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Living in Cape Town...

Gust Magazine is based in Cape Town - so for the first few months it is only logical that I base myself here too... Other than the cold windless winter, its not that bad... and has been quite fun. I am however planning to do regular trips back to Durban to enjoy the warm water and the SW winter winds and good swell.

It's not that bad living in Camps Bay - The view from my room is great...

This is the view of "Lion's Head" from my balcony...

...And this is the view from the top of "Lion's Head"...

 

Off The Beach - Into The Office

There comes a time in everybodies life when the dream of doing nothing for the rest of their life ends. Some peoples dreams end before others.

I have had a good run of living the dream, but reality has caught up with me. Being a "professional" sportsman in most countries if not a rugby, cricket or soccer player means very little - and very little to no money...

I have stayed close to my passion by starting to work for Gust Magazine (South Africa's only kite/windsurf magazine) in their advertising sales. So far things are going great, and has been a great change from being on the beach everyday. It makes you appreciate the time you do get on the water. 

It's a welcomed challenge - better than getting a kiteloop handlepass beating...
 

VOID - New video

The video from Dakhla in the Sahara Desert is finally finished...

you can check it out on my website: www.tyronerawlins.com

Filming and editing done by: Meteo Willis, riders: Miguel Willis, Mohammed Humani and myself.

Hope you enjoy it - let me know what you think... 

MY WEBSITE!!!

Hi everybody, I have set up a website:

www.tyronerawlins.com

you will be able to log on to my blog from there and see what I have been up to, check the weather forecasts, see my pictures and videos as well as links of other kiters... 

Check it out - enjoy... 

 

Struisbaai Kite Festival!!!

This year I decided to get more involved with kiting in South Africa and got a bee in my bonnet to put an event together. The Struisbaai kite festival has happened for the last 2 years, in conjunction with a Yellow Tail Fishing contest.

I got an awesome response from the kiting community who were very eager for the event to happen, so much so that there were way too many prizes and ended up raffling off most of the prizes to the 45 entrants 12 of which were girls - great to see they are getting involved.

There was a host of top international riders that came to the event to either compete or just hang out: Aaron Hadlow, Kevin Laangeree, Christian, Helen Thompson, Emma York, Jo Wilson and a bundle of South Africa's top riders.

The event is a weekend long, and is really just an excuse to get out of Cape Town and get everybody together for a good time - day and night, everybody hangs out at the backpackers in the evening sharing stories, listening to music and getting out of hand.

The event itself is either coarse racing or big air depending on the conditions. This allows anybody at any level to enter, allowing beginners to ride with the pros at no major disadvantage. It rained most of the weekend, but on Sunday the skies cleaned up and the wind was perfect. 20knots clean warm water and 4 foot waves - coarse racing was on...

The swell provided for many thrills and spills, the coarse was very fast: beach start, out through the swell around a buoy and back to the beach.

Everybody seemed to have had a good time that weekend and people were stoked with the prizes they got. Thanks to Terri Kidson who put so much effort in helping to make the weekend such a success. Carl, Cornel and the backpackers' for all their help on the weekend.

Helen Thompson (Scotland) won the ladies division. I ended up winning the men's - I swear it was not rigged... haha, never thought I would ever win a speed event.

Kevin Langeree's Durban Visit!!

Kevin Langeree has been coming to South Africa for 4 months at a time for the last 3 years and never left Cape Town. I was going to Durban for my Brother's birthday, so I told him and photographer Craig Kolesky to join me for a trip.

Midbay Motors from Richards Bay sponsored us a vehicle for the trip. We spent 5 days cruising around in our rocking VW Tourang with aircon which got well used in the Durban heat and humidity.

On arriving at Durban Airport, we shot off down the coast to Scotborogh for a good session in the warm Indian Ocean. We headed home to watch the A1 Grand Prix which was happening in Durban that day - Kevin was overwhelmed to a Dutch team in the event.

Monday there was no wind, so a tour around Durban's city and to the kite shops. We then headed up to Gateway Shopping Centre to the Wavehouse to have a go on the artificial wave. We spent the whole afternoon as well as every other afternoon we were in Durban battering and bruising ourselves. Kevin caught on quickly, and Craig enjoyed getting barreled.

