Ronald's Blog

The week I've been looking forward to all holiday have finally arrived - To spend a week with my family and some family friends in the Timbavati Game Reserve.  We decided up front, to spend 1 night in the Kruger National Park, at Lower Sabie to ease the drive to Timbavati. Therefore, we would have to drive to Komatipoort. But in order for us to get to Komatipoort - or at least, to make the drive fairly shorter, we decided to take the route through Swaziland.  Our bags were packed, got our passports ready, paper work done and we were ready to hit the road. 5am, we were on the N2 North Bound in my dad's new Toyota Fortuner! We drove for about 3 and a half hours till we stopped at a service station near Hluhluwe for Petrol and something to eat at the Steers. We also met up with our family friends whom we'll be joining in the Kruger and Timbavati. About another hour's drive further, we finally reached the Swaziland border. From previous experience, we have learned ...

How Bodyboarding Changed my Life.  #Learning. Fast forward to May 2008.  A year of learning, being taught and experiencing things have passed since I’ve been introduced to the sport. It involves many good and bad memories (mostly good).  I was still a complete kook, barely knew how to “bottom turn” on a wave but nevertheless I had fun and I was hooked. It definitely was harder for me than many people I know. I remember some guys who started the sport after me, being 100 times better than me after like 5 sessions. Not that it bothered me. I was so focused on having fun, enjoying the ocean, the beautiful scenery and the exploring that I was barely intimidated by anyone or anybody better than me – mostly, since I was a Free-surfer, which means I’m doing it just for fun, where as others was super competitive. By June 2008, I realised that it’s about time to upgrade my equipment. I came across a special of custom boards from Mr. Alistair Taylor – one of the best bod...

This is definitely one of my "All Time Favourite" bodyboarding videos. I think it's from Tension 7 or 8.  The waves aren't as heavy as in other videos of the Island, but it has such a good vibe to it and the footage shot from the helicopter is pretty unique. Enjoy

A Series I'll be starting of how The Surfing and Bodyboarding lifestyle I lived during High School changed my life. #TheAccident Going Back In Time ~~~~ February 2007  I was 13 years old, new into High School and ready for the new “bigger” world to open up after I just finished Primary School. It was that time of my life that demanded that I try to “fit in” through good and bad, no matter what.  One day, sometime during February I met up with some classmates after school at the Scottburgh beach, since that was the hangout spot for everyone and all the “cool” people was usually around the lifesaving area.  Scottburgh Lifesaving Club Now I was actually a super shy person, found it really hard to fit into the “surfing community” especially being from a fairly conservative Afrikaans family – or at least, I thought they were conservative. There’s a lot of truth about what we read and hear about surfers. Many of the stereotypes are true and many are not. And y...

Just a short overview of the first semester. I will post more individual stories. I arrived back in Korea end February, just before the University year began. It has been an amazing holiday back in South Africa - nothing beats seeing friends and family and eating South African food again. As I arrived, it a cold, wet evening. And I couldn't even check in at my dorm-flat at the University. Instead, they booked me in at a guesthouse about 30mins west of the Uni. Was a tiny place, but at least I had a bed and internet. The first few days was pretty much recovering from jet lag, getting used to the language again and getting into the lifestyle. After staying at the guesthouse for about 7 days, finally went back towards the University area. Believe it or not, the surroundings is like nothing changed since I left, but the University was one big construction site. I chose all my subjects for the first time. I only had 15 credits, which means I have 15 hours class every week. Around 5 su...

On Sunday Evening, I decided to head out into down town Seoul, with my camera, tripod and all the other things necessary. I got a few shots out of spending about 2 hours there, that I'm quite happy with. I'm certainly still in learning curve in taking these kind of long exposure shots. Most of the photos had an ISO of 100 -> I rarely go higher than that. A shutter speed of 30 seconds and aperture approx f20.