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Cape Town has a lot to offer, but so does the rest of the huge coastline around South Africa.

Eland’s Bay, for example, or just plain E-Bay (surfar1), is a 3-hour drive from Cape Town up the West Coast (the Atlantic Ocean) and is a great surfing destination during the southern hemisphere summer – November onwards, when a south-easter holds up a westerly swell to produce a cranking left point break. The break is located about 500m from the campsite and is considered to be a regional classic. It is hollow, fast and powerful. It’s length can be anywhere between 50 to 150 metres. However it is also considered to be an experienced surfer’s wave and getting in and out can be difficult because of the tide and the rocks plus there is the additional adrenaline charge of coral and sharp rocks being beneath the wave. A wetsuit is necessary here as the Atlantic is frigid – an odd combination when the countryside around Elands Bay is semi-desert. Expect it to be empty during the week but crowded at the weekend.

Jay Bay  is just around the corner from E-Bay. Another classic wave, this one starts on a rocky, kelp covered shelf, or small point, which turns a corner and becomes sand at a small river mouth. The swell refracts around the outer area of Elands Bay and peaks at the point, producing a hollow take-off and a cylindrical wall that runs for about 150 metres. Jay Bay needs a solid SW swell of 8′ before it wraps around the point. The waves can be epic…

Jay Bay is not to be confused with J-Bay or Jeffreys Bay on the East Coast of South Africa which is located in the Eastern Cape Province. This bay is one of the 5 most famous surfing destinations in the world and hosts the annual Billabong Pro ASP World Tour. In fact this year’s competition has just finished with local boy Jordy Smith the #1 hero with a massive lead of 7.93 points ahead of Adam Melling from Australia who came second (redbull)…

J-Bay is almost certainly Africa’s most famed surfing spot and because of this it does attract crowds. But don’t let that put you off. Surfing here is the real thing – plenty of surf and good swell. There are many different rides, on many different waves, but all are in close proximity of each other. The sections between the main wave at ‘Supertubes’ and ‘the Point’ further down work differently depending on tides and swells.

Albatross has a right break and is suitable for all standards of surfer. It is a J-Bay kind of wave but not as big. A great place to have fun without getting in the way of the kamikaze guys. Added to that is that it is on a sand bar so a nice soft landing at all times!

Boneyards is slightly south of Albatross and is at the top of the J-Bay point. It’s for experienced surfers only and has a point break wave right and left with coral, sharp rocks etc underneath. It is hollow, fast and powerful, generally heavier than Supers, and is about 150 to 300m long. A good day can see the wave being 500m long and sometimes you are able to join up with Supers. Super cool. The reliability of this wave brings crowds at the weekend but it’s pretty empty during the week.

Still south of J-Bay there is Ducks, another wave for experienced surfers. This is a very consistent regional classic. It breaks both right and left and has a mixture of coral, sharp rocks and sand underneath. Normal length is 50 – 150 m but a good day can be as long as 300m. It’s virtually empty during the week and you won’t even find many surfers there on a weekend. You will, however, need a car to get you there from Jeffreys Bay.

Killers, also south, is definitely only for pros and kamikaze surfers. Again you will need a car to get here and you will find the waters very empty of human population though it might well be inhabited by sharks so take care. It is a hollow, fast and powerful wave with a length of 300m on a good day. It is not a guaranteed wave though so you have to keep your eyes open. Again, the bottom is coral and sharp rocks.

Just south of Jeffreys Bay beach itself  is another good, easily accessible wave which is suitable for all levels of surfers: Kitchen Windows. It’s a normal wave breaking right and left with reliable frequency, generally 50m long but can get up to 150m on a good day. There are few crowds here even at the weekend. There is a dangerous undertow here that you need to be aware of and, as is fairly common with this locality – coral and sharp rocks underneath.

Everyone dreams of tubes and Jeffreys Bay has its fair quota. Supertubes is just south of the town and is where the Billabong Pro is held every July (). It’s a totally epic wave for experienced surfers, a powerful wall, and very consistent to boot. It’s a point break right wave which is hollow, fast and fun. On a good day it can get up to 500m long. It is, unfortunately, always crowded and at weekends super-crowded, but then again – it’s crowded with experienced surfers, like-minded people, all out there to have fun.The hazards are rips, undertows, rocks and sharks! Enough of an adrenaline kick for anyone I’m sure!

