Shaun Tomson
1955 · Durban
1977 World Champion
The man who taught the world to stand tall and deep. Author of Surfer's Code. Still paddles out.
Proudly South African · Made in ZA
Built at the bottom of Africa, for the world.
The Ocean Within is a South African made platform. We back our local legends and our local brands first, the shapers, the surfwear houses, the photographers, the lifeguards, the breakfast spots above the point. Everything else comes after.
Local firstWorld secondTwo world champions and countingOne Olympic medal
The Gunston 500 · 1969, Today
Africa's first pro contest. The heartbeat of Durban.
In 1969 a tobacco company put up R500 in prize money for a surf contest at North Beach. It was one of the first professional surfing events on the planet, predating the Pipe Masters by two years, and the first ever staged in Africa. For three decades the Gunston 500 was the contest South African groms grew up dreaming about.
Over its run it was won by Shaun Tomson, Martin Potter, Tom Carroll, Tom Curren, Mark Occhilupo and Kelly Slater. It evolved into the Mr Price Pro and now the Ballito Pro just up the coast, but for anyone who surfed in SA before the millennium, the Gunston is still the contest. New Pier in winter. Crowd ten-deep on the promenade. Currie cup of surfing.
The Lineage
- 1960s
First tracks, first boards
Surfing arrives properly on the Natal coast. Baron Stander, Max Wetteland and a small Durban crew start shaping locally, Safari Surfboards, Spider Surfboards. The Bay of Plenty becomes the country's first true proving ground.
- 1969
Bruce Brown finds Bruce's Beauties
Cape St Francis appears in The Endless Summer as the perfect wave. Within a season, the search shifts a few kilometres up the coast, to a long, sand-bottom right at Jeffreys Bay.
- 1969
Gunston 500 is born
Staged at North Beach, Durban, the first professional surfing event on African soil and one of the first paid contests anywhere. It will run continuously for over three decades and become the heartbeat of SA surfing.
- 1977
Shaun Tomson, World Champion
Durban's own takes the IPS World Title. The barrel-riding template he writes at Off The Wall in 1975 redefines tube riding for the entire sport.
- 1984
Supertubes goes global
J-Bay's Supertubes joins the world tour. Tom Curren's 1992 free-surf with Occy is still considered one of the most beautiful sessions ever filmed there.
- 1989
Martin 'Pottz' Potter, World Champion
Raised in Durban, Potter wins the ASP title with airs that were five years ahead of the sport. The blueprint for progressive surfing.
- 2010
Jordy Smith arrives at the top
Durban's Jordy finishes World #2, the highest finish by an SA surfer in a generation. Power surfing, reimagined for the air era.
- 2017
Filipe vs Slater vs the white shark
The J-Bay Open writes itself into surf history twice, Mick Fanning's 2015 escape, then years of finals that prove Supertubes is still the most honest contest wave on tour.
Local Legends
Martin 'Pottz' Potter
1965 · Durban
1989 World Champion
First surfer to truly take to the air on tour. A goofy-footer with a backhand attack invented in the Bay of Plenty shorebreak.
Jordy Smith
1988 · Durban
2× World #2 · J-Bay Open Champion
Six-foot-three of pure power. The closest South Africa has come to a third world title in the modern era.
Mikey February
1993 · Kommetjie
Style icon · CT 2018
The smoothest set of rails in modern surfing. First Black South African on the Championship Tour.
Bianca Buitendag
1993 · Victoria Bay
Olympic Silver · Tokyo 2020
Quiet, classic, devastating on a forehand carve. Brought home SA's first Olympic surfing medal.
Frankie Oberholzer
Warner Beach · KZN South Coast
Free-surf folk hero
Warner Beach born and raised on the KZN south coast. A lifetime spent hunting heavy, out-of-the-way reefs and slabs up and down the South African coastline, chasing the wave rather than the tour.
The Points That Made Us
Jeffreys Bay, Supertubes
Eastern Cape
World-class right point · sand over reef
The metronome. From Boneyards through Supertubes to Impossibles, when it links, it's a 300-metre, four-section masterpiece.
Cape St Francis, Bruce's Beauties
Eastern Cape
Right-hand point
The wave that started the search. Less consistent now than in '64, but on its day, still the perfect wave Bruce Brown promised.
Dungeons
Hout Bay, Cape Town
Big-wave outer reef · 20 to 60 ft
Cold, sharky, deep-water Atlantic giant. The Red Bull Big Wave Africa proving ground. Twiggy Baker country.
Crayfish Factory
Cape Peninsula
Heavy left reef
A wave most pros don't paddle out at without a long talk to themselves first.
Cave Rock
Bluff, Durban
Square slab right
South Africa's heaviest barrel. Where Durban kids learn what 'committed' actually means.
New Pier
North Beach, Durban
A-frame beach break
Home of the Gunston. The most contested 100 metres of sand in SA, where every world champion South African cut their teeth.
Local brands ride first.
The Ocean Within gives priority placement to South African shapers, surfwear, photographers and contest organisers before any international brand. If you are building something real on this coast, we want to hear from you.