My name is Sandile Mqadi; but some people call me Cyril, because in the old days you must have an English name. It was compulsory.
Surfing found me when I was 13. I’m from Umzumbe, down on the South Coast. Back then, Peter Maisch gave us black kids maybe eight or nine surfboards, and that’s how we started. He just dropped them at the beach one day. Any kids who wanted to use a board were welcome.
This was 1994. Me and my brother Meshack started together – we are twins.
When we were young, we used to enjoy bodysurfing. We would take a flip-flop, and use it as a hand plane. Then somebody threw away an old bodyboard sponge, so we used to take that to try and float. That’s how we started.
In those days it was
