SA Rocks

Eita my fellow South Africans,

Yes, it is that time. The London Olympics have officially begun and are already on day 6. There is a buzz around the country and where ever one looks, you can see Olympic fever is here. Even Google has the fever, start typing in basically anything and it will drop down with the famous ‘did you mean’ and have a suggestion related to the Olympics. Obviously, with our very own Cameron Van Der Burgh smashing the  world record in the men’s 100m breaststroke final on Sunday has really bumped up the ‘gees’ of our nation.

The race itself was epic, although quite quick (58.46 seconds). It had myself and the people I was watching with on the edges of our seats.

The thing that struck me about Cameron though is that he is a real local boytjie. He was born in SA, lives in SA and studies here too. A real home grown dude – fantastic to hear. Well done on the WR and the Gold Cam, you have made us all very proud.

It looks like the pride of all South Africans will be increased exponentially by the winning of yet another gold medal by Chad le Clos. Another truly local young gun, was competing against a number of well accomplished swimmers in the men’s 200m butterfly final and when watching the race, on the last turn it appeared he would have to settle for bronze. However, the last lap saw him dig deep and take first place by just over half a second. Nail biting stuff.

South Africa now sits 10th in the rankings with 2 golds, 6 days in and 7 to go. Lets make sure we get behind the people that have been chosen to represent us in the Olympics and show our support. Click here for a link which will fill you in on all of our sporting folk, the details of their events and all you need to know about them.

Until next time,

Shap shap!

Dave

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Ladies and gents of sunny South Africa…Eita!

A truely South African greeting, which is almost guaranteed to earn you extra street cred if you drop it in casual situations. For those of us who have never heard it before, it is pronounced “eight-ah” – it is the modern day version of the very 1990′s: “Howzit”.

To take the education a little further, take your point scoring into another league include an additional word with Eita and you are winning. The sentence would now read ‘Eita bra/sissi’, depending on whether or not you are greeting a guy or girl. Bra being pronounced “br-ah”, but we all knew that, right? This again, can be compared to the fairly dated “Howzit boet” – this greeting had no gender, it was one size fits all.

Look at me rambling on before I have even begun, to all of those old faithful readers, welcome back. For all of those, who are reading this for the first time. Welcome. I am new here myself, I was presented with this platform to write positive things about South Africa, how could I not. For everyone, I would like to introduce myself. I am Dave, I currently live in (not so) sunny Cape Town. I am hugely passionate about this country and everything it has to offer.

Above all else, there is one thing this country can call its own which inspires me. The people. I am not a huge fan of politics, so I will not discuss that, unless it is funny – then I will, obviously. I am not a major sporting fanatic – although after Friday night (which was the inspiration for this post), the IRB Junior Rugby World Cup Finals. South Africa vs New Zealand. Newlands Park, Cape Town, Africa. 18:30.

I was invited to go and watch the game in a box, I must admit to opportunity of watching the game (any game) from a box was what initially made me want to go. It really is a pleasure, sitting in comfortable seats, not too crowded and nice and warm. Well, so I thought. After the following 80 minutes of jumping up and down when there was a chance at scoring, screaming out my priceless advice and opinions about the ref’s decisions, being struck in awe of 30 000 voices singing and jaunting. I wanted to be part of the mass of fans, I wanted to be wearing green and gold, sitting in the rain and having a castle. I wanted to be as South African as possible right then.

So, gone are the days of me saying I don’t like watching sport. I love it, but what I realise now it is more about your country’s sporting team, representing you and the people around you in a battle against the others. For that period of time, nothing matters – skin colour, culture, home language, nothing. Sport is something which unites us, and that is what I want to see…and be part of. I am definitely going to become a ‘yes’ man when it comes to South African sporting events.

I look forward to writing down the amazing experiences I go through and hear about along the way, in this wonderful country which I call home.

South Africa, jou lekker ding.

Shap shap!

Dave

P.S. How could I not rub in the view from the box. The first picture is our view, during the singing of the national anthems. The second, well that is me pointing to the scoreboard which read ‘SA: 22, NZ: 16′ at full time.

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There is an event and it is mental. It is called the Red Bull Xalps event. The premise is a simple one: Go from Salzburg to Monaco. The difficulty lies in the details; you have to race non-stop through the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea, with just a paraglider and a pair of hiking boots to help them, their every move tracked by advanced technology and broadcasted to an audience of millions.

Here’s an intro video to the Red Bull X-Alps event:

Sounds easy. It’s not and a South African is one of a very select few people to compete. Pierre Carter is a Johannesburg Father who is 45 and crazy… about extreme sports.

