Cape Town Season Kicks Off

Phil Horrocks was the earliest bird for the South African season and reaped rewards instantly!

29-yr old Horrocks, who's based in Wales, migrated early this year to avoid the crowds at his favorite Southern Hemisphere training ground.

That eagerness paid off immediately, and now the inventor of the 'The Plum' is working on his stunts in a bid to climb the '08 rankings further than his impressive 21st place finish in 2007.

Phil dropped us a line in between sessions to give us the scoop.

"The 2007 PWA world Tour is now over and the time has come to practice and train for next year already.

I’m in Cape Town, and the season has started with a bang.

I got here back in November and the first week or so we had a run of North Westerly winds and I must have sailed 4 or 5 days of rare starboard tack sailing.

We had a mix of side onshore at Scarborough giving some sick jumping and side off shore riding at Whitsand with a powerful swell running... after that the wind swung South West and with a 5m swell we made the 2hr trip up north to Elands Bay.

The wind filled in early and by 2 pm we had the place absolutely cooking, with some nice sets on the reef, and a few decent rides along the point linking to the beach break...

Now the wind is back to the regular South-Easter and it has really started pumping. First we had Big Bay with logo high+ waves on 4.7's with only 3 of us out for a good few hours.

Later it picked up to and the crowds arrived - all 10 of them! Trust me that’s nothing for Big Bay! In the summer it can have 70 people out and its nowhere near as big a bay as it sounds!

Recently, Melkboss has been the place to be again as the waves are so good right now. The other night I was the only person out and it was side offshore, head high, perfectly glassy and unbelievably fun sailing on a 4.7...for now the forecast is awesome too!"

Thanks Phil!


PWA / Brian Mcdowell