Date funds surfers’ dream wave experience

WITH the help of a Facebook page and the generosity of her sister, Holly Blindell and a group of other surfers will be able to join the rest of the KZN team at a surfing competition in Mossel Bay.

Holly is a beach-lover and a go-getter by nature and enjoys her time in the ocean as much as she enjoys teaching others how to surf. “I have been surfing for about seven years now, you can imagine how costly that must be since I live in Hillcrest. I only started long boarding recently so when I took part in the KZN trials, I honestly didn’t think I would make it on to the KZN team,” said the nineteen-year-old.

She missed the first leg of the trials but took part in the second and third leg. “People were telling me they thought I would make it, but I brushed it off. But I did. My first reaction was shock. That’s when it hit me, I didn’t know how I was going to pay to get down there,” she said.

She was notified on Saturday, 19 March, that she had made the team, and immediately began brainstorming ideas with her best friend, Daniel, and her sister, Melissa. The first idea was to dress up and stand at the robots and ask passers-by for money. “We were joking around when my sister said that she and Daniel should auction off dates to help raise the money. That’s when I asked her if she was being serious and she said ‘yes’ as it was only a dinner to say thank you for their support.” She took to the Upper Highway Info page and posted a light-hearted ad for a dinner date with her sister. “In the beginning we had a few naysayers then there were those who saw it as a lighthearted way to make up the money we needed for the trip,” said Holly.

The bidding started at R200 and ended up with a final bid for R2 500, which went to Calvin Fourie. “I didn’t think it was going to get so huge. It was just so shocking and amazing. Another guy contacted us who said he would have made a bid, but for personal reasons decided not to. But he still made a donation of R4000,” said Holly.

“It was early on that I thought that if I could not afford to go down, then there must be quite a few others who couldn’t afford it either. So anything that was left over, I would use to help others fund their trips,” said Holly.

Natasja daSilva, owner of Tashiky Sushi in Hillcrest, sponsored the R400 date and also auctioned off two R2200 meals vouchers to help raise funds. As well as the thank-you dinner, Melissa also auctioned off two make-up vouchers. Holly has since raised more than R13 000 from donations and the bidding. “Now four other surfers and myself can afford to go to the event in Mossel Bay. This will cover our petrol, food, accommodation and entries,” said Holly. “I even went through the hassles of opening up a separate bank account for the funds to be put into. Absolutely everything that is left over from the trip will be donated to the Disabled Surfers’Association.

If you would like to make a donation to help sponsor a fifth person to take part in the surfing event, email hollzamber@gmail.com. To keep up to date with the trip and the date, like ‘Date funded my wave’ on Facebook.