Stance reporters in South Africa: Welcome to Cape Town!

After one hour of driving on a dry and desert road, we had crossed the 60 ish miles to Cape Town and its well-known beaches.

No, it is not an urban legend, the wind seems pretty hyper here, judging by the amount of sand on the road and in the air.

We are going straight to meet up with the North team on its home spot, Dolphin Beach. Our program for the next few days: testing the new… 2013 gear! Riders, designers, testers, everyone is present for this big family reunion. Less than 30 minutes later, everyone is in the water to take advantage of the hard-core conditions before the sun goes down: 35 knots, 6-7ft waves, and quite a few big beasts under our feet.
The highest jump award goes to Ralf Grosel, the North designer, for a jump of about 60 ft high (one line length!)

The next day, the wind is still present and at 10 am the gusts are going up to 30 knots. Ok so… we know that the wind usually picks up throughout the day, which means… What will we have this afternoon, then??!

Still at Dolphin Beach, with a bunch of different prototypes to test (Vegas and Rebel), we are going back on the water for another hard-core session. Stefan Spessberger, young Austrian rider, meets up with us to give a 100% freestyle advice on the gear.

After getting the usual beating, we change spot, heading to “The place to be”, Big Bay. As soon as we get out of the car, we pass the ‘local’ Ruben Lenten, who’s going around the shops to post signs for his Kiteloop Challenge. 10 steps later, we pass Aaron Hadlow and Sam Light, packing up, then Lewis Crathern and a few wave riders like Abel Lago.

Yep, the show here seems a bit more hard-core. The spot seems way better then Dolphin beach. The waves, at least as big, have more space between them, which gives us more flat spots. The wind is still side/side-on and very constant. Table Mountains are under a thick cloud, good sign of wind. Yep, we are definitely in Cape Town!

Give us the time to get used to the spot, the nightlife and all other incredible things, and you’ll hear back from us!