Our intern Laura wrote a blog on her experience of January 2018’s 3-day ‘Stoked on the Southern Cape’ surf camp. Read below about the adventures she and the group had:
‘It’s safe to say that the past few days were some of my favourites of my time in South Africa. I had the opportunity to go on the 3-day ‘Stoked on the Southern Cape’ surf camp, which I obviously couldn’t say no to.
We left from HQ on Friday morning to meet the rest of the group. The group was a fun mixture of nationalities and ages, which made the dynamics very interesting. Luckily we all had one thing in common, which was a great sense of humour.
We drove to Strand for our first surf lesson. I’ve been to Strand many times before, but the view with the mountains in the background keep taking my breath away. After catching a lot of nice waves, we took the scenic R44 towards Hermanus. After spending a few hours in Hermanus to see sights and have lunch, we started driving to Arniston, accompanied by great tunes.
The first night at the beach house was a very relaxed one. Imagine a glass of red wine, Amy Winehouse in the background and a get together around the fireplace. Time for a good night rest to start the weekend with lots of energy.
The next morning, we started with a surf lesson in peaceful Arniston. The fresh water woke everyone up nicely. Since it was quite windy in the afternoon, we decided to go for a wine tasting. After a couple of wines, we started practicing for the night´s beerpong tournament. Practice makes perfect!
Back at the house, we turned on the braai and set up the beerpong table. Time to play! Blood, sweat and tears everywhere. An occasional cheer filled the room. After many thrilling battles, we all headed to bed, feeling stoked about the awesome day.
On the final day, we first watched a documentary about plastic in the ocean, which we were talking about earlier that weekend. It is amazing to see people coming closer to nature in just a few days, by just spending time in it. After that, we hiked to Arniston´s secret cave, which only appears in low tide. Even there, the conversation about the plastic continued. It was beautiful to see how everyonce cared so much and how we together came up with little things we could do to improve the situation.
We said goodbye to a part of the group afterwards, since they had to continue with their travels. They were amazing, so saying goodbye wasn´t easy. With the rest of us, we drove to Strand to catch our final waves. We left the water feeling completely stoked.
Unfortunately, the weekend had come to an end. The places and the people made the experience super special. Can someone please press rewind?’