Vetchies Reef

comment by Anonymous, 2009-02-27 12:46:35

sick spot
surfed vechies a number of times over the years some small days some larger days but when its breaking right u can be inside almost all the way to the beach i remember even wiping out and snapping my board on the rocks cos the tide was too low. i aslso remember getting cut up a few times on the rocks ;)but it was all worth it for the wave

comment by Anonymous, 2008-02-03 11:17:58

Big swell 1990 and a Shark story
Back in 1990, I surfed it on a really Big Swell when New pier, North and the rest were just to big. It was 4-6 feet on the reef and barreling as fast as you could gun. A cyclone swell that got hit by a strong South Westerly. Epic session, guys were getting 5 or 6 barrels on one wave. Paddling out was like looking at something from a surfing cartoon, 5 six foot waves from a set with guys sitting in the barrel and then 5 four ft waves with guys in the barrel. It was way to crowded, at least 100 people across the reef and you had to wait 20 minutes for waves but it was super consistant with 4 ft waves constantly running down the reef...The fate of vetchies...well they are widening the harbour at this very minute which means that it has to be double the size to hit th reef. So one freak swell every 20 years that will reach 3 - 4 ft.

Another story. When I was a kid, about 14 yrs old, a mate and I were snorkelling out near the block and we saw a great white, about 5 metres long cruising in the deep water, following the reef. He did not seem interested in us and was about 20 metres away. We panacked and swam as fast as we could. It was low tide and we went onto dry reef and walkd to shore along the rocks...I guess when you are surfing there, you need to tell yourself that 5 metre monsters are not in the break zone. Remember Vetchies is next to South pier which has Natal's biggest great white colony.

comment by Anonymous, 2008-01-05 08:09:27

70's Kneeboarder
I used to ride this spot with my kneeboard circa mid 70s, early 80s. I'm in my 50s now and haven't surfed for 8 years and am living faraway, but Vetchies brings back memories and it will be hard to imagine it won't be there soon. With my kneeboard I was out there on my own many times more than most even having a stingray flopping out of the sea just an arms length away. When the surf was small it took some effort to cut back into the next break (multiple breaks on the reefs and scraping the rocky reef below with the bottom of my board), but it added to the fun. I still believe that when it worked it was the best break on the Durban beach front.