When watching the swell break on Cape Town’s beaches this winter, you will see more surfers waiting for the perfect wave than contestants in Cape Town’s Got Talent. Among them, the De Castro brothers—20-year-old John and 19-year-old Noble—protégé’s of Gary Kleyhans , owner of Gary’s Surfschool in Muizenberg.
The De Castro brothers are not the only ones who grew from underprivileged schoolboys to professional surfers. For the past eight years former South African surfing champion Gary Kleynhans and his team of volunteers have provided kids from the poor townships around Cape Town with a chance to become professional surfers. At the South African Longboard Championships in April, six of Gary’s surfers made it into the competition.
“Everybody should be able to surf,” says Gary when he just comes out of the water, smiling after hitting some waves. “I’m more than willing to help those who can’t afford the board, wetsuit and lessons.” The open minded Gary tells the story behind his charity project, while joking with his staff of mainly foreign volunteers. “Some eight years ago a young black kid came to me in the shop, because he wanted to surf. Without money to buy, or even rent, the equipment, I made him a deal: If you come here every day to surf you can use everything you need from the shop, mahala. And so this 11-year-old kid, Kwezi Qika (19), came every day and look what has become of him: he’s the South African junior champion.” After that Gary, who always prefers the water to his desk, got the feeling he could make this kind of achievements with other kids as well.
“Every year I put an announcement on our website (www.garysurf.com) about how schools can sign up and then it’s just: first come, first served. This year we’ve got five classes, each with 10 to 15 kids per group, who visit us once a week for one hour of surf lessons. Even though the kids range very much in age – from 10 to 18 – they all enjoy the project very much. Within the past eight years, we only had two quitters”, says Gary proudly while laidback zipping on his cup of tea. “We teach the kids things like life and computer skills, discipline and respect and therefore ask commitment, dedication and motivation.” Although Gary is still passionate about surfing, he is not running a handout project. “Next to the opportunity to grow into surfing, we are also concerned with the many jobs the surfing industry offers. It’s a project with a view on the future. But the kids have to grab onto these chances themselves.”
“I fell in love with the waves”, John De Castro, born in Angola, explains, “that’s what attracted me to surf every day.” The friendly John, with a distinctive gap between his front teeth, began surfing some six years ago as a part of the Extreme Surfschool project. “Although I lived close to the ocean (he moved to Muizenberg in 1996), I never got the chance to get up on a surfboard and learn how to surf. But when I was 14, my school class entered the project Gary started and so I had an opportunity to catch a wave for the first time in my live.” John –tired- just finished a two hour surf session and together with his younger brother, who are both already teaching tourists and new township kids the skills of surfing through Gary’s school, explains what they’ve learned over the past years. “Surfing has kept me out of trouble, it showed me the rest of the world through competitions and I’ve met a whole lot of different people”, John explains. Noble elaborates: “We motivated and supported each other all the way. Everything in my life is connected to surfing and the project taught me how to run a business and how to be a responsible person.”
After six years Gary decided it was time to professionalise the Extreme Surfschool project. “At first we actually just operated under the flag of Gary’s Surfschool, but since two years the Extreme Surfschool is an independent NGO.” Until the Extreme Surfschool starts to make enough money, Gary needs to pay for it out of his own pocket. “If it was up to me I would let as much underprivileged kids surf as possible, but I’ve also got a surf school to run. Going broke doing charity isn’t the right way.” Therefore the cheerful Gary is making plans for the future and wants to sell the concept of the project abroad. “If we want to take the Extreme Surfschool to the next level, we need to have more funding so we can employ the kids who learned their skills here. That way we create job opportunities and make the project self sustainable and self growing. We need to look at the bigger picture of sport; not only as a physical, but also a mental stimulation”, he says while daydreaming away with the thought.
Two boys, 13-year-old Ourwin and the 14-year-old Wayne, both from the Lynedoch Primary School near Stellenbosch, just got their wetsuits on and with a board under their arm run towards the ocean. After an hour during lesson he screams: “The water is cold! But I will keep on training, it’s so much fun.” Ourwin agrees with him; for him all other sports are actually boring. “Surfing is so cool! It’s fun to be on the board in the water, catching a wave. I want to come more often, but it’s a pretty far drive and we can only go once a week”, says Ourwin.
The person who needs to drive them every week is Tracy Brooks, a volunteer from New Zealand who works for the Sustainability Institute Stellenbosch. The institute provides an approach to create a society that lives in a way that sustains the eco-system. Hence the choice to take part in a surf project; there are little sports who let the participants connect to nature like surfing and are still ‘cool’ enough for children.
Tracy saw an amazing growth within the children during the past five lessons. “Some of them couldn’t even swim last year”, she tells surprised, “and now they are really surfing.” She comes to the Extreme Surfschool every Wednesday with about ten kids, grade six to eleven. “When I called Gary in order to enter the project, he told me that we’re welcome on Wednesday’s. I thought he meant the vacation period, but he meant every Wednesday! Now we want to stay in the project for as long as possible.”
In the classroom in Stellenbosch, Tracy made a big board filled with pictures of activities the kids did over the year. Now, pictures of the kids standing on their surfboard for the first time are making it onto the board. Wayne giggles: “All the kids are jealous if they see a picture of somebody else standing on a surfboard.” A positive side-effect of a project which not only keeps these kids off the streets, but also gives them a shared goal for the future: to be a professional surfer. And at Gary and his volunteers of the Extreme Surfschool they are at the right address.
Unfortunately John ‘wiped-out’ during the last Longboard Championships and was therefore knocked out of the competition. His brother made it to the semi-finals for the fourth time in a row. “I’m a surf teacher now, but my dream is to earn my money with professional surfing through a sponsorship”, says John. Next to some ‘lessons in life’, he also tells the kids how to become a professional surfer. “The main thing is to stay focused. Personally, I live for the competitions, so I compete as much as possible. That way you can grow, just like with sitting on the beach watching the experts or watching surf movies.” Noble has a few point he wants to add: “Work hard, don’t play around and go for it!”
Surfing doesn’t have to be as expensive as you might think. The first time you will, of course, rent a wetsuit and a board. They are included in the price if you take an introduction lesson at Gary’s Surfschool, which will cost you R500 (adult) or R400 (child). He therefore gives you the guarantee on his website that ‘class duration is up till 2 hours long or until we get you up and riding’. After that you can either rent you equipment for R100 per day (wetsuit) and another R100 per day for the board. Buying that equipment (second hand) would set you back approximately R1500 to R2000, but of course you can make it as expensive as you want. “If you go surfing every weekend for at least two to three months”, Gary says, “then you will be ready for a follow-up lesson to learn advanced techniques and tricks.”
