(Photo: Matthew Moir on the left and Brad Weare on the right at the SA Team training camp. © Sheppard)

For those of you who don't know I have been fortunate enough to be selected, along with Matthew Moir, as one of the two longboard surfers in the South African surfing team to represent South Africa in the 2010 ISA World Surfing Games in Peru. As the event is just around the corner, the SA team were sent off to Cape Town and the West Coast for a four day training camp. With this being my first time up the West Coast I was blown away by the endless set-ups and breaks on offer, catering both for the shortboarder and longboarder alike. Sometimes when you get stuck in spot for awhile you forget just how fortunate we are to have such an abundance of quality, and often empty, waves along our beautiful coastline. Yes the training camp was hard work but the experience was an awesome one and a great team building effort, while my eyes were definitely open to a region that I would love to spend more time exploring.

Staying with Cape Town, the action is definitely focused on this part of our awesome coastline this week with the Earthwave Beach Festival taking place at Muizenberg. The festival will see hundreds of surfers descending onto the 'Berg to experience all that is on offer, while no doubt also taking part in the Guiness World record attempt for 'the most surfers to ride a single wave.' Also on the cards is a SUP paddle race that takes place along a 'M' shaped course, with reference to 'Muizenberg.' Another draw card is the third event of five on the newly formed SA Longboard Tour, where the title race is still super tight and those wanting to make a move will be eyeing the gentle, rolling waves of Muizenberg with eager anticipation. This festival is sure to be a great celebration of surfing for a very worthy cause and we'll be sure to bring you all the action on SALT Surf Mag.

- Brad Weare

After a three month hiatus, which saw us dealing with a death in the family, another family member's car accident, emergency surgery, World Cup madness, a financial wobble, plenty of traveling all over SA and of course some cooking winter waves, SALT Surf Mag is back online and ready to roll.

During this unscheduled break we used this time to re-evaluate the path we want SALT to take and in doing so have made some major changes to the site. As you probably are all aware one such change was the layout of the site. In keeping with our commitment to publishing a world class online magazine we felt the old layout was not doing justice to the direction we wanted to go in. So for the purpose of this we've given the site a major face lift, allowing it to portray more of a 'magazine feel' with the layout and presentation. In the planning process we also took into consideration all your comments and feedback and the result, we hope, will have you logging on daily to keep up to date with all that's happening in the world of longboarding and the alterantive surf scene.

Over the first few months that SALT Surf Mag was online, we spent a great deal of time evaluating our users movements and choices on the site, seeing what was popular and what was not. From our research we decided to make some changes to the content of the site. We want to publish something that you guys want to view or read, content that is relevant to your world as well as content that you'll find of interest, informative, entertaining and even helpful. So with this in mind out went 'Green Room', 'Wanderlust' and 'Creative', which will now be integrated into 'HighLites' (by the way the spelling of 'HIghLites' is intentional, as 'Lite' refers to the articles being quick, informative reads); and in came 'Fresh Produce', 'Technique' and 'Visuals'.

A quick explanation is required for the new sections. Fresh Produce will be a platform to inform you about any new products, websites, apps, clothing ranges, beverages, restaurants, in fact anything from the longboarding periphery that we think you'll find interesting. Visuals is a section where we bring you all the latest photos, slideshows and styling videos for your viewing pleasure. While Technique will be offering our viewers tips on everything from: choosing your first board for beginners right through to how to hang ten with style for the more advanced logger. 

As SALT Surf Mag is 'South Africa's first and only online longboarding / alternative surf  magazine' we felt that version 1.0 of the website was becoming too saturated with international content. To address this we've kept the majority of the sections now 100% South African content. However, to keep you informed of what's happening on the international scene we've introduced 'Worldwide This Week, which will be bringing you all the latest, relevant news from the last seven days. Visuals will also feature international content as there's some really cool, inspirational stuff happening out there, which should be viewed by us all.

Well that's it for now, hope you like the new look and content. Please sign-up to our weekly newsletter, which will be sent out on a weekly basis this time and remember that all our subscribers will be automatically entered into the giveaways we run on the site. Choon your friends to take a peek and happy surfing.

I'm sure every province has a couple individuals who, even though they may not be directly involved in longboarding, still take the time out to give of their advice or resources. In Durban one such individual is surfer/shaper/coach Clayton Nienaber. Clayton earlier in the year donated three brand new high performance longboards to the KZN trials, just so the youngsters could get off their father's heavy logs and ride boards more suited to their size. This proved a major success with some of the girls and boys riding lighter weight longboards for the first time ever, opening their eyes up to the possibilities longboarding can offer on the right equipment. This was a generous gesture on Clayton's behalf and acts like this never go unnoticed.

