I use to surf, way back before we had shortboards, my mate and I would surf at the mouth of the Orange,the wind always pumped up here and being new to the sport we would often get stuck on the South Bank at Alex Bay, his old lady would have to come and collect us, a cross border drive of twenty odd k's...
The other hazard were the hidden sand bars in the river, there you were flying across the water, when suddenly your board when come to a shuddering halt, would be an entertaining sight, if you had your harness on....
The sails initially were those big bastards, bearing in mind this was all in the late eighties, short boards had just arrived....
At my hostel in Cape Town, the factory for Paarman Boards was situated across the road, was exciting to pop in every now and again to see the boards being made....
Sigh! Those were the days..... Back then and into the nineties, we had two guys from our yacht club up here in Nam, that held windspeed records, there is an annual race that gets held at Luderitz ans Walvis, awesome speeds can be achieved......
Wonder if I am too heavy to rekindle those days.... Maybe teach me kids...
