It has been many years since the heavily used sports fields in the Overstrand received a much needed ‘breather’ in order to increase the quality of the playing surfaces.

A decision was made to establish a regular aeration programme to help alleviate soil compaction caused by frequent foot traffic from players. This was done after compactions tests were carried out on most of the sport fields in Kleinmond, Hawston, Mt Pleasant, Zwelihle and Stanford as well as the fields at the Spaces for Sports in Gansbaai, and the sport fields at Masakhane, Blompark and Pearly Beach. The test results indicated that compaction levels are on average too high.

Aerating is one of the best things you can do for sports fields. When the soil becomes hard and compacted, root systems struggle to get the oxygen they need, and the soil becomes a barrier to root penetration.

Therefore, the soil must be aerated regularly to encourage better water and nutrient penetration in order to stimulate deeper and healthier root systems to endure the heavily used playing surfaces.