Get Alfonso to China for World Championships

I have been selected to represent South Africa at the ISA World Longboard Championships held in Wanning, China next year January.

I am asking for your help! no matter how big or small, to back me so I can proudly represent South Africa at this event.

Surfing Helped me get off the streets! Being selected to represent my country is something I couldn’t even have dreamt of when I was on the streets, but hard work and dedication does pay off !

Here Ian an article written about my story, how I went from living on the streets to traveling the world representing my Country.

Local surf instructor Alfonso Peters is becoming the role model for vulnerable youth in Cape Town that he never had.

The 28-year-old is a surf instructor at Surf Emporium Muizenberg and has been surfing for over 12 years.

Peters represented South Africa at the World Longboard Championships in March he won the prestigious Tiger’s Milk Winter Classic last year.

Peters had a tough childhood, and moved from Mitchell's Plein to Manenberg when he was young after the death of his father.

It's tough and there's a lot of poverty. Living there [in Manenberg] I didn't have hope and dreams.
— Alfonso Peters, Head coach at Surf Emporium

I wanted to be a gangster myself... I nearly went that route.
— Alfonso Peters, Head coach at Surf Emporium

As troubled teenager he says he would run away from home, get in trouble for theft. He would later live on the streets and in shelters on and off for eight years.

After he got in trouble with the police, a social worker invited him to a camp that changed the trajectory of his life.

When he went back to school and moved to live in Muizenberg with his social worker, Ryan, Peters came across a pamphlet offering a free surf programme.

I was absolutely hooked... It gave me something to wake up to in the morning. It was my passion and kept me sane.
— Alfonso Peters, Head coach at Surf Emporium

Peters says riding waves brings him total freedom to express himself and "leave his problems on the shore".

Written by: Qama Qukula