south africa surfski holiday

Hi!
I'm austrian ( poor surfski coditions ). My family and me are planning our next holiday in beautiful ZA in july 2014. We'd love to visit the famous sights and the fascinating landscape of your country. But surfskipaddling is another thing we love. Best way to visit sights and paddle as often as possible would be a camperholiday, i think. I've contact to two different camper hire companies. But they don't allow to fix surfskis on top of the camper. So what i' m looking for is perfect " accomodation" and a surfski for hire. Flight is booked to JHB. I'd be very, very lucky for any southafrican help. Got to know many great sa guys in villa do conde (ocean racing wcs) this summer.
Best wishes form austrian, where we got the first snow this year,
Erhard

Hi Erhard,

Something to bear in mind is that July is mid winter for South Africa.
Now I'm sure as an Austrian, you can manage the relative cold in Cape Town at that time of year, but you will have a lot more company on the East coast.
The Durban Surf ski series usually runs May to July, culminating with the tough Scotburgh to Briton (46km) in Mid July.
Have a look at www.surfski.co.za for the race calendar closer to the time, you may be able to get a race in.
Something worth looking into would be a few days in the Kosi Bay are. Beautiful tidal lake system in a nature reserve, with some amazing beaches

Hi Erhard, if you're going to be in the Richards Bay area (160km north of Durban)look us up at the Zululand Kayak Club www.zkc.co.za

Winter weather here is perfect for paddling, typically mid 20's (that's degrees C!) and I'm sure we can arrange a ski and paddle for you.

Regards

Nigel Stevens

I have to admit that mid-winter in Cape Town can be a bit bleak - cold and wet! On the other hand, we do get some great downwind paddling when cold fronts come through!

Hi Rob, Nige and Fuyang (hope is your first name?)!

Thanks a lot for your useful tipps and advices. It seems, there´s a lot to do (paddling) also at that time of the year(races). I´m sure I´ll visit the Zulu Kajak Club , North of Durban. Thanks for the useful link.
What do you guys think is the best way do combine paddling with sightseeing? I´d like to travel from JHB to Durban and furher on to Durban and along the eastcoast to Capedown and finally back to JHB. We are not sure what´s the better way: car and b&b or camper and campsites. Does anyone know a camperhire Company, car rental and surfski rental for our five weeks journey? Only JHB internatonal airport as start and finish points are fixed. I know a travelguidebook can answer a lot of my questions. But I dont´t get answers about surfskipaddling. I´d be very lucky to get advices about accomaodation.
PS.: Yesterday I did a 1 and 1/2 h trainingsession on the river Mur (25m away from my house). Perfect weather but really low temperatures (-7 degrees C. The water on my K1 freezed. At the end of the session the K1 was 3,4 kg heavier than in the beginning.That was a strange experience.
All the best,
Erhard

Hi Erhard, I can make a few pertinent comments to hopefully point you in the right direction.

Ski hire is going to be difficult if you want to take a ski with you, especially if you're doing a circular route from Jhb, where there is no ski hire. You may be able to hire a ski from one of the schools in Cape Town and Durban (maybe also Port Elizabeth)but that would only be while you are in those cities. Depending on how much paddling you want to do, you could consider buying and selling a second hand ski on your trip. Prices start from R2000 (150 euro) see www.surfski.co.za for some indication of prices.

Camper vans are not at all common in SA and you have to stay in caravan parks for safety reasons, so your best option is probably to go the car rental / B&B route. With the strength of the euro vs. the rand you should find prices pretty cheap here.

There are lots of car rental companies including most of the major ones which you can pick up with a simple google search. They can supply roof racks as well.

As far as the paddling itself goes, your best bet is to visit one of the paddling clubs in each area where you are staying.

Most ocean paddling in SA has fair sized waves and open ocean conditions to contend with, so unless you're an expert, going it alone is not very advisable. SA paddlers are a very friendly bunch and would be happy for you to link up with their paddling outings.

Hi Nigel!
First of all, sorry for my English- no native!
Thanks a lot for all your useful tipps. As you said I had a look for B&Bs and car rentals. Yes, Nigel you are absolutely right. This is much cheaper than trevelling in a camper. There are so many nice and cosy B&Bs . Campers are very popular in europe and so I thought they are in SA. Good idea to look for a 2nd hand ski. This would be difficult in europe! Also the indian ocean also seems to be quite different to the mediteranean. Many, many things to keep in mind, but I'm realy looking forward getting to know SA in the following "northern hemisphere summer"
Here in Austria it got cold now, so I changed paddle for skis. If you like, have a look at the following link. X-country skiiing is a great winter sport for paddlers.



Best wishes,
Erhard

Peninsula canoe club in Cape Town runs a weekly time trial in our winter on a Tuesday for canoes and skis on protected water on a lagoon. You would be most welcome to join. www.peninsula-canoe.org.za/cms/ There is a surfski school based in Fish Hoek (which in winter usually has Med-like conditions) where you could join in too. mockepaddling.com/surfski-school/

Thanks gary for the useful tipps. As we're planning to visit capetown it seems to be a great thing to participate in one of the time trails.

Just give us a shout close to the time and if the weather is good we'll get you onto the sea as well... Paddling on the vlei (lake) is well and good, but the sea is much nicer!

May I make an appointment via surfski info than?
Thxs, Erhard

Hi Erhard, I most likely will be out of the country during that time and if so you are welcome to borrow my surf ski, kayak or both. Let me know how I can get hold of you and we can see if the timing and logistics work out.

Hi wave runner!
That sounds absolutely great. That's a fantastic offer. But I' d also like to pay a rental fee. Where in SA do you live? In the meantime I decided to rent a car and do the b&b along the eastcoast. My e-mail is
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Hope we can manage the logistcs.
Kind regards,
Erhard

Hi Erhard, I will contact you via gmail.