Now a couple of weeks later, while the KZN team are hard at work preparing for SA'S, Clayton has once again stepped up to the plate and offered his support to the longboard family. This time he offered to give of his time and conduct a coaching session open to everyone, but aimed more towards the newbies and youngsters who'll be competing in the Champs for the first time. His year's of surfing and coaching experience will no doubt be of valuable assistance to those attending and will be another bonus in KZN's preparation for the big event. Makes you think though - the next time one of the lighties want / need a new longboard I wonder which shaper they just might be ordering from. Big up Clayton!

Photo: Clayton presents Brendan Callaghan and the KZN girls with the new longboards. © Beverly-Jean

With just over a month until the 2010 South African Longboard Champs the countdown to this epic event has truly begun. By now most of the provinces will be in the latter stages of team selection. We know the KZN team has been selected and the Southern Cape guys have held their last trials, but still no word from the Western Province or Eastern Province guys. Perhaps this is intentional, a tatic if you like, to keep the rest of us guessing until the opening function.

With the pre-hype umongst the competitors for an important event of this magnitude the rumour mill will enevitably always rear its head. There has been talk amongst a few competitors that the hosts Eastern Province may have a trick or two up their sleeve regarding the venue. We know that Seal Point is the venue that has been publisiced, and we know that there's been a dispute with the powers that be about using Seal Point as a venue for the full six days. We're not too sure what the outcome of the dispute is but the other option for the hosts is to move the event to is Hulletts. Now the rumour that is going around is that even if permission is granted to use Seal Point for the full six days don't bank on surfing there the full six days. But like we said this is just a rumour going round but it's still good to know for preperation purposes.

Hopefull this year's event will score classic surf like last year, regardless of where the hosts choose to surf. There's going to be plenty of action both in and out of the water so all that's left to be said is train hard, get your boards together, book your accommodation and lets all have a jol.

Photo: KZN's Mike Patterson perfecting his technic for SA's © Al Nicoll

The last three days in Durban have experienced something that us surfers have been waiting patiently for since winter ended a good few months ago. Yes that's right the land breezes have started to trickle through here since Sunday, which signifies that we've seen the tail end of Summer while we eagerly await Autumn with open arms, ready to embrace it as if some long lost brother. There's something special about the east coast of South African during Autumn and Winter as you're guaranteed perfect conditions almost everyday. Throw in some swell and the surf spots along this region almost always delivers epic waves.

We know the Cape Town crew have been scoring some sick surf this Summer, and we're stoked for them, but along the East coast we've had an onslaught of onshore winds generally from sun-up to sun-down. The results have been nothing short of unspectacular bar the odd good day in between. Lets hope this Autumn and Winter delivers for the whole of the SA coastline so that we're all surfed out, mellow and in good spirits for months on end. Can't wait!

Hugh Thompson's 'Beer and Longboard' evening last Thursday night was a chilled and relaxed vibe with around 25 people enjoying some drinks and snacks provided by Natural Curve Surf Shop. Hugh gave everyone a personal tour of the new shop and factory and lets say looks can be deceiving. From the outside the building (built in 1902) doesn't look too big, but when you go through to the back and upstairs you realize that Hugh has quite a setup going. We wish Hugh and his team all the best with the new premises and if you are looking to get a surfboard or longboard from Hugh then checkout www.naturalcurve.co.za for all the details.

Photos © Matt Lamont

Well we've officially been launched for just over ten days now and the response had been amazing. We've received such positive feedback from surfers all over the country, which is really encouraging. We would also like to thank everyone who has given us input and suggestions and some of them we will definitely be implementing.

The SALT Magazine FACEBOOK page is was set up about four days ago and we already have over 230 friends from all over the world who have signed-up to it. We've even had some big international longboard stars like current ASP World Longboard Champion, Harley Ingelby, US Champion, Taylor Jensen, and Hawaiian hotshot, Kai Sallas, join the group. So what are you waiting for - sign-up now!

