Muizenberg beach in Cape Town became the unofficial home of the Guinness World Record for the ‘Most surfers standing on a single wave’ on Sunday 17th September when 73 surfers caught and rode the same wave. The official record stands at 44 set by the Lahinch Surf Club in Ireland in May while a claim of 53 has been submitted from Bali.

“We’re ecstatic! It was unbelievable!” said Dene Botha whose Kahuna Surfing Academy organised the GWR attempt. “We expected around 200 local surfers to participate and 349 registered which stretched our organizational capacity to its limits,” he explained. “We made six attempts in an hour and also registered 69, 68 and 64 on the three other waves.”

The GWR attempt was held in conjunction with a debate on the shark situation around the Cape Peninsula attended by well over 100 people. The recently published Draft Shark Safety Strategy that the local authorities will implement over the next five years was presented and a number of speakers expressed concern over the escalating number of interactions between sharks and humans in the area over the past five years.

The entire initiative was designed to highlight the shark situation and raise funds for the non profit Shark Spotters organisation that will form the core of the city’s strategy to be proactive in ensuring the safety of ocean users while simultaneously maintaining the ecological balance.

Further information on the record attempt and shark debate can be obtained from the Kahuna Surfing Academy at {encode=”[email protected] ” title=”[email protected] “}or go to www.kahunasurf.co.za for more info.