Tuesday morning we rushed off back down the coast to Scottborogh for some swell to surf, but when we got there, the wind was already howling - no worries we will go kiting... but neither of us had packed a pump!!! We headed back up the coast to Amamzintoti to Warner Beach. This beach has an outcrop of rocks which makes the inside section very smooth, unfortunately it was only 10am and everybody was still at work so we still had no pump. We eventually headed to kite beach - basically where we left from in the first place, there were a few kiters hanging around who enjoyed the riding they got to see. Before heading back to the Wavehouse, we stopped in the La Mercy Lagoon for a quick flat water session. That evening we went to Taco Zulu - a great little Mexican restaurant owned by Pro surfer (now kiting) Richard Sills for some Burrito's and Tequila's.

Wednesday morning was my brother's birthday - so another early wake up call. After dropping him at school we headed inland towards Pietersmaritzburg to the Lion Park. We lucked out, seeing so many animals: Elephants, a variety of buck, zebra and of coarse lions... our car was chased by a male - must have liked the smell of Kevin. After our drive through the Lion Park, we headed back to the coast and up the north to Richards Bay to thank Midbay Motors for the vehicle. After a quick meet and greet and some pictures for the local newspaper, we headed for the beach. We had a great session at Alkastrand Beach - flat inside sections with little kickers and waves on the outside. The water was a little dirty as they pump sand from the habour into the beach, which is the reason for such good waves and conditions - the bottom is totally flat. We arrived home to a huge birthday dinner for my brother.

We took Kevin out to experience the Durban lifestyle and see some of the quality of the Durban ladies. We also almost tried our hand at the casino, but got over it and opted for bed instead. 

Thursday was a later start and a day to relax, we visited the Durban beach front, but the surf was not that good, so we decided to head back to the Wavehouse for one last time. After dinner we headed for the airport where we sat on the runway for 45 minutes waiting for 1 passenger to board. It was a great trip, thanks to Craig for the pictures, Midbay Motors for the great car and my mom and dad for feeding and putting up with us for the week

The Road Trip!!

Early morning on the 26^th December 2006, we met to leave on a short but intense road trip up the east coast of South Africa. The trip consisted of: Ruben Lenten, Aaron Hadlow, Leeshai Miller, Greg Thjisse and myself, as well as photographer Craig Kolesky and our poor non kiting driver Greg Miller.                      

5 energetic kiters in a vehicle with playstation, DVD's and a pimping sound system - a real recipe for trouble. We wreaked havoc everywhere we went, the fridge full of Redbulls and beer only intensified the amount of trouble we were going to cause.

We stopped at Stilbaai for a kite session and a surf after lunch. It was the middle of holiday season, so the campsite was packed with young brandy drinking college kids who disturb our sleep all night with their music, but Ruben got them back by pumping his outrageously high tempo'd trance music at 5 in the morning as we were leaving.

We ended up in St Francis - great little surf session at Seal's Point. We then lost very body when we went shopping in Jeffries Bay. Aaron and Leeshai were on a mission to clear out the Billabong Factory shop... Ruben and Greg on the other hand missioned for an hour to find one hat for Greg that he never ended up buying... That evening we just chilled in our well organized campsite, listening to Greg and Leeshai play some tunes on their guitars.

Another early start, now heading back to Cape Town, we stopped at the world's highest bridge bungee jump - but the 5 hour wait in the line put us off and we continued for Knysna.  We had an enjoyable warm flat water session as the sun was setting. We headed to Vic Bay to set up camp for the final time.

The whole trip, Aaron and Ruben had tried to bug Greg as much as possible. Eventually Greg got them back by cooking dinner for them and spicing up their food with Brooklax - it meant we had to stop every 30 minutes for them on the way home, and Ruben followed thru and had to throw his underwear away...DON'T MESS WITH GREG...

The gas station where Ruben had his little follow thru accident!!

4 days, 2 surf and 2 kite sessions and plenty of laughs... thanks to Craig for organizing the trip, Greg for Cape Ability for the vehicle, Redbull and all the small towns of South Africa which we stormed thru...

Jim Beam Contest!!

No sooner than arriving home from the tour, did I pack up and head off to Cape Town. Once there, I received my quiver of '07 Vegas kites (they are great). Then it was off to South Africa's biggest kitesurfing event ever "The Jim Beam Extreme."

It was held at the Strand Kite Club - an excellent venue for an event and the organizers went all out in making it a great place to hang out: free drinks, food, swimming pool, couches and a marquee to cover everybody from the beating sun.

The freestyle was good fun with Kevin Langeree snatching victory from Greg Thjisse(who knocked me out into 5^th place).