Pierre has his own website for the event too, http://blog.7summits7flights.co.za/. Head over there to get more information on our local extreme superhero.

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This is quite interesting news and honestly was bound to happen at some point.

The largest winning purse in modern golf is going to be competed for right here in Sunny SA.

Here’s a bit of info:

The Sunshine Tour will make leading golfers choose between the world’s richest tournament in South Africa and Tiger Woods’ charity event in California from next year.

A new $10 million World Golf Championships event to be hosted by the tour was heralded by Sunshine commissioner Gareth Tindall on Tuesday as the launch of “a world tour” and “the most significant thing that has happened to South African golf in its history.”

Tindall, emboldened by Charl Schwartzel’s Masters victory on the 50th anniversary of Gary Player’s first green jacket, said the Tournament of Hope underlined the shift in player power away from the United States.

“The significance of what we’ve done is potential, and the U.S. tour might slag me for this, but essentially we are starting the world tour,” Tindall said. “It’s been a matter of time.

“I think what we’ve done could potentially create the impetus to start a world tour because Australia are certainly going to do what we’ve done, and Europe are going to have to do what we’ve done.”

The date and venue for the new WGC event — just the second outside the U.S. after Shanghai’s HSBC Champions — had not been finalized, Tindall said, but organizers were looking at the first week of December.

source

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Charl Shwartzel moved a country and instantly became a household name by winning the 2011 Masters championship yesterday.

I was watching and unfortunately went to sleep about an hour before the final stroke. Shwartzel birdied the final four holes to crack in an amazing -14 to win the title.

Eight different players took the lead on Sunday at the Masters.

Here’s a quick little quote from a well written story over at ESPN:

Never before has the green jacket gone to a player who finished in such fashion, a stunning end to an incredible day at the 75th playing of the year’s first major championship.

The quiet, unassuming Schwartzel, 26, knocked in a chip shot for a birdie at the first, holed a wedge shot for an eagle at the third, then played steady golf through a pulsating day that then saw him roar to the end with birdies at the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th holes and a final-round 66.

In the process, the South African passed the likes of Tiger Woods and Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day on the leaderboard, and was the unlikely winner of a major championship he was playing for just the second time.

“As always, it happens on the back nine on Sunday, just like you dreamt it,” said Schwartzel’s caddie, Greg Hearmon.

There is a great video on the ESPN story if you missed the event.

Apparently Shwartzel is the second Els Foundation graduate to win a major tournament in the last 3 major tournaments played.

Very nice Ernie, very nice.

Congratulations goes to Charl, you make us proud.

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Fantastic news for the “Big Easy” as Ernie is called. The man is a giant, larger than life and one helluva golfer. Not only is his golf on par (weak pun, but intended), but Ernie is also a philanthropist who does his best to help his community and those less fortunate than himself.

I’m proud to call Ernie a South African and proud of his achievement.

Congratulations Ernie.

Here’s a little snippet from Reuters:

Three-times major winner and former world number one Ernie Els has been voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2011.

The 40-year-old, whose selection in the Hall of Fame’s PGA Tour category was announced on Wednesday, will be inducted on May 9 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida.

“It was quite a surprise,” South African Els told reporters with a broad smile at East Lake Golf Club. “I thought you had to be a little bit more senior.

“You’d like to think you could have done more and can still do more, but obviously I’m very, very honored to be inducted.”

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I was mailed about a fantastically funny site that launched recently called Magic Moments FC.

The premis is simple: Recreate the greatest football goals the world has ever seen with a tongue firmly planted in cheek. The results are hilarious.

When viewing the videos you get a little preview of the goal being remade and then the fun begins. Pseudo-animations appear, the grass emerges from the pitch and assists the players in the recreation of the incredibly skilled moves of the greats like Beckham, Pele and Maradona.

To check out the videos click here.

One of the goals being recreated on the site is Pele’s 1958 goal against Sweden.

Here it is:

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Not only did the 2010 FIFA World Cup rock my world, it rocked South Africa, Africa and the entire world. That might seem like a sweeping statement however last nights match was apparently viewed by close to 3bn people the world over. Massive, massive, massive.

The opening ceremony was incredible as was the closing ceremony last night. But before I climb in to the praise and ask for some public apologies let me run through my World Cup experience.

I went to 4 live games. I attend 4 different stadiums. I partook in 2 different fanparks and visited many, many pubs over the World Cup Month.

The matches I saw

My first game was Denmark vs Cameroon at Loftus. The tickets to that game were provided to me by Brand South Africa and they kicked off my World Cup in serious style. I parked at Hatfield square in Pretoria, devoured a MASSIVE pizza at Cheeky’s pub and then walked up to the stadium. This was also the first time I’d been to Loftus so I was really getting the full experience.

