Greg Emslie News Today

David “Shaka” Macgregor, 55, who lived for surfing, died in the surf on Monday, apparently of a heart attack.

Posts about Sst Francis Chronicle written by St Francis Chronicle

The president of Buffalo City Surfing, Kevin O’Brien, has stepped down and new president Tyrell Johnson has taken over. He steps up to the platform and announces “I only have one change to make — from now on all selection trials will be held in Gonubie” — and we all had a good belly laugh at that.

Chantel is frying onions, Greg is flipping burgers, Lovayne is cutting tomatoes and rolls and Bonnie and Craig are circulating, hovering and helping. There are 150 burgers to go. The East London Surf Lifesaving Club is humming with young and old as the rain clears and a calm, washed, sparkling clean Friday evening sunset settles in.

It is hard for me to imagine a more delightful trio of pupils than our three Buffalo City surfers who have just received their call-ups to represent South Africa at the ISA world junior surfing championships.

Tom Lindhorst set up his SA Champs well. He surfed every morning before the contest started and every evening after the contest finished so that he knew the break intimately.

The Buffalo City Surf Riders have returned home champions after winning the top spot at the Tidy Town’s SA Champs at St Michael’s Beach in KwaZulu-Natal last week. Placing first in the open and third in the master’s divisions, the overall points tally meant the team came out on top, beating clubs from all seven provinces for the President’s and Champion cups.

There is no substitute for good health. If you are that person who likes to start the year with the Discovery Surfers Challenge, Merrifield Mile and Dispatch Cycle tour or similar events, then you know what I mean. Sadly, some of our outdoor adventures have not recovered from Covid and the sooner they are brought back, the better.

Surfing per say is not hard. If you ask Josh Malherbe, the Under 14 boys champion from last weekend’s Border Buffalo City Closed Championships, he will likely tell you it is easy.

So often I come back to Shaun Thomson’s beautiful quote: “Who is the best surfer in the world? — the guy who is having the most fun”. I am sure he means girl as well.