Meet Cassiem Collier, Cape Town’s surfing legend

Posted on 31 October 2022

For anyone unfamiliar with the dreadlocked surfer who runs the surfing academy on Muizenburg Beach, he’s the legendary Cassiem “Cass” Collier, an institution in his own right.

A Triple Western Province Champion, Big Wave World Surfing Champion, and one of the top surf coaches in the world, Cass made history as the first “coloured” surfer to win an international surfing title in 1999.

You would have to be a legend with balls of steel to be able to surf South Africa’s biggest waves at Dungeons in Hout Bay – monstrous waves reaching as high as 18 meters and crashing back down into shark-infested, cold and unpredictable waters. It makes for an ocean battleground where only the fittest big-wave surfers survive.

Cass was one of the first surfers to trace a line down a surging wave at Dungeons. As a kid, Cass spent most of his days in the waters of 9 Miles Beach in Strandfontein, one of the few beaches non-whites were allowed on. He swam competitively for the South African Council of Sport and learned how to surf at the age of 9. He was inspired by his late father, Ahmed Collier, who ignored the restrictions of apartheid and took Cass to the “only-whites” beaches, often getting arrested for being there. Collier was one of the first pioneers of non-racial surfing in South Africa.

Collier had to fight for his place in the surfing community and was determined to change the law of racially segregated beaches.  Ahmed Collier passed away in November of 2017, but not without leaving behind a legacy. Cass explains how his father’s political stance on ownership during the apartheid era drove him to excel and transcend in the sport that he loved. ‘My dad was very political in terms of ownership; ownership of yourself and your own space.’

Despite being faced with adversities, Cass persevered until he made it to the international arena, where he and longtime friend and teammate, Ian Armstrong, went on to compete and claim the title in the Reef ISA Big Wave World Championships in Todos Santos, Mexico in 1999.

‘When we won the Big Wave title, it sent major shock waves through the industry, we were unknown at the time,’ Cass said. ‘At the championships, everything was against us, we did not look like surfers who would even qualify for the final and had no chance of even winning the competition. Armstrong and I gave it our best shot and as they say, the rest is history. The surfing world was rocked to its core after two dreadlocked guys showed the dreads don’t define if you can become a champ or not.’

After they won the championship, the media focused more on Cass’s background as a non-white in apartheid than his achievements as a world champion surfer.

‘When Ian and I decided to compete internationally, we had to fork out our own money as we had no sponsors to pay for flights, accommodation etc. Our next international competition was in 2000 in Haiti and the day before the competition I saw how a friend and competitor lost his life. I realised that you should not underestimate the 20 ft waves when you compete as one wrong move can cost you your life,’ Cass adds.

‘I thought the competition would be suspended due to the fatality, but as they say “the show must go on”. I decided that my life is worth more and that I can rather use my knowledge in helping my community by teaching young and old to surf. I gradually withdrew from competing and am enjoying my time with the surfers at my academy.’

In 2005, Nicolaas Hofmeyr directed the documentary Taking Back the Waves in an effort to highlight Cass Collier and Ian Armstrong’s journey to winning the Big Wave World Champions as outcasts, and Cass’s struggles as a coloured surfer in South Africa during the height of the apartheid regime.

Cass retired from competitive surfing in 2000 and established the Cass Collier Surf Academy at Surfer’s Corner, Muizenburg, where he has been teaching young and old to surf for the last 22 years.

‘The smile on a surfer’s face when he or she can stand on the surfboard on a wave is worth all the efforts I put in to help them enjoy the sport I love so dearly. We usually assemble at Surfers Corner and then we take on the waves.’

Pictures: Cass Collier Surf Academy

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ALSO READ: Beautiful photos of crashing waves in Kalk Bay






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