Blogs

As a young white South African girl, I recall the poster of Cass Collier hanging above my bed.  I never realized at that time that this man was breaking down walls of inequality and pioneering the way for the coloured surfing community.  Looking at Cass today, one might doubt the strength and dedication of the dreadlocked Rastafarian, but he convinced me of the opposite within our first minute of conversation.

There are very few times in a person’s life that you’ll meet a man that makes you view the world in a different light.  A person that makes you look deep within yourself and re-evaluate your outlook on life, your contribution to society and where you fit into the playground we call earth.  I experienced this rare delight whilst sitting down with previous big wave surfing champion, Cass Collier, and here follows his tale….

Q: What was your introduction to surfing?

Read more

As ying finds its yang, such have many sporting routines merged to feed and draw strength from each other.  Big wave surfers have teamed up with the world of freediving to extend their breath holding abilities as well as develop focus, skill and strength to ride big waves.

If you cannot hold your breath for 90 seconds under duress, you have no place here.   Your mind will scream this truth to you when you’re in the jaws of a 30 foot wave trying to fight your way to a single breath.  As a big wave surfer, taking on these Goliath waves ill prepared would be suicide.  Thus, training techniques have been perfected and tailored in order to keep up with this fast changing sport of big wave surfing.

Freediving training is becoming an ever more popular surf training add on as breath holding skills are becoming increasingly important for surfers, with bigger and heavier waves being surfed all the time.  Before you can assess the benefits of the breath holding sport to surfing, you will need to become familiar with the key principles of freediving. 

Read more