Surf Art Auction Raises Money for the Oceans

Held at the trendy Café Depasco in Cape Town, the Save Our Seas Foundation Wavescapes Surf Art exhibition auction was a party to be remembered. The event, which also served as the launch of the Wavescapes Surf Film Festival, aimed to raise R 100,000 for ocean charities such as the NSRI and Shark Spotters this year, but ended up over-shooting the mark by a whopping R 70,000.

A slideshow of images from the auction last night. (Photos by Cheryl-Samantha Owen)

Chris Mason, event co-director said, "We are very happy with the way things turned out. I could hardly believe the amount of money we raised, and it’s nice to know that surfers are on the front line of ocean conservation and ready to put their money where their mouths are".

The Wavescapes Surf Art exhibition featured 13 of South Africa’s top artists, including Brett Murray, whose board went for a record setting R 24,000, believed to be the highest amount of money ever paid for a surfboard in South Africa. Then Conrad Botha’s board also went for R 24,000.

This year the auction had a little twist, featuring a one-of-a-kind ice surfboard, conceptualised by media guru and big wave surfer Conn Bertish. Bertish approached Wavescape and Save Our Seas with the idea of the ice board as a "simple metaphor for global warming", which couldn’t have been more pertinent in lieu of Copenhagen’s climate change summit.  The ice board was auctioned as a "donation auction" and three bidders contributed to a grand total of R 20,500.

The ice board is still on show at Depasco. Better get there quickly, it will have melted in 24 hours by end of the day Thursday.

Friday, December 11 sees the start of the Wavescapes Surf Film Festival with a free screening at Clifton 4th Beach at 9pm, thereafter films are on at the Brass Bell and The Labia.