Durban - Durban aims to be the country’s “Surf City” once more.
“This beach used to be filled with millions of people with the Gunston 500. But for the last 10 years, it hasn’t had much,” Durban’s head of sport development and recreation, Teddi Adams, said yesterday.
Adams was addressing local surfers, businessmen and government officials, who had all come together to celebrate 50 years of surfing in Durban.
Held at the Bay of Plenty’s California Dreaming restaurant, members of the surfing community not only discussed the milestone of five decades of formalised surfing in the city, but fervently addressed the issue of the lack of a professional surfing presence in Durban, despite our warm waters and vibrant surfing lifestyle.
“The Gunston 500 was running along North Beach, and we used to have a million people here over a 10-day period.
“We had stalls all the way along, vendors, competitions and music. With this 50-year celebration, this is what we are hoping to kick-start. We are wanting a new interest to try to get our beachfront back to the way it used to be,” Adams said.
As a part of the “50 Years of Surfing” celebration, the first-ever surfing and skating Durban X Festival will take place from today to July 2 in a bid to revive Durban’s legendary surfing culture.
Steve Jones, co-founder of the Durban X Festival, agreed with Adams that the city was in need of a renewed competitive surfing scene.
“Since the Mr Price Pro moved to Ballito, there has been a hole in surfing events in this area.”
“We haven’t had a high-quality surfing event that showcases the nature of the surfing and skating space here… So there is definitely a need for it,” said Jones, who has been surfing in Durban for 15 years.
On the issue of developing surfing as a more recognised sport, Durban’s head of parks and recreation, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, said: “We (the municipality) are going to ensure that surfing will become one of our 15 sporting codes that we are going to be promoting from now on.”
One of the guests at the launch was 16-year-old surfer Ntando Msimbi, who, since joining the Surfers Not Street Children organisation, was able to move from a life on the streets to being a sponsored professional surfer representing South Africa in international surfing events.
The Independent on Saturday