kiting.
As expected, after only a couple of days of riding in the flats, word got out. The mudflats were packed with boats, more than we had ever seen before. It was not long before the authorities noticed. A couple of days later, to our horror, the South African Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, arrived with a squadron of police vehicles and boats to oversee the arrest of two kite surfers and shut down all water sports activities on the lagoon indefinitely.
It all happened right in the middle of our windy summer kiting season. My wonderful sponsor, F-ONE, had just commissioned Nomadic Sea, a new film and media production company based in Cape Town, to shoot a video with me over the summer. Frustrated by the lockdown, I, along with Aron, Dylan and Nick from Nomadic Sea, decided we would have to make other plans to get out on the water. We realised that the only possibility of doing so was to find spots that were out of the way and less populated than Cape Town.
This marked the beginning of ‘Slightly Off’ - a personal journey through some of the lesser-known spots in and around Cape Town during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We began our journey by heading further up the West Coast in search of a few of these sleepy spots. The first stop was Elands Bay, a tiny town with a world-famous left-hand point break about an hour and a half up the coast, north of Langebaan. We arrived in the morning, and there was no one in the water, which is very unusual for Elands Bay. We took this as a sign that maybe we should try somewhere else first instead. The waves weren’t that good, and there was not enough wind, which made the decision slightly easier.
We continued a further half an hour up the coast to a slightly larger town called Lamberts Bay. Luckily for us, there was a really fun wave breaking at a hidden and sheltered surf spot called Yo Yo’s. This spot is out of sight from the main road, which made it a good option for our first session back out in the water! The spot is not exactly kite-able, but thankfully I had my foils and my SUP with me. We had a super fun surf that afternoon right until the sunset.
When the sun sets, the West Coast gets cold and dark quickly. By the time we got out of the water, we had no choice but to stay the night. We found a nice campsite nearby called Malkoppan. After setting up camp, we checked the forecast for the week, and to our delight, we saw a crazy windy South Easterly was coming in the next couple of days.
When the wind arrived, we discovered that the South Easterly wind at Lamberts Bay is far too onshore for the ideal cross-shore kite surfing conditions we were searching for. So we headed back down past Elands Bay to check out some other options with better wind angles for wave riding. We checked out Elands Bay again on the way past just in case, and upon arrival in the afternoon, we were surprised to see a couple of carloads of windsurfers parked in the car park, but nobody out on the water.
The windsurfers in the car park said that they could not get up to the top of the point where the best waves are. There was no wind near the water’s surface due to the prominent headland upwind of the point. On the contrary, it was perfect for kite surfing, with the wind being stronger at higher altitudes.
We jumped out of the car and rushed down to the beach to check the waves up the point. It was on! There was a small but perfect left running down the point, and the wind was pumping straight cross-shore. I had never seen it like this before in my entire life.
Although I have surfed the main point at Elands Bay many times, normally, it cannot be kite surfed. It is a popular surf spot where the surfers have priority when it is working. But, because of the beach ban, the only surfers in the water were three of my friends who had paddled out with me, which gave me one lucky chance to kitesurf it.
I pumped up my Bandit S2 8m, put a leash on my surfboard and headed out. The waves were not big, but the wind was straight cross-shore. I had some of the longest, cleanest rides of my life. I was stoked, to say the least. Finally, the beach ban had an upside - I got to kitesurf the best left-hand point break in South Africa!
The wind and swell died off the next day, but as stoked as we were due to the session we had just scored in Elands Bay, we decided that the trip couldn’t end there. We drove the two hours back home to Blouberg and then another four hours along the East Coast to a small town called Witsand.
Witsand is known for its extremely flat water due to the onshore winds that blow over a sand spit found at the mouth of the Breede River. The spot is mainly famous for its population of bull sharks, which cruise in and out of the shallow river mouth in search of fish. By that point, the sharks were the least of our worries as the alternative was being locked down at home.
The kite spot is a long walk down from a car park up on a hill, tucked away in a corner between bushy trees and sand dunes. This meant it was the perfect option for us to score a session without being too visible. The water is really warm at Witsand, and the conditions are just absolutely insane for strapless freestyle and big air on butter-smooth water. The spot works with onshore Easterly wind, and the water is flattest on the low tide when the sandbank is exposed.
The weather was so warm every day compared to the more rugged West Coast that we had just come from. There was another cosy campsite near the spot, so we decided to stay on for a few days. The wind was like a fan every day with a super consistent and steady feel regardless of the strength. We had days when it blew 15-20 knots all day and then days with steady 30 knots, making it perfect for training and progression. Some days, the conditions were so stable with water so flat, we even ventured from the river mouth into the ocean waves for a change of scenery.
After a couple of days of perfect kiting, the forecast looked promising for some surf further up the East Coast at a favourite spot of mine on the Garden Route, Victoria Bay. So we hit the road again and arrived after a few hours. We set up camp at the campsite right above the beach in one of the most beautiful little bays in South Africa. Unfortunately, the waves never materialised. After a couple of days, we decided to head back to Witsand, where we scored more freestyle perfection.
The beach ban was finally lifted, and when we finally grew tired of the perfectly flat water, we headed back home to Cape Town with some fresh perspectives from our travels. We realised that there were still some great spots around the Cape Peninsula other than the classic Blouberg stretch that we call home.
South Africa’s Cape Peninsula has an incredible variety of spots to choose from if you are prepared to do some driving around and exploring. We headed an hour south from home, and in only one day of South Easterly winds, we surfed hollow offshore barrels at Noordhoek, kite surfed fun cross-shore blue water conditions with dolphins at Scarborough and had an epic onshore strapless freestyle session in the kickers at Glen Cairn.
I could not believe that the spots that are right on our doorstep were so versatile, yet I and so many other kiters had always been so reluctant to venture further than Blouberg for our daily kite sessions. Although this summer season in Cape Town was ‘Slightly Off’ from the norm, it undoubtedly forced me out of my comfort zone, opened my eyes and gave me a newfound appreciation for the place that I get to call home.
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