Ladder surfboard: design is performance

The first-ever Kommetjie Festival in Cape Town, South Africa, was a very special surfing event. A very clear challenge is set: show the most incredible surf gear.

When prizes such as "Best Dressed Surfer," "Most Original Craft," and "Most Entertaining Surfer" are at stake, you should expect the unexpected.

Michael Grendon easily stood out. He brought a surf ladder board that reminds us of the Red Bull Flugtag, with very creative gear.

Surfing with a step ladder is definitely not easy, but Grendon surfed waves with it.

The Kommetjie Festival also displayed clown surfers, wizard surfers, alien surfers, and surfers riding with wooden doors.

Tigger, from Winnie the Pooh, was also spotted surfing waves in the small coastal town.

Kommetjie Festival: the Red Bull Flugtag of surfing

Winning Designs

Chip Snaddon, with his blue-bottled wetsuit, took the "Best Dressed Surfer" award.

Mikah Burger won the "Most Original" title with his alien surfing attire. The "Most Original Craft" went to a team of two surfers who strapped their boards together and then tried to surf.

Michael Grendon, in his stylish Speedo, climbed the ladder and surfed waves to victory to take the "Most Entertaining Surfer" award.

Hopefully, the Kommetjie Festival will return in 2012 with the most amazing costumes in the world.

Top Stories

French surfboard building company Notox developed a modular shortboard to make surf trips on the bus and train easier.

The number of surfers using saunas to recover from intense physical exercise in low-temperature waters is growing. Here's why the two match.

Science has dissected and simulated natural events and phenomena for centuries. Waves are one of them.

Chilean wingsuit flyer Sebastián Álvarez leaped from a Bell 212 helicopter at 12,000 feet (3,657 meters) before dropping into a wave in the most spectacular style.