The Buyer | Cobus Joubert: how to win my surfboard at New Wave tasting

The New Wave South Africa tasting promises to be an event with a difference. Well you don’t get the chance to win a surfboard at many London tastings. But take part in a blind tasting of 12 wines, including Old, New World and South African classics and you could be walking away with an exclusive board signed by all the winemakers present.

Before you started making surf boards for a living you had a background in wine?

I was born into a wine family and my love for fine wine and people saw me promote and sell premium South African wines and spirits for more than 15 years. Most of my work was done abroad and in particular Europe and the Americas.

What did you enjoy about working in the wine industry?
People, travel, fine food and wine make for one amazing industry to be part of. Big truth for me is that the smart wine grower and winemaker work very closely with nature. A great wine in the glass is always a most pleasant and memorable experience. Nature rules and is deserving of our outmost respect.

This could be you..well the board at least

How have you seen South African wine change over the last few years?

The South African wine industry and its players are happy and in one with who they are, what they want to put in the bottle and how they do it. Wines tend to more often than not strike a perfect balance between wines with a sense of place made in a very individual style. Less formal, a lot more fun and laughter. Tim Atkin MW sums it up nicely and the New Wave event is a good case in study.

What sort of South African wines do you enjoy drinking and why?

Geographically and from a winemaking tradition, we are a Europe outside of Europe. I have always enjoyed the more classic wine style – less wood, fruit freshness made for food. Pinot Noir’s my favourite grape, but I can drink anything really. My favourite tipple by a long shot is our family Muscat that lies hidden underground on our family farm. Sitting in a two hundred year old French barrel, it is kept full using the Solera system and was South Africa’s first 99 Robert Parker rating. Neal Martin’s “drink now – 2100+” says it all for me.

How and why did you make the shift from wine in to making surfboards?

Wawa surfboards are amongst the most sought after in South Africa for their hand crafted, wooden boards

My happiest childhood memories are of us as a family having a blast in and around the surf. A home overlooking a reef break, a deep desire to express my own creativity, surfboard building surfaced quite naturally. Today Wawa Wooden Surfboards is South Africa’s biggest producer of sustainable surf craft and only one doing boards using Karoo agave, cork and bio resin. Materials used in the construction of our boards are mostly local, natural and the boards are hand crafted.

What services do you provide?

We custom shape surfboards, bellyboards, bodyboards, bodysurfing handslides, wooden spearguns, surfboard fins, non-petroleum rubber wetsuits, and pour the best coffee in the surfing town of Muizenberg.

How did you link up with the New Wave project?

Winemakers who surf at the Vintners Surf Classic

Each year we have the Vintners Surf Classic event that takes place in Stilbaai. Each and every South African winemaking surfer show up and share what must be the funnest day on the year calendar. A standout performer and creative, Pieter Walser came up with the concept to bring Ocean Wave into the New Wave event.

What are you looking to do? What’s the concept of the board?

It all starts with the wood…

Much like the process of winemaking, the emphasis was on board crafted by hand, using materials that are locally harvested and natural. Using old school carpentry skills, the board is a functional art piece.

What is the basic process of making a surf board?

The equivalent of a surfboard sandwich

Agave is harvested by Karoo farmers just outside Graaff-Reinet, ripped, dried and then trucked to our factory in Muizenberg. Same light weight as Balsa wood, the three meter agave poles are planked and glued up into flat sheets. The surfboard shape is then cut out of the sheet. A sandwich type of construction is used where a top and bottom agave sheet is glued on top of each other, only separated by an agave stringer, agave ribs and some recycled foam.

Just need to put the logo on…

The core helps the board to maintain it’s structure and form. Once shaped, it is sanded and glassed in a bio resin to seal the wood, add good flex and strength. Wood has memory and amazing flex properties that, upon riding our boards, there is a certain ‘life’ under foot. An ethereal surfing experience surfers understand all too well.

Pride of place in the store…but it ain’t for sale.

There is a big wine surfing community in South Africa, why do you think that is?

Big cool ocean all along our coast full of food, quite a bit of sun most days of the year – and surfing’s what most doctor’s would prescribe.

Best places for you to surf in South Africa?

Winter is the Cape’s surf season. Plenty options in close proximity, I particularly enjoy the less crowded Cape Point Nature Reserve breaks. As I have a busy life, I end up doing quite a bit of bodysurfing to get the most out of a 20min gap.

Which South African winemaker would you choose to surf with if you could?

I will surf with every single one of them. All top notch.

Best South African winemaker surfer in your view

He who has the most fun. Sharing the stoke of surfing, Eben ranks right up there.

What’s the best wine to be drinking on the beach post surfing?
Chenin or Chardonnay to wash the salt down, followed by whatever’s on the table.

Releve

To stand a chance of winning this stunning board you simply have to let your wine tastings skills stand out. Simply taste 12 wines at the tasting, picked from all over the world, including South Africa and the one with the best score or peformance gets to go home (somehow) with the surfboard under your arm. Signed by all the participating winemakers. Who might then ask you to put it up for auction!