Cape Town - Mandla Ndlovu is front-of-house, guest liaison and surfing instructor at Soul Surfer backpackers accommodation in Muizenberg.
Ever heard the expression “eat, sleep, surf”? Ndlovu is the guy who helps visitors do just that.
He’s also a surfing contest judge, so he’s often on the road and knows what travellers need when it comes to creature comforts.
Here is his story:
I am Mandla Ndlovu and I am an all-rounder here at African Soul Surfer in Muizenberg. I work in reception at the backpackers, make coffee for visitors, look after guests generally and I’m the head coach for the surfing.
I am a qualified surfing coach through the International Surfing Association, the World Governing Authority for surfing, and they run programmes all around the world. There are three levels of coaching, and the first priority is to get equipped as a coach – safety is very important.
I was born in Zimbabwe, but I grew up in Fish Hoek. I started surfing here and surfed hard, every day. Apart from working here I am also a licensed ISA pro-surf judge, and I have been judging surfing competitions for over four years.
This means I have to travel a lot, so 60 percent of my time is spent travelling, but I still have a really cool connection with this place. There’s good surf, diverse people, and I grew up and matured right here.
We recently had a group of 50 volunteers staying with us and it was awesome, all these people gathering under one roof to celebrate before they returned overseas. It was very loud!
Trouble is bound to happen, but if people get upset you have to just keep your composure. It’s quite safe here, but we might get guests arguing over who ate someone else’s bread! Just misunderstandings, really.
One of the perks of the whole deal is that I am close to my family, but I do miss them and try to appreciate them when I am travelling.
If I could go anywhere, it would be to Fiji. Good waves and the ladies are beautiful. Coconuts are just lying there on the beach.
In Cape Town the wind can annoy me, it’s always blowing in the wrong direction. Apart from the wind, I try not to get upset with other things, like people.
Rather than a judgemental approach I see Cape Town as a beautiful, diverse jungle.
I’d say 70 percent of the people who come here (to African Soul Surfer) are surfers, surfing travellers staying in the B&B. So it’s a mix of people with the same chilled vibe.
Chilling is fine, I enjoy writing, watching surf movies and drumming – I have been playing drums for seven years. Writing is good for me, it’s like judging, I get to analyse situations, find out what happens next. Those are the skills you need in judging surf contests because everything happens so quickly.
Generally I am super-chilled and happiest when helping people, but also happy when I have a bacon, pineapple and banana pizza – those are gnarly!
Friendship, travel… keeping active: life is a gift!
l This holiday season, the Cape Argus in partnership with Cape Town Tourism is introducing some of the fascinating characters of tourism every week, in their own voices.
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