Durban surfers are back on board
Last week’s stand by local surfers was the needle that broke the camel’s back. The group got in two hours of surfing before police arrived.
TO say surfers are stoked that the beach ban has been lifted would be an understatement.
Profesional Durban surfer, Beyrick de Vries, shared his reaction with Berea Mail after Monday’s announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa that beaches will be open again.
“Very happy to be back in the ocean, big thanks to the metro and the government for getting us back in the water. Everyone out there in the ocean was just happy, huge smiles all around and it just improved our lives immensely.” said De Vries.
De Vries, his Springbok colleague Nthando Msibi and a group of fellow surfing enthusiasts made national news when they defied the ban last Wednesday by taking to the water to protest beach restrictions.
Getting back on their boards also means the upliftment programme Surfers not Street Children can continue. This project, dear to De Vries, teaches homeless children to surf.
“I know the Surfers not Street Children kids will be back in the ocean so everything will start to get back to normal,” said De Vries. “The more that those kids are on the ocean side of the beach, the safer it is for them.”
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The last couple of weeks have been anything but normal for this competitive surfer after the government announced a return to Lockdown Level 3 on 28 December.
He commented that the beach ban made him realise surfing is not taken seriously as a sport in South Africa.
De Vries asked why surfing could not be permitted under controlled conditions like other sports such as football and rugby.
“Surfing has never been taken seriously as a sport. People just think it’s pot smokers on the beach listening to reggae music and watching girls in bikinis,” he said.
Narrowly missing out on Olympic qualification the 28-year-old was frustrated that he could not maintain his fitness and skill level.
Commenting on the previous weeks’ incident when they were ordered out of the water and briefly detained by police he said: “The police treated us well. They can’t stop doing their jobs, everyone thinks they are robots but they aren’t.”
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
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