Hello everyone, and especially the SurfHive Community! It's Jasper, the musical-surfer dad from Cape Town in South Africa.
Those of you who follow me will know that I set myself a New Year's Resolution to surf a new spot every month of 2023. Well, I have been able to do it every month so far, although the conditions were pretty bad when I managed to pull it off last month as you can see in that post:
@jasperdick/surfing-new-wave-of-october
November sped by with only two sessions at a reef I go to all the time in Cape Town... It looked like I was putting all my eggs into one basket - this past weekend, I would be returning to the Coastal village about 2 hours from Cape Town where I had surfed October's New Wave.
In October, I had been surprised to find a small right breaking into one bay... the one or two locals who had told me about the general spot, and the one time I had watched somebody surf it, it had actually been a left breaking into the next bay about 50m to the West and the two bays were separated by a series of rocks.
This left was one of the only concrete ideas I had for me to find a realistic new spot in the village... the good news is that I would be treated to 2 mornings of small to medium swell, low tide and soft winds.
The left definitely seemed to qualify as a new surf-spot... it started pretty far from October's wave and then broke away from it into the next bay...
...So I made sure to catch a couple of lefts to be sure I could say I was surfing a #newspot... some of them ran at a good speed and then there was a nice channel to paddle back along the line of rocks you see - what a beautiful setting as well, especially in the blue sky of the second morning!
Both mornings I was the first to paddle out, and was never joined by more than about 3 other friendly locals, mostly catching the wave early on longboards or mid-lengths...
Apparently this isn't normal, and might have to do with less sand after the big late winter storms, but you could just as easily go right from the same take-off spot...
The rights would often last longer than the lefts...
And so I actually caught more rights than lefts. Here is the tricky question, were these right-breaking waves also at a #newspot? These right-breaking waves could end at a place where only a few rocks (maybe 20m worth) separated me from where October's #newwave started (and then continued the journey going right). I could imagine that on a bigger day, the two sections might link up for one long ride (or the whole thing could just close out and be un-surfable, who knows?) When do two sections (an outer section and an inner section) become their own spot?
I know that one day, when I surf the famous "Supertubes" in Jeffreys Bay, I would consider that a new spot because it is a faster, more hollow, higher grade (and more crowded/localized) section of the JBay point than the "Tubes"/"Point" sections I have surfed, when I have occasionally visited Jeffrey's Bay years ago... with that said, apparently on a massive day it is possible to surf "Supertubes", get through a very fast "Impossibles" section and get through "Tubes" and "Point" all on one wave...
Similarly, there is a big wave spot in Cape Town called "Outerkom". It doesn't break below about 3m high (and a super powerful 3m at that!). The funny thing is that if you manage to keep riding the wave all the way in, you land up surfing into a sheltered bay called "Innerkom"... by now the same wave that you will still be riding won't be higher than 1m high and there will be a crowd of chilled longboarders and even small children waiting to take over if you get bored and pull off! Surely that doesn't qualify as the same spot?
Outerkom is terrifying, and I have only ever surfed it at its smallest (about 3m high, but very thick, open ocean, steep and sucking waves that you need at least a 7ft board to even catch even at this "modest" size), whereas Innerkom is like a playground for children! Hahaha - so no, they must be "different spots" even if you can surf from one straight into the other and keep going!
So... I'd like to make a compelling argument that both the rights and lefts I caught this weekend count as November's #newspot! Hahaha!
An interesting patch of thick foam turned up - probably brought across by a current from a place around the corner who's Afrikaans name means "Angry Water"
And so here's an interesting perspective (slightly warped by the fish eye lens of the camera) - Another surfer is going left, while I am in a place more suitable to go right, with the peak of the wave about to break into the weird patch of foam
Here's one more picture of a local on a mid-length board just in the process of standing up after ensuring that he has managed to catch the wave - he must then surf towards me to stay on the green face before the wave breaks into white water.
So the whole point of surfing is to stay in a place where the wave is standing up to break, but hasn't actually broken yet - the more you can do this, the more you keep up the speed to be stable (think how difficult it is to ride a bicycle slowly but still balance) - the speed is also needed for you to do cool manouvres! A wave that allows you to keep being in that perfect spot for a nice long ride is rare, and much sought after!
So, one more month, December, to go, before I complete my New Year's Resolution of surfing a new wave every month! This might be the best New Year's Resolution effort I've ever made! Hahaha!
THE END