The Rebel Session’s awards window opened on July 15th, in most years this is a very sensible time to look out for big waves around the Cape of Storms but not this year.
July in Cape Town is usually unpleasantly stormy and wet, but this year global warming really seems to have set in with the driest, sunniest and flattest July anyone living can remember.
Statistically July is the coolest month of the year in Cape Town with temperatures averaging around 13 degrees Celsius. This year, however, has seen the mercury climbing past twenty degrees for most days in the month with a couple of days even reaching a balmy 28 degrees Celsius! Likewise the average July rainfall is over 80mm but this year less than half of that has fallen. This is all fantastic if you want to go on safari, hike up Table Mountain or lie about on the beach, but not if your passion is for charging gigantic storm swells!
The storms that usually generate the huge swells the Rebel Sessions seek to document have been largely absent and those that have arrived lacked the intensity required. Its not that there hasn’t been any surf, for your average surfer there have been some great days of bright sunshine, summer winds and 4 to 8 foot fun waves but this is not what the Rebel Sessions are looking for.
Two promising looking swells faded as they approached the coast and each morning excited big wave surfers woke up early to check their computers only to find that the forecasters had once again downgraded the swell predictions, leaving them crying into their cornflakes.
At last on the final day of the month the big wave crews managed to get some practice in as the outer Kommetjie reefs started breaking at about 10 to 12 foot with a couple of sets pushing 15 foot. It wasn’t big enough to justify mobilizing the full Rebel Sessions media crew but at least the guys got some much-needed practice paddling-in in the morning and towing when the wind got up in the afternoon.
Hopefully the end of July also signals the start of our real winter and the Rebel Sessions will kick of with a vengeance in August, already there’s some promising action on the charts but who knows what will happen so… watch this space!