Don't forget to enter our Cloudnine t-shirt competition by signing-up to our weekly newsletter. You better hurry because the competition closes on the 31 March 2010. Finally we'd like to make a call here for submissions from anyone of you out there. SALT Magazine was set-up as a platform to not only promote longboarding and the alternative side to surfing but also to be a place where established or up-and-coming creatives could have their work published. So whether you are an atist, designer, photographer, writer, musician or whatever, if you would like to have your work published and seen by our ever-increasing number of viewers then please submit to us. Also if you have any friends who you think should have their work featured then please 'choon' them about the site.

It's a great honor and absolute pleasure in welcoming you to South Africa's first and only dedicated longboarding magazine. I'm sure a whole lot of you out there feel the same way as we do in saying that this is a long time coming for the South African longboarding community and that it's "about bloody time."

The main reason we launched this magazine is because longboard surfing and other forms of alternative wave riding (SUP's, the post-modern movement etc) have such a healthy following in this country yet no real voice or platform for which to expose the riders, personalities, events, equipment and other fringe elements linked to the sport. To be honest, coverage of longboard surfing in the few publications we have here in South Africa is dismal to say the least.

What some of these publications and a good majority of marketing managers for the big surf brands don't realize is that longboarding and the alternative surf movements are no longer a small part of the bigger picture but rather they have become an integral part of the bigger picture. One only needs to view surf trends in countries like the US, Australia, France, the UK and Brazil or get their hands on the global sales figures of surfboards to see just how popular longboard surfing has become, and South Africa is no exception. So with this in mind, and a wide open gap in the market, we feel that the launch of SALT Magazine is something way over due and big a step in the right direction for the longboarding community.

What's in a name? Well for any publication the brand name is obviously very important. It gives the publication its identity and allows you to easily distinguish it from the myriad of other titles and websites out there. For this magazine we chose SALT as the brand name for a number of reasons. It's short and catchy, making it easy to remember, it's original in its context but most importantly it encompasses everything this magazine is about. Without the obvious references to 'salt water', 'sea salt' or 'salt of the earth' the brand name represents the four fundamental elements of the magazine; namely: Style, Artistic Expression (both in and out of the water), the longboarding Lifestyle, and Travel.

'Style' because longboarders are generally a stylish bunch both in and out of the water. From the surfers of the 50s and 60s to a whole new generation of individuals taking the sport to the next level, style has always been a key factor that has filtered through to areas such as movies, fashion and even pop culture to some degree, something which we will be reflecting through this magazine.

'Artistic expression' because longboarding is a complex, highly creative form of wave riding with this creativity often spilling over into other endeavors such as art, music, design, cinematography and other outlets. Our aim is to highlight these creative outlets of the surfers and introduce their work to a wider audience and enlighten our readers to what is happening out there.

The longboarding 'Lifestyle' because this is essentially what the magazine is about, this form of wave riding that we're so passionate about, the individuals that make the sport so interesting, the lifestyle that keeps us fit, healthy and happy, the boards that make the sport so accessible to many, the speed, the glide and the flow that keeps us hooked now and for years to come.

And finally 'Travel'. As part of the surfing tribe we are a nomadic bunch, seeking new waves, new destinations and new adventures, returning to favourite haunts that are immersed in memories of good sessions, friends and good times, taking to the road whether it be in search of trophies and titles or an empty, perfect line-up.

It also dawned on us what a perfect name SALT is for this publication when we came to realize that it might also stand for 'South African Longboarding Tabloid' or 'Surf A Longboard Today'. I'm sure many of you out there can probably come up with some slightly more colourful interpretations of the acronym but for the purpose of this publication SALT stands for all three of the above mentioned.

There are three reasons why we've chosen to launch SALT Magazine on a digital platform. Firstly, in these uncertain economic times and the way the media industry is evolving a decision to make this a digital publication, we believe, is the right one. Going digital greatly reduces our overheads and the risks involved in launching a new magazine, plus it allows us to do things that are simply not possible with a print magazine. Secondly, by going digital we have the potential to reach a far greater audience both in South Africa and internationally which is inline with our aims to promote the sport of longboarding and the South African longboarding community. Plus this also gives our advertisers more bang for their buck, which obviously makes sound business sense. Thirdly, by choosing this platform we eliminate the need for printing on paper which greatly reduce our carbon footprint. By going this route we are truly South Africa's most environmentally friendly surf magazine.

Finally SALT Magazine is a reflection of your world that I hope will attract more groms to the sport, inspire the older crew to keep at it, keep the devotees entertained and informed but most importantly keep the stoke alive. We have some big plans for this publication so please keep logging on and keep on logging.

Until next time.