Jeffries Bay

So after 18 hrs in Port Elizabeth I am headed to Jeffries Bay, home of Supertubes and the where the Billabong pro is hosted every July. I am psyched to get back to the beach and relax for a little while. 1 hour later in a shared taxi, I arrive. The girl at the front desk is appalled, I mean absolutely speechless that I got there in a shared ride taxi. Apparently they are supposedly dangerous, I know South Africa has a high crime rate but I am somewhat noticing that a culture of fear that permeates how the whites here look at things.

Relax is exactly what I get in Jeffries, I surfed for about 1 hour on my first day and it has been horrible conditions since. Wind is 20-30 knots onshore and the ocean is full of whitecaps and un surfable. I bide my time by reading mystery novels and socializing with the locals and other residents of the guesthouse. My favorite character thus far is Dave, he is the son of the owner and is part time runs the place. That is, he bartends and helps out when it is convenient (it is only convenient when there are cute twenty-something girls around..I like his thinking). This guy is the original Spicolli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, amazing resemblance to Sean Penn’s character. Surprisingly he has never seen the movie and after my description is now eager to get his hands on a copy.

I arrived on Monday and we don’t get surf until Friday, I managed to get sunburned on Thursday so this makes my outing into the water a little uncomfortable. There is no sunburn, like a southern hemisphere sunburn. It must be something about the lack of ozone but I always get scorched south of the equator.

On Friday eve the wind dies down and  Supertubes goes from a nice big right hand crumbling wave in the early eve to a pitching barrel in about 30 min as the wind goes offshore. I brought the wrong board for the job. We get a solid 2 hours of surf and I struggle in at sundown. That was it, 3 hours in the water and maybe 10 good waves total in 5 days, glad I came but if this is the pace of things around here I have to get moving.

small at supertubes

Overall Jeffries bay is a really nice little town of maybe 35,000 that reminds me of a cross between San Clemente and the Outer Banks of NC. Real estate is CHEAP here, everything is cheap in S Africa. The Rand is 7.5 to the dollar right now and  you can buy a nice 3 Bedroom ocean view for about $100k-120k USD. I have not been to a McD’s here yet but I would guess the Big Mac index is about at a $1.50. An ice cream cone is $0.35, it was $1.50 in Uganda. Beachfront real estate on a spectacular beach starts at about $300k. This is probably cheaper than what I saw in Zanzibar. I drove around with a realtor on one of the slow days and he showed me the lay of the land. There are no Hotel’s in Jbay, just self-catering “guesthouses” which means a room or two with kitchenette. These set you back between $20-30USD per night. I arrived right in the offseason, so it is not crowded and def slow. If things were a little more lively and the conditions were better this would be a great place to stay for awhile on the cheap. It probably rivals my experience in S and Central America with better infrastructure and amenities.

I am plotting my next move in the next couple of days probably west along the garden route towards Capetown. So far South Africa is very, very nice. This is definitely Africa for beginners, beautiful, cheap and easy to get around. My experience with the locals (English, Afrikaans and Blacks) is probably substance for another lengthy post.