Wait, gotta be a catch? No? Well, kinda…
The gorgeous holiday hamlet of Jeffreys Bay on South Africa’s eastern cape, very famous for its “long, fast, exquisitely tapered right-breaking point surf”, has long gripped the hearts of local and visiting surfers.
As Warshaw describes in his lovingly maintained historical showcase, the Encyclopedia of Surfing.
Jeffreys Bay was a showcase wave from the beginning. Gavin Rudolph, Jonathan Paarman, Peers Pittard, and Bunker Spreckels were among the early standouts. Terry Fitzgerald, the 1971 Australian champion and aptly nicknamed “Sultan of Speed,” was magnificent at Jeffreys Bay throughout the ’70s, linking one blistering turn to the next. 1977 world champion Shaun Tomson was for years the standout Jeffreys rider, placing himself deep inside the tube almost at will and driving his board into a wide range of turns. Mark Occhilupo of Australia, during his world tour debut in 1984, was one of the first goofy-foot surfers to match the regularfooters at Jeffreys Bay.
Downside, of course, are the husky Great Whites that patrol the area and, Fanning aside, death by shark attack isn’t an abstract concept, although its been a decade Burgert van der Westhuizen was killed there.
Living in South Africa is real cheap, the consequence of a few things: a fragile currency, a crime scene that has to be experienced to be believed, although J-Bay defs ain’t the worst, low wages and therefore low operating costs, political instability, a lack of foreign investment ’cause the place feels like it can be a bit of a tinderbox and then there’s the lingering hate for Whitey that ain’t going awaydddd.
But, what’s all that matter when you’re living in a mansion a five-minute walk from Super Tubes via a direct track to the beach and you get a hunk of change back from 200k?
The joint ain’t pretty but it’s pretty damn big.
Retire and hone your glide, as the old men call it.
