The Umdloti Beach Skiboat Club

Before the Umdloti Beach Skiboat Club (UBSC) was established in 1969, there were no clubhouse facilities or formalised launch site. South Beach Road was still a dirt road with scattered beach access points nestled between the trees, and skiboat anglers ‘pirate launched’ along the unspoilt beach between the shops and the point. Anglers would leave their boats on the beach and just take the motors home with them. 

Club meetings were held at the old Selections Hotel (now an apartment complex called Waterfront) on Sunday afternoons. Because liquor laws prohibited the sale of alcohol on the Sabbath, hotel owner Ray Landsey arranged seating in the back stock room and covertly served the fishermen beer there. 

Many significant events took place in 1969: American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon; more than 400,000 people gathered in New York for a landmark counterculture music festival called Woodstock; and the Umdloti Beach Skiboat Club was founded and became affiliated with the Natal Deep Sea Angling Association (NDSAA). 

Starting with about half a dozen members then, numbers steadily grew along with the need for a fully fledged clubhouse. Enter the late Gillespie Armstrong, who kindly allowed for a wooden clubhouse to be built on a prime piece of undeveloped residential land he owned at 21 and 22 South Beach Road. Rumour has it the lease agreement stipulated R1 per year rental and fresh fish for the Armstrong family when they came to stay in their nearby holiday cottage. 

In the early 1980s, the wooden structure made way for a brick-and-mortar clubhouse. Here, the enduring value the club added, and continues to add to this small seaside community, became prominent. The new clubhouse hosted ratepayers’ meetings and extra-mural activities like karate classes and countless skiboat club shindigs that saw young and old foster close community bonds. 

Member numbers steadily increased, and by the early 1990s the club had about 40 boats registered. Umdloti’s fishing grounds were fertile and so the club became very popular. With prospective new members knocking at the door, existing members had to do a minimum of 12 annual launches to retain their boat number. Regulations allowed for only 25 launches per day, and competition was stiff. 

By the early 2000s, new bottom fish catch restrictions reduced financial viability for semi-commercial skiboat anglers and set in motion a shift toward kayak fishing. Interestingly, UBSC was the first club in the region to allow spear fishermen to join. 

As the tide keeps turning, the UBSC’s bumper season at the Armstrong property came to an end when it was sold and developed in the early 2000s. But that by no means snuffed the club’s indomitable spirit. The club simply moved its facilities to the grass patch that had been reserved for boat trailers. 

Today the club boasts 140 members, and the grass patch still serves the community. Many say the club and its community-oriented ethos are the glue that keeps the core Umdloti community together. This is what makes the club unique; it stays in touch with the surrounding community, is deeply involved with community projects and rather than being exclusive ‘members-only’ turf, frequently welcomes non-members accompanying members to the multi-use grass patch colloquially known as the skiboat club.