On arrival I kept asking where exactly I should be going until eventually i was pointed towards the closed of section that encased gate 5. Gate 5 provides the entrance and exit for the box seats at Loftus. Yes, you are correct. My first experience of the world cup was in the warmth, comfort and style of box Loftus seats.

Here are some photos:

The second game I went to was the match between Greece and Argentine in Polokwane. The stadium is fantastic, there is very, very little to do around the stadium and that was the day that South Africa beat France. We watched that game at the Fanpark in Polokwane which was jam-packed with supporters.

Alas Greece did not win but I was able to see the great Argentinian team play:

The third game was an incredible experience that I will never forget and it’s all with thanks to a fantastic friend of mine!

Soccer City – the most incredible stadium I went to with the most amazing crowd and vibe. I was fortunate enough to be given VIP tickets to the Argentina vs Mexico Round 16 game. What an experience; the food, the seats and the experience were second to none. On top of that I was able to see incredible football played by both Mexico and Argentina but ultimately Argentina went through.

The Soccer City experience:

And then there was trusty Ellis Park and the Brazil vs Chile Round 16 game. It’s always a pleasure watching the greatest football nation in the world kick around the leather (or Jabulani as it’s known these days).

Here’s a couple pics:

The Apologies

I want to know if the good Editors over in that lovely Island commonly known as England are forcing their staff (read: Naysayers) to throw together some quick apologies? I doubt it. The best revenge is to live well, I was told once. Let’s be honest as South Africans we need nothing more than to let the world see – as they have – how well we have done in hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We ROCKED it, we were given the opportunity to show the world how fantastic our nation is and we grasped it with both hands and ran with it one foot in front of the next.

Personally I would like to see more people thanking Danny Jordaan and his incredible team for their hard work over a period of more than 6 years. They deserve as much credit as they can take in and they now deserve a break; A long and well-deserved vacation.

The Glory

Finally South Africa is not being seen the world over as the nation that overcame Apartheid. That is a great achievement to be known for and I am proud of my history but in the past 30 days (read: 6 years) we’ve been building towards changing the perception of the world. Hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup I truly feel that our nation can finally feel like we can bask in the glory of a job well done. We were great hosts as individuals, as towns, cities, provinces and as a nation. We partied hard, we played hard, we worked hard and we definitely supported this world cup like no event before it!

I am incredibly excited to see the nation finally jumping on the SA Rocks bandwagon, it’s taken about 3 years and over 1000 blog posts to get to where we are (Oh yes, and the World Cup!) but here we are. A proud nation. I am a proud South African yet again.

The Reality

The truth of this country is a simple one; We like to bitch, moan and look at the dark lining of silver clouds. And that’s where we’re headed. We’re headed in to the hangover period after one helluva party. It’s going to be tough and let me preempt the naysayers before they have the chance to chime in: There are many, many, many problems in this country that the world cup did not solve. There was a lot of money spent on the World Cup that could have been spent on building houses or hiring more police. That is all true. But nothing would have unified a nation like a World Cup. Nothing.

One foot in front of the next, that is how you walk down the road, one foot in front of the next. We start building a nation and the nation will help build itself.

Here are most of the photos from my World Cup experience. A big thanks to Brand South Africa and you-know-who for the tickets I was very fortunate to be given!

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Yes, Bafana Bafana is out of the Fifa 2010 World Cup. Yes we are the only host nation in the history of the World Cup to not make it through to the 2nd round of the tournament but it just isn’t that simple now is it? Bafana blew out of the tournament bit did not crash and burn as they did this, they climbed the ranks of football in a rising fireball.

My friend Prudence sums it up perfectly:

Yes, let’s just run through that again shall we; Bafana did not qualify for this World Cup and competed on the basis that we were the hosts. We are ranked 83rd in the World right now. We drew with Mexico, ranked 17th. We lost to Uruguay who are ranked 16th and we beat, yes that is correct, we beat the French who are World Cup winners and currently ranked 9th in the world.

I am extremely proud of Bafana Bafana and must say that they played world class football yesterday against the French. The deserved a win and proved that they can compete with the best in the world and come out on top. I also believe that Frances internal politics cannot be an excuse for the French. They are a world class team with world class players and should be able to rise above their own rubbish and win. Their fans must be bitterly dissapointed and they owe their fans an apology.

I’ll still be pulling for the African teams along the way and hope that a few of them manage to make it through and give us Africans something to cheer for.

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Great little video for a bit of fun:

[via MatVisser]

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