NSA skatechamps - george south africa - 1st pics

I mentioned the NSA skatechamps in George today...here are some of the shots. It was overcast so very contrasty...really had to work some of these and may have done too much. The full gallery will follow in a post tomorrow. There are about 100 shots including some nice wipeout sequences and some overall massive tricks and airs...these guys are GOOD!

NSA skateboarding champs George South Africa

Im off the the NSA skatelab champs (skateboarding) so look out for a post tomorrow. Todays comp is a national event so will have the top guys from SA on show so is going to be a good test of my skills

Here are some of my more recent pics of the latest regional comps

the full gallery is here...there 54 shots from that comp

The Knysna Oyster festival

Morning all

I thought I could fill everyone in on the upcoming Knysna Oyster festival that is due to take place in Knysna on the Garden Route from the 7th til lthe 14th of July. This is an annual event in the heart of winter here and draws 10s of thousands of people every year.

As the name implies the festival is based on the oyster which is both gathered wild and bred in the knysna lagoon. There is hardly a restaurant in town that does not sell oysters at this time of year and most have a competition of some kind. One of the most famous restaurants is he Knysna Oyster company who breed oysters.

The event has a host of activities some of which are listed below

- The SA navy ships arrive to join in

- The cycle race...

- The mountain bike race

- The half and full marathon

- Oyster shukking comps

- A sports expo

- An extreme sports challenge in the knysna waterfront

- Golf challenges at most of the golf courses

- Various oyster recipes cookoofs (have you ever had an oyster milkshake?)

And many more.

The festival covers most of knysna and has become the biggest festival in this region. Before it started this time of year was dead in terms of tourism and this situation has now been turned around to the benefit of the whole town. The marathon after party at Crabs Creek has become legendary....no less that 5000 people rock up to party away the festival

Having been a few times it is highly recomended and is suitable for the entire family. If you are around in SA at this time of year it is well advised to stop here and visit to enjoy some of our famous oysters generally with as much Champagne as you can manage.

Pics from Ruiterbos South Africa

Evening all (or morning to some of you and goodnight to others)

Last new years we spent at a small roadside "padstal"...thats local slang for a farm stall. Its in the middle of nowhere so was just perfect. Here are some pics of the farmstal and the surrounding landscape.

If you are ever between mossel bay and oudsthoorn on the R328 in South Africa..

.do yourself a favour and stop for a few nights.

The rest of this gallery is here

A sunrise worthy of the countryside

Many people say that the sunrises we currently experience around the world are due to the pollution we throw up into the atmosphere. I have definitely seen first hand that this is very true.

In Johannesburg where the mine dust and industry spew out heaps of pollution the sunsets and rises are very very red. Quite spectacular. In Cape Town it was less so but then we did have far more effect of the sea....clouds and that sort of thing.

However I notice that even here in Plettenberg Bay the sunrises and sunsets in particular are generally more spectacular than in the cities. The colours are not quite as strong but they are more varied. We seem to see a far broader colour spectrum. At sunset, the side of the horizon opposite the sunset takes on a rainbow spectrum close to the horizon. The onlky other place i have seen this is when i was flying back from Kenya in 2005...the plane flight was perfectly timed to catch the setting sun at 30 000 feet...this was frikkin unbelievable...and to top it off there where thunderstorms below which made it all very surreal. Unfortunately not my camera toting days

So back to pollution. I wonder what sunsets looked like 2000 years ago? Would be interesting to see. Im sure volcanic activity do a similar effect as do fires...but Im sure we are impacting more than what these normally do

...and this is where my sunrise shots are stored. There are some awesome shots from the region of the Garden Route in South Africa

A fresh day out in knysna

I had to take a trip into knysna today and i could swear the signs of spring where there. Ok so it is still damn cold from the recent weather...but the heather is in full bloom, the lambs are all being born and town is abuzz. I saw Boba the rasta in town...always a cool dude as is the whole rasta community here

I saw a cool guy with dreads and his buddy from JHB who had driven down to sell their paintings...really nice stuff too

Here a few pics

snow in JHB???

well Im really miffed now. I thought we had a monopoly here in Plett on strange weather but Johannesburg seems to be having its fair share as is kwazulunatal.

heres some nice pics of the snow in JHb and KZN in South Africa. And if you are not from here this is NOT normal

The galleries of the plett snow are here

and the JHb snow here

A rainbow (rainy) sunset

even in paradise we have bad weather. Sounds like Cape Town has been getting bliksemmed by storms so we have been bracing ourselves up here in the Garden Route. Massive sea's, howling winds, driving rain...well??!?...where is it?

We had a brief rainy spell yesterday and now its sunny again. Winter/ summer...whos messing with the weather?

We had a magic sunset yet again last night with a rainbow poking its head out briefly. Unfortunatley skippy here blurred the shot so no good to post.

However let it not be said that we do not get spectacular sunsets here (and sunrises). This is a pic over Knysna lagoon from Thesen Island. The second is a sunrise over keurboomstrand just down the road from plettenberg bay

African spaces

I happened across a blog by Omar in kenya

He has lots of great places that he has visited including Uganda, Kenya… Really nice writing and interesting stories about east africa. We had a brief salvo of back and forth comments where we both pretty much ended up agreeing that the thing about the country that is alluring is the wide open plains, the peace and quiet, and how it truly is gods gift to humanity. Why then do we continue to mess with it.

One of the most frustrating things is that we actually believe that we are the be all and end all of nature. If we are gone then so too must nature…which is of course total rubbish. No matter what we do to our planet it will continue to be here. It doesnt matter how many nukes go off or how much carbon dioxide we emit…it will adapt and overcome. Sure it will be a different form and our impact will be noticable. But it will still be there and will regenrate.

It remains interesting to me that we dont utilise things like hemp more. Easy to grow and massively beneficial in its output….almost like its there to be used. Thinking in a more cohesive manner with the environment just makes far more sense. Surely a symbiotic relationship is far more beneficial to all than a parasitic one.

Heres a shot of Plettenberg Bay central beach that will help remind us why we are here…as custodians. How far do we push it? Wonder what our score will be at the end of it all?

get paid to host your pics

i found this great site which pays you to host images on their server...ok so its will take ages to make anything but it free and if you get enough traffic you may make some decent cash

link here...sign takes about a minute

http://www.shareapic.net/ref.php?owner=liam@xnets.co.za