Hello everyone, and especially the SurfHive Community! It's Jasper, the musical-surfer dad from Cape Town in South Africa.
Do you know a surf spot that can beat this view from the water? That is the Cape Town stadium (built for the 2010 Soccer/Football World Cup) with the iconic flat-topped Table Mountain behind it. The peakier mountains are Devil's Peak (on the left) and Lion's Head (behind Signal Hill on the right).
We have had a crazy early winter with gale force winds, heavy rains and flooding here in Cape Town. It kind of feels like we totally skipped Autumn, which is a pity because Autumn is my favourite season for surf in Cape Town. The days are usually blue skies but not too hot, and it's often the only time in Cape Town when the winds are soft. There's usually swell arriving from storms far to the South (rather than right on top of you causing unpleasant weather!)
Luckily, now, in the middle of winter we seem to be getting some of those Autumn days I thought we missed! There was my birthday on Wednesday (@jasperdick/surfing-a-birthday-adventure-my), and then today as well!
Well, the surf-spot with the awesome view is this sectiony left point that only breaks when big swells can wrap around the top of the Cape peninsula.
But when it is on, the ride can be long... here it heads off around the corner and out of sight...
Long rides can come with long paddles back to where you started, and the opportunity to catch another wave before you ever get there again...
And sometimes a section of the wave will shut the surfer's ride down (see the surfer getting closed out in the whitewater in the background), which could give a lucky surfer paddling back a chance at the second half of the wave...
You can see the previous wave in front of the one I'm riding still rolling away happily!
The low winter sun creating shadows out of the wave and my body...
Throwing a happy shaka to one of the few other surfers out there this day. It was a bit of a surprise that the swell had enough size and period to make it around to this spot, which was really cool as it can get quite crowded when people know it will definitely be working!
So, I couldn't ask for much more! A chance to ride a fickle spot, with an amazing view, without the usual crowds! Yes please!
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