Tyrone explained, “The Supertubes Foundation was put into place to maintain the natural beach environment. With 10,000 spectators at the annual Billabong Contest, the beautiful sand dunes and the aloes were becoming highly endangered. So the Foundation, which is sponsored by Billabong, employs teams of local people to plant aloes, to erect wooden boardwalks, to eradicate non-indigenous plants and to keep the beaches clean from Albatross in the north to Kitchen Windows in the south. The Foundation was initially started by three trustees: myself, Brad Davey and Koffie Jacobs. Cheron Kraak, Billabong CEO, is also a member and she has been very generous in funding much of this project.

“There is an extremely valuable nature reserve right on Supertubes which we want to preserve and to prevent greedy developers from turning into high-rise luxury accommodation. In 2005 the Supertubes Foundation Trust, which is a non-profit, section 21 company had a major breakthrough with the municipality. We managed to get the council’s approval to turn this open space into a ‘Supertubes Park’.

The plans include a nature reserve, surf history museum, clubhouse, kiosk and a Sea Fisheries site office. The Sea Fisheries will educate the public on preserving valuable sea-life and the indigenous plant life before it becomes totally extinct through to ignorance.

“There will be security guards to protect the public because in recent years the park has become unsafe. There will be no more vagrants sleeping in the bush to harass visitors. We have to protect our heritage! We want the Supertubes Park to be aesthetically pleasing and to educate people into preserving sea-life.”

“Tyrone, can you explain the function of the J Bay Boardriders Club?”

“Well one of the main functions is to restrict the numbers of contests held in J Bay during any particular year. What has happened to our horror in some years is that out-of-town surf clubs arbitrarily decided to hold their contests here and suddenly the prime surf spots in J Bay became jammed up with contests to the exclusion of local surfers.

This function of monitoring the contests has been taken over in 2002 by the Watersports Committee run by Andy Thuysman. Another aim of the Boardriders Club has always been to foster the sport for youngsters and to teach them the life skills of the surf culture.”

To get some facts about surfing in the formerly disadvantaged black and coloured communities, I interviewed Steven Jeggels, a renowned local journalist and outstanding photographer who has been surfing for more than 20 years and is dedicated to uplifting the lives of youngsters.

His brother Paul Jeggels has been surfing for more than 30 years and runs his own surfboard manufacturing business in Jeffreys Bay. When Paul and Steven started teaching surfing to less privileged kids from the Pellsrus community, the youngsters’ enthusiasm for surfing was so overwhelming that they decided to establish a Surf Club especially for them.

The Jeffreys Bay Surf club was originally established in 1983. The purpose was to develop surfers of colour in Jeffreys Bay, as these surfers had little opportunity to experience the sport of surfing during the apartheid years.

The Club initially failed due to a lack of funding and equipment. However, it was later successfully re-established and Steven writes: “The J Bay Surf Club has been successfully promoting surfing in the formerly disadvantaged community of Pellsrus in Jeffreys Bay since 2001.”

According to the Jeggels brothers the aim of the Club is “to educate youngsters to become aware of their immediate surroundings¾the environment¾and to grant them the opportunity to experience the sport of surfing. This initiative was specifically established to find solutions in keeping them off the streets and away from drugs,”

Paul adds, “We have been very successful. On a Friday evening the youngsters all hang out with us and it keeps them out of the bars and shebeens.”

By 2003 the Club’s achievements had been recognized by the surf community worldwide. During the Billabong Pro surf contest in July 2001, the 2001 reigning world champion from Hawaii, Sunny Garcia, spent time surfing with club members at their local surf break, “Kitchen Window”. Garcia also handed out much needed T-shirts to the youngsters, which were gifts from the Hawaiian surf community.

During 2002 Sunny Garcia revisited Club members for a day in the surf during the Billabong Pro surfing contest. Joining Garcia in the water and on the beach was friend and fellow countryman, Andy Irons, the 2003 ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) world champion. Two Australian Professional surfers, Mick Fanning, the winner of the 2002 Billabong Pro and Mark Occhilupo, the 1999 world champion, donated surfboards to members from the Surf Club.

For more information on this community initiative check out the Surf Clubs website: jbaysurfclub.com. Sponsorship and donations from compassionate persons would be greatly appreciated. You can reach Paul Jeggels at (042) 2933047 and e mail: jegg@agnet.co.za.

 

Researched and written by Robbie Hift.