Nooit, so there I was chilling out at the backline waiting for a set and keeping an eye out for the men in grey suits. There were a couple of grommets sukkeling with the bubble-biters, but I managed to hit the take-off styling and slotted into a tube. I’m not a goofy so I rode the left-hander backside before getting spat out of the green room. Sjoe, I needed a rhino-chaser on that one!

If that sounds much the same to you as ancient Greek, then help is at hand.

Steve Pike — or Spike as he’s known to his band of surfing brothers — is one of South Africa’s foremost surfing personalities and the brains behind the popular surfing portal wavescape.co.za and the Wavescapes film festival. Oh yes, and he’s spent the best part of 25 years on waves across the planet.

'Surfing South Africa' brings all the information, anecdotes, tips, insider knowledge and personalities he’s come across on his travels into an easy-reading book that’ll appeal to both hardcore riders and grommets (novice surfers) alike. An engaging blend of history, surf culture and practical advice it will be as at home on the shelf as a useful reference book, or dog-eared and damp in the Kombi cubbyhole while you ride the waves on one of his suggested stops on a coastal ‘surfari’.

With an easy tone and entertaining style he manages to make everything from climatology and bathymetry to big-wave adrenalin junkies an enjoyable read. A lengthy chapter on sharks and the (relatively insignificant) danger they pose to surfers is a welcome addition to the ongoing debate over who owns the waves.

Guest columns around surfing lifestyle by the likes of Ben Trovato make for amusing interruptions, while a photo-essay pays tribute to the senior surfers who started the scene back in the 1960s. Quirky descriptions of surf spots from Port Nolloth to Kosi Bay and a look at how black surfers rode the waves under apartheid are other highlights.

Illustrated by jaw-dropping photos and humorous cartoons that gently poke fun at the 'hey-bru' side of the surf scene, the look and feel is somewhere between travel guide and surfer mag, making it something easy to dip in and out of... perhaps while you’re waiting for the onshore gale to die down.

Oh yes, and about that slang. Spike’s parting shot to visiting surfers and oh-so-uncool parents is a handy glossary to Surfafrican slang. So next time you want to tune your 16-year-old, or that mate from J-Bay, that the surf is firing out at Beauties and you’ll need a bigger gun… you’ll have Spike to thank. A perfect stocking filler.

Surfing South Africa
Steve Pike
ISBN 978-1-7701-3118-7
R175