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CAPE TOWN: GOING SOUTH

An exciting photo shoot in Cape Town, with the talented North Windsurfing Team, what could possibly go wrong? JC reveals how it all went south, on a mission he won’t forget for all the wrong reasons…

Words: John Carter // Photos: John Carter

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BACK ON THE ROAD

Looking back to November 2021, the world was nearing the end of the worst of the Covid pandemic. People were finally being allowed to travel, as long as they had negative tests and the correct jabs! Finally, it looked like windsurf travel and photo shoots were possible, after a period of uncertain times. I was lucky enough to be invited on a trip to shoot the new North Windsurfing wave and slalom sails in Cape Town and I was looking forward to getting back on the road again. However, Omicron provided one final sting in the tail, which I definitely was not expecting. More about that later…

MISSION ON

I arrived in the morning in Cape Town after a direct flight with British Airways for a ten-day shoot, Pieter Bijl was at the airport to pick me up and take me to the house to meet up with the rest of the team in Milnerton. Everything was in place for an epic mission. We were given a brief that the brand wanted something different from the shots and video, and made a plan to head down to Cape Point that afternoon to find some unusual locations. I was sharing a ride with talented filmmaker and sailor, Adam Sims, and we exchanged all sorts of plans and ideas en route to the Point. We were both upbeat as we were about to kick off the photo shoot. It had been a long time since I had been to South Africa, and the wild scenery of the Cape brought the memories of this awesome coastline flooding back. Adam had an idea of hitting Dias Beach close to Cape Point to film lifestyle before we got stuck into some action at Platboom for the evening session. I kind of wanted to go straight into the action, but knowing Adam is a Cape Town regular, maybe he had a few tricks up his sleeve and this would be an awesome location.

CAPE POINT

Little did we know Adam’s remote beach involved walking about 2km down steep steps all the way to the water. It was a mission with all the kit, but boy was it worth it. We were the only ones on this secluded beach surrounded by giant cliffs and pounding waves. The wind was pretty light and cross onshore, but Antoine Martin was adamant that it was sailable. I am pretty sure that nobody has ever windsurfed at this beach before. It was very light getting off the beach, but once Antoine had made it out on the water, he was soon in the thick of some pretty heavy duty waves, which featured a bone crunching shore dump thrown in for good measure. Antoine toyed with the conditions for about an hour before finally throwing in the towel. The scenery was breathtaking and we had started the shoot well with some interesting images.

PLATBOOM

Around 6pm we rolled into Platboom Beach to be greeted by thirty knot winds and half mast high ramps. It was radical conditions, so when you throw Antoine Martin into the mix, you have the perfect combination as he is well known for going big on port tack and he did not disappoint. I have shot in some pretty windy conditions in my time, but with gusts well over thirty knots and sand blowing so hard that it was stinging your legs, this was tricky. When Antoine hit the right ramp, he was boosting some rocket airs and flying way above the horizon.

Peter Bijl and Tristan Algret also hit the water, but by the end of the session it just felt like survival conditions. Once again, we were the only ones at the beach with crazy wind and sand flying everywhere, it really felt like we were out in the wild.

PLAN

That night back at the team house we regrouped and checked the forecast for the following days. It looked like we had just experienced the windiest day for a while, at least until the pattern set in again in a few days time. While we were making plans a text pinged up on my phone from a friend from the UK mentioning something about a new Omicron variant, but with a few icy colds inside me, I didn’t take too much notice. The crew seemed to reckon that there would still be plenty of wind for another day further east on the next peninsula from the Cape, in an area known as Silver Sands, so a plan was hatched to head down at first light to catch the wind. I have never been down that way before, so I was intrigued to check out this new location. That evening the news was all about cases of Omicron in South Africa creating a major panic worldwide. At that point, we were all hoping it would just blow over in a few days, but by the next morning the UK had put Cape Town on their red list and many flights to and from Africa were being cancelled.

EARLY START

There was not much we could do about this at the time, so the shoot went ahead as planned. The next morning, we were up at 5am, and a few hours later were heading along Clarence Drive towards Silver Sands, where the offshore winds were absolutely nuclear. Out on the water the gusts were giving that full smoke on the water effect with the sea awash with white caps. As we rounded the point, just past Pringle Bay, the wind was now side-shore at Silver Sands. We climbed over the sand dunes to check the conditions and it was just totally manic with winds gusting in the region of forty to fifty knots. Antoine was not sure if he had a small enough sail to handle the conditions and looked kind of nervous, as he would most likely have to sail alone. Meanwhile, more news was filtering through about Omicron. Despite relative calm, and no lockdowns in South Africa, the rest of the world were taking this situation far more seriously, and more and more flights were getting cancelled by the hour. The word was that we may be finishing the shoot in the next couple of days, to make sure we could all get home safely for Christmas.

