The South African championships in surf lifesaving took place last week at Kings Beach, Nelson Mandela Bay, near the Eastern Cape city of Gqeberha (Port Elisabeth).
I've mentioned before that participation in surf lifesaving is a cultural staple in South African beach communities including Fish Hoek, where I was back in January. It's also popular in Australia and New Zealand, and I believe it's no coincidence that these nations are the cream of the global crop in ocean sports like surfski racing. My coaches during the camp I attended in January, Dawid and Jasper Mocke, are both many-time medalists in surf lifesaving competition, and their children are well on their way to distinguished careers of their own. Dawid, who served as the venue announcer at the South African championships, appears in the video below.
In the video, you'll see athletes running both on the sand and into the surf, swimming, paddling surfskis, and competing on boards. It's not hard to see how a kid who starts surf lifesaving before age ten develops a Herculean cardiopulmonary capacity by his late teens. I thought about that a lot as I was gasping for breath on the Miller's Run back in January.
I'll point out one more detail: each surf lifesaving club has its own color scheme for the caps that the athletes wear. Those are Fish Hoek caps in the thumbnail image for the video.
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