Next stop after Plett was the famous Jeffreys Bay. Famous because it has the best right-hand pointbreak in the world, that is a really good wave for those that are not in the know. The break is known as Supertubes, although there are a lot of other amazing waves in the area.
In J-Bay we are back to living right on the beach, and on top of one of the funnest waves in J-Bay as a perk. The backpackers is on a dune overlooking Kitchen Windows which is a fun right and left reef which runs for a good 100m or more on its day. Etienne Venter is the coach in J-Bay and one of the top coaches in the country, having coached the National Junior team on many occasions as well as Eastern Province at the South African Champs. Having said this I think it is clear that he has an abundance of knowledge and information to share with the group.
Everyone’s surfing really went to the next level during the stay in Jeffreys Bay. Having a wave which consistently breaks in the same place is great for ‘practicing’ different things, increasing the rate of learning. Surfing is one of the few sports in the world where you can not practice something over and over again, because every wave is different and just catching a wave is a challenge on its own. You will frequently only catch two or three waves and hour which then puts a lot of pressure one those waves and you really don’t want to mess them up! The flip side of all this of course is that when you do get a good one it feels really good. Some may say the best feeling in the world.
Moving back to their surfing, Andy adapted to these waves the quickest, getting some good lefts and right. He is one of those rare people who is (or certainly was) more competent on his backhand (riding across a wave with your back facing towards the wave) than his forehand. Joe is always amped to surf and consistently catches lots of waves, providing he paddles hard enough! Ollie is chilled on land and enjoys to be in the middle of a conversation, but when it comes to surfing he puts his head down and does his thing. With a good wave count and plenty of energy his surfing is coming along nicely. Ian is always chilled and pretty quiet on land (most of the time) but when he is surfing he is often the one taking the craziest waves, sometimes it works and other times not but he is going for it either way. The first thing that comes to mind with Tim is that he just never gets tired in the water! He is quite reserved and laid-back on land so maybe that energy just stores up and comes out when he is surfing as he is always the one who is in the water the longest and whilst not catching a large quantity of waves he definitely gets the quality ones. Natalie came into her own in J-Bay getting epic rides along the face on the second session in J-Bay. She is bubbly on land and really goes for it in the water. Emily, much like Nat, has a great attitude towards surfing, and when the waves are bigger maybe out of her league she is not perturbed and just goes for it. She has had some great rides, and every session her surfing improves.
Jeffreys Bay isn’t all about surfing but I will save some of our flat day activities for another blog.
Adios Amigos