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July 5, 2007
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With so much sun and warm weather in the States this summer, it's hard for a non-surfer to imagine vacationing in the winter months of South Africa.
But surfers are pretty simple: All we really want are waves. Nice weather is a bonus, sure, but great surf is the focus. And July in South Africa has no shortage of great surf, from Cape Town to J-Bay to Durban.
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On a good swell, SW energy first hits the nooks and crannies around Cape Town, passes around Cape St Francis and refracts along the offshore Agulhas Bank. This energy hits all along the SW beaches of Cape St Francis, then nicely wraps surf around into the SE-facing coast, including the world class pointbreak Jeffreys Bay. There's a reason the Dream Tour stops in at J-Bay for the Billabong Pro in July. (This year's contest runs July 11th-22nd.) When the prevalent SW swells come in, a highly important factor with getting J-Bay to work is the correlating swell period. For the most ideal wrapping to take place, the swell needs to refract enough to get into J-Bay without surpassing it. During this time of year, we can see longer period swells (17sec+) which may overshoot their refracted energy when bending around Cape St Francis. On the other end, shorter period swell (10sec) can miss the bay and bypass it altogether. The key to scoring J-Bay is finding that perfect combo of SW directed and mid-long period interval swell. On an extra note, although winter may send more aggressive storms to the region, a perk of J-Bay is that as the storm passes to the south, winds will shift offshore, thus adding to the pristine set up. Doesn't get much better, right? So now we know where to look for surf, we just need to see the right storm happen. Already, on May 10th, 2007 there was a good hit of opening storm/swell which has been stirring our hopes for a good season to come. Keep your eyes on the charts, because there can certainly be more similar swells on the way. LOOKING BACK: INDONESIA, JUNE '07 Based on the high standards most of us have come to expect from the surf anywhere in Indonesia, our best bet for June 2007, this past month was probably a bit of a let down. Sure, the surf rarely dropped below head high with a handful of overhead to well overhead days thrown in for good measure, but if you traveled to the region expecting this you were likely a bit disappointed. The reason behind the average to below average month is that the Indian Ocean saw a couple of prolonged periods of zonal flow. That is, storm activity was primarily pointed from west to east at Southwestern and Southern Australia, rather than from southwest to northeast at Indonesia. Of course, even when storms aren't directly aimed at the area plenty of fun size surf in the head high to slightly overhead range can, and did, occur. Overall, it was still a pretty good place to be during the month of June. MORE TRAVEL SURFLINE HOME PAGE |
