I was born on Robben Island, a small Island approximately seven miles from Cape Town harbor. My father was the lighthouse keeper on Robben Island. We lived on the Island until I was five, before moving to a small fishing and surfing village called Kommetjie. The population of Kommetjie was only a few hundred unlike today where the numbers reach into the thousands. For the first two years in Kommetjie we stayed at the 'Slangkop' (Snakehead) lighthouse. After my Dad retired we moved to a small wooden house on the side of the mountain, which had a wonderful view of miles upon miles of the wonderful Atlantic Ocean.

(click here for a map of Cape Town and the Peninsula)

As a kid I basically grew up in the ocean and mountains. If it wasn’t surfing, then it was fishing or mountain climbing. Kommetjie is a renowned surfing place and ranks high amongst the great surfing spots in the world. The main surfing spots in Kommetjie are Outer Kom and Long Beach. Outer Kom can have waves up to 20 foot plus. Sunset beach also has some big surf. Long beach is more suitable for 5-6 foot waves, yet it does on occasions have waves much larger. Just a few miles around the corner is another surfing spot called ‘The Crayfish Factory’ as there is an actual Crayfish Factory there. This spot is a point break on a reef and the waves can be large and depending on the tide, the reef could be very shallow. I had one scary moment when surfing this break. I had just caught a wave and was paddling back out when all of a sudden a monster set came in and I tried in vain to get over one of the waves but got sucked over with it and I was smashed to the reef below. My surfboard was attached to my leg and my one foot got entangled in a crevice in the coral reef. This is when I began to pray, as I didn’t believe I would survive. After what seemed eternity, my leg freed and I managed to break the water surface only to be sucked under again due to another wave breaking. This happened a few times and all the air was knocked out of me. A few minutes passed and I was washed up on the rocks on the shore. I lay there for sometime recovering. I needless to say didn’t surf for about a week thereafter, as it really was a scary moment. However, within a week I was back in the water. Other breaks about the Kommetjie area were ‘Witsands’ (White Sands) which was a shore break. Some times the surf can get rather huge here too. And Scarbourgh was also a place we frequently regulary. All these surfing spots were on the Atlanic Ocean, but the were surfing spots on the Indian Ocean site of the Peninsula. The most notable was Kalk Bay reef and Muzenberg.

As for fishing, we mostly fished for crayfish (Rock Lobster) and we caught them from a boat. Normally the boat was in the region of 19 foot long with an outboard motor on. We caught the crayfish with nets that we set down. The nets were made up of a metal ring with a net attached to it. The bait was fastened to the net and we set them in-between the kelp. On average we would get about four or five sized crayfish in each net. We would normally carry about eight nets. The nets would remain in the water for about five to ten minutes. The other method of catching crayfish is by diving. I never did this too much, but a few of my friends did. Other fish that we caught were ‘Snook’, which is almost the same as a Barracuda, but larger. I did catch my fair share of Snook and other fish types. There was also Perlemoen (Abalone) that we dived for.

As for the mountains, they were behind our house and although not large mountains, as kids we enjoyed running, climbing and jumping from cliff to cliff. It was dangerous, but as kids you seemed to forget fear. There are many caves in these mountains and on the top of the mountain there are old lookout posts and gun turrets that were used in the Second World War. We made our own hut up there out of tin and wood. In all, Kommetjie was a wonderful place to grow up. I went to primary school and later went to Simonstown High School and then to Fish Hoek High School.

Right from an early age I attended Sunday school and on Friday evening the young Ministers in training would come out and entertain us in the evening before sunset and then we would go inside for a Christian sing-along and a short lesson.

As Kommetjie was small, we knew everyone that lived there and so everyone knew everything about everyone else. The one family everyone used as a gathering point was the Verwey’s. How they put up with all the neighborhood kids coming into there yard and through the house is beyond me. I was very attached to the Verwey family because they had four children that were around my age. Charles the eldest was 3 years older than me, George was my age, Lyn was a year younger than me, with Cathy being the baby around four years younger. I don’t think I could have wished for a better place to grow up. It was innocent and free. Whether it was just playing on the beach and sun tanning, playing Cricket and Football on the lawn, swimming in the large tidal pool, surfing or fishing, this was the life we enjoyed.

It is a place I hold dear to my heart and I praise God for blessing me with such a wonderful place to grow up.

A few other pictures of Kommetjie and surrounding towns

Table mountain with the 'Table Cloth' coming over

Fish Hoek. This town is about four miles from Sun Valley

Hout Bay in the distance

 A view of the Peninsula from the sky

 Kalk Bay Harbor with Cape Point in the distance

Simonstown and the yacht basin in the foreground