Magna Tubes is just around the corner from Supers infront of the Beach Hotel. It is also considered to be a very consistent regional classic but again only for experienced surfers. It has a right break with a reef underneath. It is hollow, fast and powerful and can be crowded at weekends. Sharks are a problem in these waters…

I could go on for ever. There are so many good waves here for surfers of all levels. There’s the Impossibles, the Leftovers, The Point, Paradise, Oyster Bay, Phantoms, Seal Point, Salad Bowls – there are many more. But I think you will have got the picture. There is something for everyone and the waves are epic. It’s well worth a visit if you haven’t already been there. And if you have then I’m sure you will agree that it’s well worth going back!

And humans are not the only mammals that take advantage of the Jeffreys Bay waves (scubaduck):

Did you know that June 8th is Oceans Day – no, no – we’re not talking about Danny Ocean, the fictional character played by the suave and very good looking George Clooney – no its the blue bits on the map which cover over 70% of the world’s surface.

That’s a big chunk of our world and like everything else in this world we are trashing them. Did you know that a plastic island,  the size of Africa is floating around in the Pacific Ocean – it consists of our junk. The really sad part is that nobody seems too bothered – its not our problem they say but the truth is we are ALL responsible.

As individuals we must stand up and make our voices heard and there is no better day to do that than today.

Have you been inspired by Roz Savage because we certainly have – respect Ma’am. She is the individual who has now rowed on her own across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. You can read about her exploits by visiting her website www.rozsavage.com

She just landed up in Papua New Guinea having set off from San Francisco on May 25th 2008. She first rowed to Hawaii which took 99 days, a challenging 2,900 miles. Then it was on to Kiribati in the southern Pacific – if you blink once you’ll miss it, even in your 23 foot rowing boat – an awesome 3,158 miles. And the final leg of her journey took her from Kiribati to Madang in PNG , 2,000 miles in just 44 days.

On her arrival in Madang she was met by a crowd of 5,000 people who had turned up to demonstrate their respect for this highly motivated individual.

The photos are from Savage’s website – the above taken during her Atlantic crossing 4 weeks after leaving the Canary Islands, and below having arrived at Chesapeake Bay on the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Below are some of the really shocking facts that she talks about on her website:

• There is a 6:1 ratio of plastic to plankton in the world’s oceans
• Consuming blue fined tuna is like barbequeing giant panda bears
• Ocean plants produce half of the world’s oxygen
• In 40 years from now seafood could be a food of the past
• Ocean acidification is seriously affecting the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide

The next leg of this amazing journey will take her across the Indian Ocean. It is again intended to raise awareness of the perilous condition of 70% of our planet. We laud Roz for her courage, her supreme effort and for the cause she is highlighting.

Isn’t it time that you did something about our oceans – come on we have to act, we have to do something, we have to be responsible, we must be heard.

We will keep you posted on Roz Savage’s Indian Ocean voyage and should you wish to to visit her website click on the following link http://rozsavage.com/

The latest round of the UCI World Cup Mountain Biking sponsored by Shimano was held this weekend at Houffalize in Belgium. Both 4 cross and cross country events were held for men and women. Rain on the night before made the cross country track tougher than normal with many competitors experiencing flats and buckled wheels before the race was finished. The 4 cross races were held at night under flood lighting by which time the track had dried out and a large crowd saw some excellent races.

Women’s 4 cross

The line-up for the women’s final was as expected: Jana Horakova, defending World Cup Champion Anneke Beerten (Suspension Centre), her new team mate Emmeline Ragot and Austrian Anita Molcik, the fastest qualifier. Molcik and Beerten were fastest out of the gate for the final, but tangled in the first corner, allowing Horakova to sneak through. Molcik managed to avoid going down and took second, followed by Ragot, with Beerten limping home in fourth.

Men’s 4 cross

Jared Graves was already untouchable in the men’s heats. He was joined in the final by Tomas Slavik (RSP 4 Cross Racing), Michal Prokop (Agang Racing) and Dutch mainstay Roger Rinderknecht. Once again, Graves got the holeshot, with the two Czech riders Slavik and Prokop bumping elbows through the first couple of corners before Slavik finally pulled ahead in the lower half of the run.

The action comes from the men’s final and is from MATTIAmtb

Women’s cross country

The women’s four lap race split up quickly with Eva Lechner, Willow Koerber, 2009 World Cup Champion Elisabeth Osl (Central Post) and defending Houffalize champion Marga Fullana (Massi Team) moving to the front. Despite a flat tire mid-race, Lechner quickly rejoined the leaders then charged to the front, with only Koerber able to match her pace. On the last lap, Koerber touched wheels with Lechner and had to stop and put her foot down, allowing Lechner to open a gap that she held to the finish line. The American came in second, followed by Osl, and the leading Under-23 rider, Julie Bresset (BH-Suntour).

