Ntando Msibi went from the streets to surf super talent and he's not stopping anytime soon.
Writer: Dylan Heyden, TheInertia.com
Ntando Msibi is a grom’s grom. His eyes get wide and his smile is visible from space when he talks about surfing. And when the kid came into our offices for an interview he crushed not one but two Red Bulls back to back. (No joke!) But unlike other 19-year-olds, Ntando’s accumulated enough real world experience to fill three lifetimes.
Ntando comes from Durban, South Africa. And at nine years old, after the tragic death of his mother, he found himself trying to survive on the streets.
“Street children,” as they’re called, in South Africa and elsewhere often resort to criminal activity in order to survive. Drug habits are also par for the course when living on the streets.
In this case, Ntando’s story is no different. When he first got involved with Surfers Not Street Children, a South African non-profit launched by Tom Hewitt to get kids off the streets through surfing, Ntando was in a bad place. He was sniffing glue, and at one point was hit by a car. He miraculously came out unscathed.
Over time through Tom and Surfers Not Street Children, Ntando began surfing more and more and spending less and less time on the streets. As Tom puts it, Ntando became so enamored with surfing and would be in the water so much that by the end of the day he’d literally be too exhausted to return to old habits...”
Read the rest of the original article about Cobian Team Rider, Ntando Msibi, at
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