The coarse racing drew the biggest amount of entrants... people thought it was pretty funny when both my dad and 12 year old brother beat me - I wasn't laughing...Colin Heckroodt won the race, chased by Greg Thjisse who snuck just in front of my dad.

The prize giving and after party was held at Café Miam - it was quite hysterical seeing the bouncers face when he saw my brothers name on the list. The crowd was entertained by the legendary duo of "Goldfish" as well as the newly formed band "Nungarin" headed up by Greg Thjisse.

There was free Jim Beam flowing which kick started an awesome all night party - the boys and girls got out of hand - as you do!!

FINAL KPWT MENS RESULTS

FREESTYLE:

1st Sebastien Garat(fra)

2nd Vincent Tiger(fra)

3rd Antoine Auriol(fra)

8th Tyrone Rawlins(rsa)

SPEED CROSSING:

1st Vincent Tiger(fra)

2nd Soufiane Hamaini(mor)

3rd Sebastien Garat(fra)

7th Tyrone Rawlins(rsa)

WAVE MASTERS:

1st Jose Luengo(spa)

2nd Vincent Tiger(fra)

3rd Tyrone Rawlins(rsa)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody that was involved with making last year possible. To my sponsors:

North kiteboarding

Fox Racing

Reef Brazil

Ion

To Miguel Willis and Antoine Auriol, for showing me around... Good times!! But very happy to have my room to myself and my own bed, at times people would have thought we were very suspect!! You 2 look so cozy!! hahaha...

And then a huge thanks to my DAD for supporting me the whole year, and helping out with all the visa and airticket admin. Thank you very much, it was really appreciated...

NEW CALEDONIA

The final stop of the 2006 KPWT was Noumea, New Caledonia. For many of the riders, getting there entailed at least a 36 hour mission of plane flights.

New Caledonia is a very small tropical island in the South Pacific. The water is crystal clear and very warm. The air temperature is also extremely warm, nothing more than boardshorts, T-shirts and alot of sunscreen is needed. However, things in paradise cost 2 to 3 times more than Europe.

I arrived a few weeks early, which gave me alot of time to travel around the quaint island as well as visit a surrounding island.

Tennor Island is a 2 hour car trip north of Noumea and then a 40 minute boat trip. We did the trip at night so I miles have been blind folded. Once we had navigated our way round the reef using a torch to guide us, we set up camp on the island. When I woke up, I was struck by the beauty. The colours were all so much brighter and clearer, the sand was untouched. Apart from us and about 4 other people who were staying on the other side of the island, there was nobody else around. The surf was perfect, and once again - nobody except the 3 of us out .

You can never go hungry, the fishing is unbelievable...

Back in Noumea, and everybody started arriving for the event, all the first timers to Noumea had the same reaction - dumbfounded, it truely is a beautiful place. The kiting conditions are perfect, the wind a steady 20knots gusting to 21knots sometimes, and smooth glassy water...

With such good conditions, there was bound to be a high level of riding. There were moves been thrown that had never been seen on the tour before:kiteloop KGB, a combination of different boardoffs, double handlepasses, handlepasses to blind, the barefoot. Everybody was just pushing themselves whilst they had the perfect conditions to do so.

The wave masters was awesome, 2 days of perfect tropical surf in the morning, followed by 25knots of wind in the afternoon. The day of the wave masters, the swell jacked up to a decent 6 - 8 feet, the riding level was also very high. The event was held at Oihno, and the camp site we stayed in, is owned by Patrick Florez - Jeremy Florez's(2006 WQS surfing champ) father. Unfortunately, with it being a reef break you were unable to watch the other heats unless you kited out. The day ended thankfully with no casualties, except one lost board. Greg and myself were both so amped to be surfing a tropical reef break, we stayed in the water surfing and kiting for 8 hours the first day and 5 hours the second day. All the training paid off as we both made it into the finals of the wave masters...

After the event, a break from kiting was needed, so we headed inland to a spot on the river - really peaceful and quiet, a time to relax and reflect back on an awesome year that had just passed... Now just the journey home...

I'm scared of heights, doesn't help that I was pushed off here!!

The event was easily the best of the year - a perfect ending. Greg Thijsse(RSA) had a great event, he got a 9th in the freestyle, 4th in the wave masters and won the speed crossing breaking the record. With all his points accumulated he won best perfomance of the event... Well done Skunk!!

A last look at the beauty of New Caledonia!!!

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