ed,

Some photos from a great 2 week road trip from Jeffrey’s Bay up through the Transkei (Wild Coast) and Durban and back down through East London returning to J Bay for the Billabong Pro....

Had met my Japanese buddy Naoki surfing Supertubes about a month ago, and we hooked up for this road trip. We headed north of J Bay about 9 hours and stayed in Coffee Bay in the Transkei region of South Africa...such a mellow rural relaxed place...ended up getting stuck there for a week because of its magical mellowness and natural beauty...surfed some fun beach and point breaks. Even though it wasn’t firing, we had a lot of fun as we were usually the only two out despite this area being known for being quite sharky.....

After a week of chillin in the Transkei, Naoki and I headed about 6 hours north to Durban and just walked in to the week of the Mr. Price Pro.....good and bad....bad cuz of the contest circus and crowds, but good cuz it was a great week of partying and meeting a lot of the pros who are considerably more down to earth than the high profile pros in the US...partied with Twiggy and quite a few others around town...I think I wore Naoki out so hopefully he made it to Bali and is hanging with you Indo style now....

Stopped over in E. London about 4 hours north of Jbay on the way back down and caught a premier right hander called Nahoon reef with minimal crowds....turns out this place is pretty sharky as it's a reef that sits right next to pretty deep water and sharks seem to like swimming around the reef....found out it is even more sharky now cuz of the Sardine run up the coast now....got it pretty good though and all arms and legs intact....will send another batch of photos from a crazy week at the Billabong Pro here in J Bay... Tony

Hey Tony, I did meet Naoki yesterday. I was in my room at Suka with the door open showing some photos and I the corner of my eye there's a Japanese standing at my door. I knew it was him! Anyway, he came out for Sushi with me and the crew. He's off to G Land today and will be back in a week so we'll meet up again then..... Eddie