Our last days in Jeffreys Bay

The rest of our stay in Jeffreys Bay was spent scoring good waves again, getting our stuff in order, and preparing for our next road trip to Cape Town. We had a nice going away meal of which many of our good friends came to bid us farewell. The heavy local crew at Supers had their own little cheers at the bar, glad the Hawaiian on the Alaia and his pretty girlfriend were finally leaving.

The view to the right of the house, Supers and Salads.

The view to the left, Surfers Point.

My final synopsis on Jeffreys Bay goes as follows……

The wave is amazing. Hands down it is the best wave we have ever surfed. I would define best as most consistent, best quality, and overall stoke factor. There are other waves out there that may have one of those attributes beat, but as a whole Jeffreys Bay stands out above the rest. That being said, with being the best comes the crowds and hassles. The local crew out at Jeffreys Bay is a nightmare for the visiting surfer looking to score his dream wave. The vast majority of visitors feel it is their given right, since they came so far, to paddle out to the peak and take the wave they’ve been dreaming about for years. This drives the locals absolutely batty! I took it with a bit of hesitation and still ran into a shit load of drama. But with my humor and ability to apologize (even though I wasn’t always wrong) put me on the better side of the locals. Its a funny thing in Jbay, you just need to know who you can cut off or paddle around. Pretty shitty thing to say but thats how it goes in Jbay. We got the waves of our lives out there and will hopefully get more like them in the future.

My recommendation if you want to go there is to go for a while. Rent a house or apartment for a month or more between June-September and be patient. The swells come in non-stop and in a given week you can surf 5 out of 7 days. It will get epic about 3 days out of the 5. There are more waves than just Supertubes. You have The Boneyard, Supers, Car Park, Salads, Coins, Tubes, Surfers Point, and Albatross. My favorite was Coins.

The town itself is pretty lame. The architecture has no common theme or any theme at all. There is very little nightlife and the town is actually a little bit away from the wave. About a 5 minute drive. The town is filled with vacation rentals and during the surf season they are pretty much empty. So you are living amongst empty houses and apartments. The people are nice and very welcoming, until you go out into the lineup. Be respectful and you most likely won’t run into any problems. Accidents happen, just be prepared to hold your tongue and paddle away. If you take one of the locals on, you will be dealing with the whole gang. Although it may not be violent, you can be sure you won’t be getting any more waves.

At first we were really interested in buying a piece of land in Jbay for the future, but we’ve realized its cheaper to rent. In addition by buying land in anywhere other than home you end up being tied to it. There are so many places in the world to visit and to have to come back to Jbay for most vacations although it would be nice, would be a missed opportunity to find another paradise somewhere else in the world.. We love Jeffreys Bay and will be back.