Eva Lechner of Italy wins the women’s cross country race at Houffalize, Belgium

Men’s cross country

The men’s six lap race saw a series of upsets, beginning with a crash on the start line that blocked many of the top riders. Manuel Fumic (Cannondale Factory) escaped the chaos, and immediately gained more than 30 seconds on chasers Julien Absalon (Orbea), Wolfram Kurschat (Topeak-Ergon) and Under-23 rider Matthias Flückiger (Trek World Racing).

The chase received a blow when Absalon flatted late in the first lap. The defending Houffalize champion had to run for almost half a lap to the tech zone, dropping back to around 30th position before beginning an impressive chase back to finish seventh.

Fumic held his lead until Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos, making his way up the field after being caught in the crash at the start, caught the chasers and then Fumic at the beginning of the final lap. The 2007 Houffalize winner was then able to pull away from his rival to win the sixth World Cup race of his career.

The action is supplied in this video from frisskiss

The UCI World Cup for mountain bikes next visits Maribor in Slovenia on the weekend of May the 15th & 16th when there are 4 cross and downhill races.

RacingThePlanet is renowned for their 4 Deserts challenge – the Atacama Crossing, just finished; the Gobi March on 27th June; The Sahara Race on 3rd October and finally Antarctica on the 17th November, a once every 2 years event … theoretically impossible you would think for the Antarctic to be included in the 4 Deserts Challenge, but technically it is a desert in that it is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on earth with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 inches) along the coast and far less inland. It also has the highest average elevation of all the continents.

Antarctica

So that’s the 4 Deserts explained. So then, what’s this Australian race all about?

RacingThePlanet actually have two extra-curricular events this year: Australia and Taklamakan. The Australian race begins 25th April (just around the corner) and Taklamakan (China) is on the 20th August. These two events are just there to keep you limbered up for the main events… just kidding of course, they are there as events in their own right.

200 people from more than 30 countries will be competing in this inaugural  Western Australian event. The largest contingent coming from Australia (60) followed by Hong Kong with 35. 45 of the runners are women. The youngest competitor is Christian J. Prendiville, age 20, of Perth, Australia, and the oldest competitor is 69 year old Toshio Ohmori of Japan.

A group of five Australian brothers, The Prendivilles, will be competing, along with
two time RacingThePlanet champion (Vietnam, Namibia), Salvador Calvo Redondo of Spain. Stephanie Case of Canada, the champion of RacingThePlanet: Vietnam, is also competing.

The former overall champion of the 4 Deserts, Francesco Galanzino, of Italy will be competing as will the first person in the world to complete the 4 Deserts Grand Slam, Paul Liebenberg, a South African medical doctor from the Northern Territory.

The host city will be Kununurra – only 3,040 kilometers (1,889 miles) from Perth by road! Competitors will arrive on 22nd April, converge at the Kimberley Grande although they will be posted to hotels around the town. Saturday 24th is check-in and the race is off on Sunday. It finishes 6 days later at El Questro.

El Questro is a million acre wilderness park located on the eastern perimeter of the Kimberley region in far NW Australia. It offers visitors, or, in this case, participants, a diverse landscape of rugged ranges and broad tidal flats, rain forest pockets, gorges and waterfalls that are home to rich animal, fish and bird life. It is about 100 km west of Kununurra.

RacingThePlanet’s events are always extreme, and the Western Australia one is going to be no exception. The Kimberley consists mainly of ancient, steep-sided mountain ranges from which the extreme climate has removed most soil except in the valleys of the Ord and Fitzroy Rivers in the southern part of the region where the soils are either usable cracking clays or lateritic Orthents.  Although none of the mountains reach even 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), there is so much steep land as to make much of the region very difficult to traverse, especially during the wet season when even sealed roads are often flooded.

And the wet season is November to April when the area receives 90% of its rainfall which means that it could be very wet when this race is run!

It is also the hottest part of Australia, with mean maxima almost always above 30 °C (86 °F) even in July and ranging in November before the rains break from 37 °C (99 °F) on the coast to 40 °C (104 °F) in the south around Halls Creek.

This race is going to challenge the most hardy competitor.

As always, RacingThe Planet events aim to raise money for charities within the country that they are eventing in, and in this case all money raised will go to the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation.

We have just returned from a last blast on the slopes of Switzerland where winter is losing its grip on anything below 2,000 metres – the snow being wet, heavy and difficult. But Gstaad is blessed with a glacier at 3,000 metres and on Tuesday there was not a cloud in the sky and so we headed to what seemed like the top of the world with Mont Blanc looking resplendent on the horizon.

