J Bay - Surf and Sharks in South Africa's Surf Capital
Matt Gambles • 24 March 2020
Paddle Surfing in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
J Bay - Surf and Sharks in South Africa’s Surf Capital.
Jeffreys Bay is a smallish town about an hours drive from the City of Port Elizabeth and 8 scenic
hours away from Cape Town. It is also one of the World’s Surfing Meccas. Since the 1960’s,
Surfers around the globe have been admiring pictures and videos of their heroes tucking into
majestic barrels and hitting the lip. This surfer is no different and a trip to Stand Up Paddle Surf
J Bay was a lifelong ambition.
J Bay lives and breathes Surfing like only a few places on the Planet do. There are Surf Shops
galore, with all of the big brands having factory shops, some of which are the size of a fairly
large supermarket!. Head to some of the bars or restaurants and, where in most places you
would find the locals watching the Football or Rugby on the Screen, here it is more than likely to
be screening a webcast of the latest World Surf Tour event. Surfing truly is the heart and soul of
this town.
The reason for this devotion to Surfing is due to the large rock promontory which the town sits
on. The waves hit this rock ledge and break and feather out from it to produce a truly World
Class Wave. Supertubes is the most famous one and is South African stop of the World Tour. It
is a high performance right hand reeft break giving the surfer a dredging barrel to test your skills
on followed by an incredible shoulder to cut back and carve on. The speed of this wave is
incredible and once you get this dialled in, it gives you the opportunity to try lots of manoeuvres.
Expect to see World class Surfers in the line up with you blowing minds with their surfing.
As Supertubes runs along the rock it mellows and becomes Tubes, this in turn becomes The
Point and finally, Albatross. Becoming mellower in their steepness (but all still powerful), these
are the breaks more suitable to high performance SUP Surfing. It is truly an unbelievable
honour to be able to surf these waves.
There are plenty of other breaks in Jeffreys Bay, from the gnarly reef of Boneyards (where Kelly
Slater broke his ankle in 2017!) to the mellow Main Beach, which is a chilled sandy beach
break.
Either end of town is bookended with Lagoons as well, so a mellow flat water SUP explore is
always an option as its the downwind and coastal potential. However do be aware that this is a
Great White Shark inhabited area (as witnessed by Mick Fanning infamously mid surf
competition) so take local advice seriously and check out the Shark Flag situation.
A trip to surf the waves of J Bay is surely one on most Surfers to do lists, add in the whole towns
all encompassing surfy vibe and truly the reality beats even the dream.
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