SPOT ON SPOT:
A Revisionist Glance at Historic Surfing Locales: J Bay

Kelly Slater, J Bay

And it’s cheap to live there. For example, 650,000 Rand ($95,000) gets you: “A newly built 3 bedroom, two-bath,Tuscan style townhouse with 2 bathrooms in new area, Single garage, situated in small security complex with only 4 townhouses.”

In The Beginning:

There are many stories about which whaler, fisherman, or shipwrecked sea Captain Jeffrey’s Bay was named after, and a couple as to how it was discovered by surfers. One story is told beautifully by Max Wetteland in Chasing Dora. The short version: The South African local surfers had heard of Bruce Brown and crew scoring a perfect right in the area and went looking for it. They didn’t find it but went on a detour to a legendary fish and chips stand. Stopping to take a leak, the guys all looked over and saw a lot of whitewater along a point. Thinking they had found Bruce’s Beauties it wasn’t until the movie came out that they discovered they hadn’t discovered Cape Saint Francis, but something else entirely. Cape Saint Francis no longer breaks much because of sand issues, and that accidental discovery is considered the longest, most perfect right on the planet.

The other story has it that John Whitmore – the father of South African surfing – was driving up the N2 "Garden Route" between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on a business trip. Something caught his eye and that something proved to be ruler-edged Antarctic swell peeling for over a mile along a point.

Nostradamus:

Until some intrepid traveler finds a more epic cold-water right point in Norway or the Shetland Islands or Chile, Jeffrey’s Bay is going to remain the longest, most perfect righthander in the world. That combination of southern location, perfect wave-bending geography, exposure to Antarctic swell and offshore winds is going to be hard to beat on this planet.