After skiing one evening we got talking with our neighbours at the bar and we were telling them about our blogs on scuba diving in the Mediterranean. As chance would have it these guys, as well as looking the part of snowboard professionals, were avid divers and they immediately reeled off names like Eddystone Reef, Diamond Rocks and Scapa Flow. Of course there is one major problem with these sites – they are not in the Mediterranean!

We mentioned that we had already written about Malta/Gozo and Cyprus and asked them what their experiences were of scuba diving in the Mediterranean. They looked at us somewhat quizzically ‘ Diving in the Med is great but its not in the top ten of world destinations – besides the pollution the Med has a fundamental problem – the water is too cold to support coral growth and all that is associated with coral reefs, a multitude of aquatic fauna and flora’.

‘Fair point but if push comes to shove, other than the places we had already mentioned where would you go?’ Secca della Columbara or Chios Island was the answer and as we had heard of neither we asked a few questions and when you watch the video below you may think our friends were being ungenerous with their critique.

Secca della Columara

Not a bad idea to know where it is – Ustica, Italy – OK but we need a bit more – about 50kms north of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea which is on the west side of Italy. Ustica is small, 9 kms across with no more than 1300 inhabitants.

The island (8.7 sq km) is actually the tip of a submerged volcano and, as a result, the surrounding waters are a feast of fish and coral, ideal for snorkelling, diving and underwater photography. In July the island hosts the International Festival of Underwater Activities, which draws divers from around the world. The best months in which to visit, however, are June and September when the wild coastline and dazzling grottoes can be appreciated without the crowds. The best way to get there is by ferry from Palermo, Sicily.

Photo of Secca della Columbara courtesy of Andrew Reay-Robinson

The best dive sites are the Secca della Columbara to the north of the island and the Scoglio del Medico to the west. Note that Zone A of the marine reserve is a protected area. Fishing, diving and even swimming are forbidden here without permission from the Marine Reserve Visitors Centre (Centro Accoglienza; 091 844 94 56; Piazza Umberto 1) which can organise diving excursions into the zone.

The Secca della Columbara is a 43 metre dive featuring a steep wall decorated with sponges and red Gorgonia. The dive is usually undertaken with the wall on your right as you descend to the wreck of a 73m wreck which sank in 2005 and broke into two parts. Large grouper, baracuda and amberjacks, crayfish, dentex and white bream can be seen.

Here is a promotional video from profondobluustica which – when it gets to the diving – looks great. Our friends from the mountains certainly knew their stuff – thanks guys for this great recommendation on where to dive in the Mediterranean. We are pleased to share it with you and check us out tomorrow when we tell you about Chios Island.

We often write about the extreme world of marathon running, reporting on events and notifying you of the world’s toughest marathons. Having run a number of half marathons we have nothing but respect for those individuals who pit their bodies and their minds over the distance of a full marathon – 26.2 miles – and those who challenge themselves over even greater distances and obstacles – be that ice, mountain, desert or jungle.

Understand that a very important element in preparation to challenge yourself over these huge distances is not just the training schedule but – and we suggest just as important – also the right nutrition. Your body needs to be properly energised and hydrated and so we found this excellent advice given by The Runners Guide whose website is www.therunnersguide.com

It is very sound advice.

It’s important for everyone to eat a healthy diet. The right food helps your body function at its optimum level. For runners, a specific diet is even more important. Without the right nutrition, a runner isn’t going to have enough energy to get through the day. That’s why it’s important to follow these simple diet guidelines.

Avoid processed foods. These contain chemicals and additives that just bog your system down and make it work less efficiently. Sticking to natural unprocessed foods will give you more energy and make you feel better.

Eat your vegetables. You should have a variety or fresh vegetables everyday. This gives you tons of vitamins and minerals, and is a better, natural alternative to taking tons of supplements.

Get lots of carbs. It’s a growing trend in this country to cut down to little or no carbs. Even if you’re trying to lose weight, runners should have more carbs in their diet than the average person, not fewer. You need carbs for energy to get through your run. Just be sure to eat whole grains and complex carbohydrates rather than relying only on sugars and other simple carbohydrates.

So there you have it and there is a busy schedule of marathons coming up in the summer – here is the list of North American marathons provided by www.marathonguide.com – if you want to check out the details just click on the link.

The marathons above will probably feel like a stroll in the park in comparison to The Polar Marathon – a video from the 2007 event can be seen below – thanks to polarmarathon

So whether its a more standard marathon, or a more extreme version, make sure you pay attention to your diet.