Apr 2021 Ballito Umhl

Eyes on the ocean
Sometimes you just want to sneak a quick peak at the ocean and check out
the conditions before grabbing your board, fishing rod or beach bag and
heading out, right? Well now you can …
The creator of oceaneye.co.za
is Umdloti’s Graeme Brunt
Text: Leah Shone | Photo: tyanderi.com
All you have to do is switch on your
computer, navigate to Umdloti local
Graeme Brunt’s website and voila
… you can view live streams from
high quality cameras that have been
carefully positioned at some of the
most popular beaches around the
country.
Graeme had no idea, when he set
out to start oceaneye a few months
ago, what an incredible response
there would be. In fact, within the
first 24 hours more than 22 000
people logged on to check out the
cameras, which were positioned to
overlook beaches in KZN, the Garden
Route and Cape Town. “It’s been
phenomenal,” says Graeme. “We had
220 000 views within the first two
weeks and we are anticipating over
10 Get It • Ballito Umhlanga April 2021
400 000 views in the first month.”
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Pietermaritzburg, 35-year-old Graeme has
always loved the ocean. The former Northwood boy spent many weekends
on the beach and surfing as a child and, while ‘messing around’ and making
fun surf films while at school, he discovered his passion for film. Although he
initially started studying marketing, Graeme says it wasn’t for him and instead
he decided to follow his passion and study film, which he did for three years at
Durban University of Technology. He then spent more than two years working
on yachts overseas, with the goal of saving enough money to stock up on video
and film equipment. When he returned to SA Graeme moved to Cape Town
(where the film industry is quite big) and that is where he met his now wife and
business partner, Justine. He and Justine have lived back in Durban for five years.
They have a three-year-old daughter named Ayla and another baby on the way.
While living in Cape Town, the couple started a wedding video business, which
was very successful. “We were doing loads of weddings every year, and I was
working on my surfing and ‘passion projects’ on the side.” But then, like for so
many people, Covid arrived and changed everything.
Graeme is a surfer who is also passionate about ocean conservation. He says
he saw a gap in the market for a well-maintained website with high quality live
stream ocean-facing cameras and lots of good ocean-related content.