Discover The Best South Africa Surfing Vacation For You!

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Surfing Vacation In South Africa - Home Of World Famous Jeffrey's Bay photo courtesy of South African Tourism

Cape Town and South Africa is a great place for surfing. Not to mention that South Africa is one of the world's premier African safari destinations as well. So if you love wildlife and surfing this is the destination for you!.

Cape Town is world famous for kitesurfing! So when we moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town, my daughter was looking forward to learning how to surf & kitesurf! That was until she felt how cold the water around Cape Town is! We haven’t talked about it much since that first experience. She may still be looking forward to it, she's pretty adventureous - she’s been on scores of African adventure safaris.

"South Africa is one of the top surfing countries in the world, with sublime coastal scenery, consistent high-quality surf, a cheap but high standard of living and a unique culture to be proud of," says Steve Pike, editor of Wavescape.

Few visitors disagree.There are hundreds of surf breaks all round the country - 50 of them are within an hour's drive of Cape Town alone. So there is tremendous variety for those interested in a surfing vacation. The range includes safe swells for infants and beginners to epic breaks that scare even hardened competitors in the international contests held here in June and July.

The area of the Eastern Cape around Cape St Francis, Jeffreys Bay and Port Elizabeth - collectively known as Jay Bay by local surfers - is world-famous for the quality of its waves. This is the premiere destination for a South Africa surfing vacation.

I recommend that you get a copy of Surfing in South Africa, published by Wavescape, is an invaluable resource for both resident and visiting surfers. It contains an extensive guide to the country's surf spots, a comprehensive (and hilarious) surf slang glossary, swell predictions and oceanography. It's available from Wavescape.

Interested? Contact us for personalized South Africa surfing vacation ideas, just for you!

Want To Add Variety To Your Surfing Vacation? Windsurfing, Kitesurfing & Scuba Diving In South Africa

You can spend all your surfing vacation in South Africa simply surfing. Remember the cult movie Endless Summer? Bruce's Beauties? Well, that's just one of the incredible breaks on the South African coast. If having a world class surfing vacation is your goal, then you will spend a lot of time at the best known surfing spots around Cape Town, Durban, Jeffreys Bay and East London, but there are loads of great, virtually unsurfed waves.

The many backpackers hostels around the country are geared up for surfing vacations -- providing board rental, escorted surfaris and surfing lessons, and there are dedicated surf schools in Durban and Cape Town.

But there is more, like I mentioned earlier, a surfing vacation in South Africa is wonderful but remember South Africa also has some awesome windsurfing and kitesurfing spots. Langebaan, near Cape Town, is internationally recognized to be one of the top boardsailing venues in the world - and there are others.

If neither a surfing vacation, nor windsurfing and kitesurfing are for you then a more accessible way to experience the sea is in a specially designed sea kayak. There are escorted trips around Cape Town, Hermanus, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Durban.

For a bit more of a challenge, try surfskiing - it's becoming a rather trendy pastime and can be very competitive. Surfskis are really fun boats to paddle - fast, responsive and with the approximate stability of a razor blade balanced on its edge. There is a whole series of races throughout the year all along the coast. Check out www.surfski.co.za.

The South African coastline is one of the most challenging in the world to sail, with few harbors, stormy conditions and, often, very rough seas. So it's not a good bareboat option. However, it's a great place to learn to sail - there are sailing schools in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban - and we feature on all the major round-the-world races. There are loads of local races, too, and the Cape to Rio is one of the most accessible ocean crossing races in the world, attracting a large cruising contingent.

If you need any convincing about the seriousness of the South African coast, you need look no further than the many shipwrecks. Of course, these were all tragedies but still good news for local divers & those interested in Africa dive safaris.

Interested? Contact us for personalized South Africa surfing safari ideas, just for you!

And if this weren't enough, South Africa has more to offer than these poignant sites, though. Its underwater environment is absolutely beautiful and varied and it has lots of wonderful diving sites. South Africa has an enormously long coastline ranging from about 35°S to 27°S, which isn't quite within the usual range of tropical diving. However, the Mozambique Current which flows down its East Coast brings warm, tropical water with it, and at Sodwana Bay South Africa has the most southerly coral reefs in the world.

Of course, these reefs have the full complement of pretty colouful fish and some great nudibranchs, including the outrageous Spanish dancer (Hexabranchus sanguineas). Whale sharks, turtles, dolphins and ragged tooth sharks (Carcharias taurus) are often seen in specific places.

And then, as you head down the coast, the underwater faunal and floral assemblage changes gradually until, once you've reached Cape Town, you're diving in chilly but beautiful kelp forests. These, too, are unique. There are three major types, or genera, of kelp and it is only off a short portion of the Western Cape coast that they all grow together.

If you've always shunned cold water diving, consider it. Sure, you do have to dress up in a great thick wetsuit with constraining hoodie and gloves but it's worth it. Diving in kelp is like walking in a forest. You float beneath the canopy and admire the surprisingly colourful reef life.

Off Cape Town, divers regularly see anemones in colours ranging from electric blue or deep red to pale pink, nudibranchs of almost every colour you can imagine and a whole range of small creatures in and around the bright orange and sulphur yellow sponges.

There are dive schools in almost every centre, with a surprising number in the landlocked Johannesburg area. Perhaps it's not so surprising. Most people do their training up there and then head down to Sodwana Bay for their qualifying dives.

There is even an inland dive resort near Johannesburg where students can do their first dive or two in a disused quarry. Badgat is another, much deeper disused quarry in Mpumalanga where rebreather, mixed gas and deep diving courses are run. When you come here to dive our wonderful reefs, do take careful note of your no-fly limits.

A flight from sea level to Johannesburg can take only an hour, and you gain 2 000m (7 000ft) in altitude - that's without even considering the flight. This really does represent a major risk, so adjust your itinerary to include a day of sightseeing, shopping or beach lounging between diving and flying or even driving to Johannesburg.

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