Natural energy surf shop’s daily surf report has been updating surfers on wave conditions at Strand for over thirty years. Updates on the conditions are posted to Facebook, on average, about three times per day.
This number may however vary based on the conditions, with bad days getting at most two, and the great days getting as many as five. The surf shop, owned and run by Francois Frick (46), has been updating surfers on the conditions since the mid-1980s, and has become a staple of the Boland surf scene.
The surf updates cater for surfers from a wide area, including Stellenbosch, Somerset West, Hermanus, Paarl, Durbanville, and even as far away as Melkbosstrand.
Frick, the man responsible for the daily updates, says that the idea came about to inform more surfers about what it looked like down at Strand. “We used to have to put the update on an answering machine, but that became too much of a mission as we would be too busy helping customers to constantly update the answering machine. Then one day my wife came down, picked up the camera, made a surf report and posted it. Now I get to use it to exploit my horrible voice,” says Frick.
Surf shop owner Francois Frick, the man responsible for the daily updates. PHOTO: Josh du Plessis
Surfers in the Stellenbosch area can be particularly grateful, as the 23.8km drive to Strand can prove to be a waste of time and money when arriving to a wave-less beach. “The updates are very useful to me, as a surfer from Stellenbosch, as the forecasts for the wind and swell can often be quite inaccurate. This makes it quite frustrating to drive all the way to Strand and it turns out to be too windy or too small. To be able to see several times a day exactly what the conditions are like is useful as a Stellenbosch student,” says 4th year Engineering student William Kingwill (22).
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Talking about Stellenbosch, Frick said that he believed it to be the breeding ground for the Helderberg surf scene and has helped put the area on the map. “Being a student town, you’ve got so many new students coming in and going out. Those that learn to surf tend to stay in the area, surfing mainly at Strand and Muizenberg,’ added Frick.
Local surfer Paul Twekye taking advantage of the daily updates to catch some waves at Strand. PHOTO: Josh du Plessis
As the Strand waves can cater to surfers of any level of experience, the users of the daily update are highly varied. Although most of the users check the updates to see what the waves look like, many people also use it to see what the weather is like at the beach for a potential afternoon outing. “I’m very appreciative of the updates, especially as I can save money on petrol by not making any unnecessary trips. Coming from Knysna to Stellenbosch, its also nice to be able to have a little injection of surf culture every day,” says Paul Twekye (21), a Bcomm Economic Sciences student.