In the meantime, Antoine rigged up the smallest sail on hand and decided to give it a go at Silver Sands. The wind was forecast to drop off as the day progressed, but I was keen to shoot the windiest action, especially with Antoine looking to make an impact on the water with his new North Sails. At first it looked like he was struggling to even sail in a straight line, but after a couple of bail outs and long swims, Antoine started to find his rhythm on the water and was throwing down some proper rocket airs. Once again it was hard to hold the camera steady in the raging winds, but I managed to find some shelter behind some rocks and was able to shoot the extreme conditions. As the day panned out the wind started to drop to a more manageable thirty knots and there were some decent waves lining up for the team to rip apart.

EVACUATE

That evening, the call was made to end the shoot early and we were all scrambling to arrange Covid tests, while trying to find any flight out that could get us home. As if things weren’t bad enough already, the UK imposed tighter restrictions than most other countries, meaning that for me to return, I would also have to spend a further ten days in quarantine upon arrival in a hotel straight from the airport. At my own expense of course… great… things were going from bad to worse. We managed to organise a lady to come and perform all the Covid tests at the house and all was going well until my test came back… yep you guessed it… positive. So, from that point on I was now having to isolate from the rest of the crew, plus on top of that I wouldn’t be allowed to go home until I had a clear test and had coordinated a flight together with the airport hotel in the UK. This was fast turning into a nightmare!

Two days later, the whole crew had managed to get flights home, while I had to isolate, in the now eerily empty team house. It all felt kind of surreal, not to mention scary, suddenly I was all alone in Cape Town, not knowing when, or how, I would be going home. Fortunately, Adam Sims had planned to stay all winter, no matter what, and was on hand to bring me food and supplies. Ironically, I felt totally fine despite the positive test, which made the situation feel even more ridiculous – you honestly couldn’t have scripted these turn of events. The days passed by extremely slowly, stuck in the house on my own, but thankfully I eventually received the negative test I so desperately needed and desired. However, I still had to complete the extra days needed before I was ‘fit to fly’. I must say it felt incredible when I was finally given the all clear and I was one step closer to flying home. The next hurdle was trying to find a flight and then book a quarantine hotel to tally up with my arrival. There were so many people trying to get back for Christmas that the flights and quarantine hotels were completely full… and to make matters worse, the hotel alone was going to cost an eye-watering £2,200! At this point I didn’t care though, I simply wanted to be able to return home!

Eventually, after spending days on the computer, the stars finally aligned and I was able to secure my flight home along with the appropriate quarantine hotel… not that it really felt appropriate to me to be spending that much money to be stuck inside a grimy airport hotel for 10 days, but needs must! After more tedious form filling at the airport, I was finally allowed to board a special flight supplied by British Airways to repatriate people to the UK during this debacle. Weirdly enough, life in Cape Town seemed to be ticking along quite normally, and despite plenty of cases, there didn’t seem to be many people getting particularly ill beyond a normal cold. I was leaving glorious sunshine and an epic forecast behind… heading back to the UK to be locked in a hotel room for ten days. Gulp. Looking back, nothing much made sense at this time.

HOME

Back in the UK, our flight was taken to a separate immigration area at Heathrow Airport, and after yet more paperwork, all the passengers were finally herded onto a coach and taken to our hotel. To cut a long story short, I then spent the next ten days pretty much locked in the hotel room, only being allowed out for about fifteen minutes a day for some fresh air and exercise. My meals were delivered in a paper bag, which were dropped outside my door and I still had to pass three more Covid tests before finally being allowed to return home, which was eventually on the 22nd December! Looking back, it was a crazy trip and a surreal time in all of our lives. What was supposed to be an epic shoot for a new brand, was cut so short, but we did at least manage to shoot a few days of memorable action, in more ways than one! Adam Sims was my saviour in Cape Town, dropping round the food, and shhh… the beer  (mum’s the word) deliveries and I can’t thank him enough for helping keep me sane during my isolation!