The Legend of Cheron Kraak and the Billabong Empire
The Legend of Cheron Kraak and the Billabong Empire
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Cheron Kraak and the Billabong Empire
Article researched and written by Robbie Hift
"I first came to Jeffreys Bay in 1971 on holiday," says Cheron Kraak, the founder of lifestyle brand Country Feeling and its associated surf shops, which dot the famous seaside village. "We live for surfing. Unless you've done it, you can't know what it's like out there with just you, the sky and the ocean."
What I liked about Cheron was her simple charm, her warm smile and her deep concern for the hundreds of people that work for her.
Formerly Cheron Habib, she admits to being somewhat of a rebel in her youth. Asked against what? "Oh, against suburban Johannesburg, the tennis club, conforming to society's norms and all that. I saved up for a trip to India and London and returned to Jeffreys Bay in 1978 and started making board shorts for the surfers on the beach. All I owned was one portable sewing machine. That's where Country Feeling first started. On the beach."
Working on a very limited capital, she traded shorts, shirts and other seaside gear with the surfers in return for their help to transform a match boxed size garage into the first Jeffreys Bay surf shop.
So much has been written about this remarkable woman, and the headlines she attracted in local newspapers perhaps sum up her rise to success the best.
"She sews seashorts on the seashore." Weekend Post 3/1/1981
"Rag Trade girl makes it to riches." Sunday Times 19/2/1984
Her Country Feeling label grew in stature and in the early 80's she was offered the licence to manufacture Billabong in South Africa by good friend and Billabong founder, Australian Gordon Merchant.
Twenty-eight years later, Cheron has built Country Feeling and Billabong up into a clothing empire with a multi-million rand annual turnover, encapsulating the unique lifestyle that surfing and Jeffreys Bay has to offer. A huge factory overlooking the surf at Kitchen Windows employs hundreds of staff who design, manufacture, market and ship the merchandise to her Billabong stores in Jeffreys Bay, St.Francis Bay, Port Elizabeth, Durban,Bloemfontein,Gauteng and Somerset West, as well as having hundreds of lifestyle outlets across the country. "We have a great policy at work; when the surf pumps, the boys go surfing! We are a surf company, and besides, it's no use trying to keep them indoors when Supers is 6 to 8 ft! As long as they make up their time, it's all good."
The Billabong shop at Magna Tubes beach, opened in 1992, boasts a huge red surfboard mounted on top of the roof, built by Robbie Ponting and built to scale, which is 19"5 in length, is the longest surfboard in Africa!
The Billabong Surf Village opened in 1999, boasting a skatepark for youngsters as well as a factory outlet and the thatched Billabong concept Shop, which acts as South Africa's showcase for the international brand. The Village also houses the headquarters for Billabong, Von Zipper Eyewear, Element Clothing and Skate hard goods as well as newly attained Kustom Footwear label. The Real Food Co. offers the visitors to the Surf Village a selection of high quality health foods and drinks on the deck opposite to the Country Khaya, which sells, imported Indonesian goods, ceramics and local surf art. The village has turned an otherwise dull side of town into a wonderful attraction.
Shortly after opening the Port Elizabeth store in 2000, it was no wonder she was awarded the prize for businesswoman of the year for the Eastern Cape. In 2005 Billabong was awarded the best female clothing label in South Africa as a result of the Generation Next Survey which is conducted by the Sunday Times newspaper.
It is interesting to go back in time to the beginning of the surfing contests held in Jeffreys Bay because they have had such a major impact on the growth of the town, attracting so much international interest.
1976 World Champion, Shaun Tomson, won the first major open contest: The J.Bay Beach Hotel Classic held in 1981. There were 38 contestants and 10 of them were professionals.
"Because we love surfing and surfers," says Cheron, "we started the Country Feeling Surf Classic contests. Shaun used to come and stay at my house whenever he flew in to J.Bay to ride Super Tubes. Winter after winter he would come to my house on the hill that overlooks Super Tubes. From my kitchen window you can see the line-up perfectly, it's a view that still gets us stoked to this day! Many a surfer has stood there in awe, watching the corduroy lines peel off down the point."
It was in 1984, that Super Tubes officially hit the world map as an ASP World Tour Event. Supers delivered 8ft perfect waves for 5 days and Occy delivered the vertical backhand attack that still has the world talking.
Cheron says, "Since '84 the event has grown from strength to strength. Not only have we improved on the contest infrastructure, but we are now able to successfully stream the event footage globally, enabling a worldwide audience to share the moment. Some event highlights which stand out in my mind other than Occy's backhand annihilation of the super's line-up are, 18yr old wildcard Joel Parkinson's victory in 1999, Kelly Slaters devastating form in 2003 where he posted the highest event and heat totals in his surfing career and Andy Irons victory last year where he overcame his voodoo curse and proceeded to take his third world title later in the year."
Super Tubes has earned the reputation of being one of the fastest, most challenging right-hander breaks in the world. What better venue for surf contests! Last year the Billabong Pro World Championship Tour event offered almost R3,000,000 in prize money. This prestigious event is open only to the world's top 44 surfers on the ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Championship Tour.
It's a very prestigious event to win and rates as one of the best stops on tour by the travelling professionals. This is substantiated by the fact that Cheron was awarded the ASP Cultural Award for the 2004 WCT Billabong Pro in J-Bay.
It is a real spectacle for the South African public as it brings together the world's best surfers to compete in one of the world's best waves. The J.Bay event is one of only 12 events on this elite tour, which travels around the globe stopping only at its prime surfing locations.
"We have run the annual Country Feeling Classic every year since the initial event in 1982 which offered R5,000 in prize money and we have only missed 2 years in all that time." smiles Cheron. "Billabong came onto the scene in 1984 and since then has been a major sponsor of this prime event. This year is going to be a real humdinger!
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El Shaddai Publishing & Advertising is run by Robbie Hift who has written and published over 150 newspaper articles over the last 16 years. Robbie Hift has also written and published a number of successful coffee table books about small towns in South Africa and about the sport of Surfing. Examples of these can be seen on these web pages. These books can be directly purchased over the internet. Please visit www.robbiehift.com |