Meet the Palmbooms
Tim Conibear enjoys a mid-week session at the Bluff in Durban, with no-one for company but the Palmbooms, South Africa’s first family of surf.
More like this...
“Don’t you want to come surf with me? I’m sure I just saw something.”
We’re sitting on the grass overlooking the beachbreak at Anstey’s in Durban, watching a solid south swell unload onto the shallow outer sandbars. The deep ground swell has bought with it the brown water from the rivers to the south and left the lineup looking an intimidating, gurgling sand-churned mess. All things considered it’s not the most appealing of invitations but the invite is from Rudy Palmboom Jnr. We’re sitting with Rudy Palmboom Snr., and there’s nobody in the water. Besides – how can you refuse the chance to surf solid Anstey’s with only the Palmboom’s for company? We shrug and accept our fate. We’re going surfing.
The Palmbooms are one of South Africa’s most well respected and renowned surfing families. Rudy Snr. carved himself a reputation in the ’80s riding the infamous barrels of Cave Rock, no matter what size and often alone. Together with wife Tash he runs the Anstey’s backpackers on the Bluff, a stronghold for surfing in Durban and an area where surfing pedigree is passed with pride from generation to generation. Rudy Jnr. is currently one of several young South African’s tipped to make the big time of the ‘CT and is now touring the WQS whilst younger sister Heidi is one of South Africa’s most promising girl surfers for the next generation. In short, the Palmbooms rule Durban, and when you get the invite, you surf with them.
We walk back to the house to grab some boards. The floor of the garage is strewn with bits of broken board, pots of Rudi’s own brand ding repair kits, sponsor stickers and labels. In the corner is a rack dominated with thickly glassed big wave guns from Rudi’s big wave Africa days – which haven’t come to an end, seeing as he still receives invites to this day. But today he grabs a little 6,0 fish, his son’s pro model. He holds it with pride as we walk down the beach, chatting idly about the lazy morning that has bought the four of us to the water’s edge, mid-day on a weekday. “Hard life, eh?” grins Rudi Snr. as he hops the shorebreak and heads for the outside.
In the time it takes me to snag one OK right, both Rudi’s have had three or four waves a-piece and have taken them apart. They don’t paddle around us, there is no hassling – they just know the place backwards and surf with total commitment. Rudi Jnr.’s surfing is fast and fluid, filled with new-school airs and slides and old-school gouges and hacks, but it is Rudi Snr’s total commitment that is truly impressive. At fifty years of age he surfs as hard and as fast as anyone in Durban and you can guarantee that when the sets come that see everyone scratching for the outside, it’ll be Rudi Snr. paddling hard for the peak, eager to launch himself over the edge with no fear of the consequences. Sometimes he gets swallowed only to surface with a grin – other times he comes flying over the back with nonchalant ease.
As we wait out between sets he tells me of the epic East swell that hit Durban two weeks ago, one that saw the New Pier heaving at ten feet sending the tow teams into action. Rudi was down there early in the morning, sitting on the pier checking the waves, eating a Wimpy, weighing it up. As the huge peaks crashed down, engulfing the four-metre high pier as thumping barrels imploded upon themselves over the churning sandbar, Rudi was heard to say, “Looks fun, eh? Might just go for a paddle.”
Grabbing his board he made the paddle from the beach rather than jumping the pier, (he is afraid of heights) pulled into the heaviest barrels of the day (view the link below), then jumped back into his blue Toyota pickup and cruised back over the Bluff and home. No fuss or fanfare – just another surf.
Sharing waves with two of South Africa’s top surfers, at their home break on a fairly good day, I am immediately struck by how humble they are. Both Rudi Snr. and Jnr. have competed at the very top of the surfing ladder and command respect from any surfer, local or visitor alike. But the more we surf, and the more we chat, the more at home we are made to feel. There is no bravado, no competitiveness, just the out and out joy of surfing in the middle of a weekday with nobody but ourselves for company. In the majority of cases when I have been in the water with top surfers, they come across as jaded, angry and somewhat aggressive. But today we are extended nothing but courtesy and good grace, which goes a long way to explaining the huge respect the Palmbooms command on the Bluff.
I leave the water exhausted after a solid two-hour surf and watch as the Rudi’s stay in for another hour or so. As impressive as it is to watch Rudi Jnr. surf I am truly blown away by Rudi Snr.’s surfing. The energy and enthusiasm he holds for surfing and the ocean are infectious. At the age of fifty, he still surfs as fast and as hard as anybody in the water but his commitment and dedication is simple and pure. He just really seems to enjoy going surfing.
If you get to hang out with the Palmbooms you’ll see what I mean. Sitting on the balcony at the backpackers they built, looking out over the waves that have bought them what they deserve, you get an idea of what is possible with honesty, dedication and humility.
Subscribe to HUCK for six issues
Only £20 (UK) / £43 (EU) / £58 (Rest of the World).
Meet the Palmbooms (text) by Tim Conibear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Add Your Comment...
Please note: Your comment may be held in moderation for approval by an administrator to prevent spamming. This usually doesn't take long, please be patient.