Jeffreys Bay — Laid Back Leisure

Jeffreys Bay

The town of Jeffrey’s Bay, loc­ated just South of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, is undoubtedly South Africa’s surf­ing cap­ital. Stories about the form­a­tion of the town abound, many claim­ing it was found by a ship­wrecked cap­tain. Some say the town was foun­ded by surfers, but the real story is that a cer­tain Captain Jeffrey, while sail­ing his cargo ship along the coast in the mid 1800’s, decided that the place was the ideal loc­a­tion for a hol­i­day home.

He did just that in 1850, and for years — liv­ing along­side the local people – he was the only colo­nial res­id­ent. More res­id­ents did move in though, and the local hotel, a land­mark, was built in its ori­ginal form, from tim­ber and cor­rug­ated iron, around this time. The ori­ginal hotel was demol­ished and rebuilt in 1968, and still exists as such today.

The town of those days, from the reports of loc­als, con­sisted of a few fam­il­ies – noth­ing like the bust­ling town of today, how­ever, the relaxed, small town atmo­sphere pre­vails Many rem­nants of the old town remain, to doc­u­ment the early his­tory of the town. One such attrac­tion is the Surf Museum, loc­ated above the Rip Curl store in the middle of town. Photographs, art­icles and mem­or­ab­ilia from some of the surfers who have been drawn to the area are dis­played here, and give some insight into why and how the town gained this laid back air.

Jeffreys Bay

In fact, one of the attrac­tions the town is most fam­ous for is the annual Billabong Pro surf­ing com­pet­i­tion, held in July / August each year, where loc­als, vis­it­ors and for­eign surfers com­pete on the fam­ous waves for top hon­ours. As far as fest­ivals go, another one worth attend­ing, and hap­pen­ing around the same time is the Shell Festival, ded­ic­ated to another pas­sion of loc­als. In fact, no mat­ter when you visit Jeffrey’s Bay, the shell museum will give insight into some of the more exotic spe­cies of mar­ine life to be found in the area.

When all the surf­ing, sun, excel­lent waves and laid back atmo­sphere become too much, there are many other attrac­tions in and around the town to vist.

In the sub­urb of Marina Martinique for example, you can visit the shark aquar­ium, and get close enough to res­cued sharks to reach out and touch them if you wanted to (not advis­able, given that some of the spe­ci­mens on dis­play are over two meters long) Trained guides will teach you more about these creatures, but be sure to time your visit to coin­cide with feed­ing, for a show.

Another quite unique activ­ity in the Marina Martinique area is the sand board­ing school, loc­ated past the res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment, at the beach. Here you can rent a sand board and take les­sons from seasoned pro­fes­sion­als in this excit­ing, high adren­aline sport.

Water sports also abound in Jeffrey’s Bay, par­tic­u­larly dur­ing the tour­ist sea­son when swim­ming and surf­ing share the water with jet­s­kis and boats for hire. Accommodation and food in the town are as var­ied and inter­est­ing as the people – from upmar­ket gues­t­houses or din­ner at the Savoy hotel, to camp­sites, back­pack­ers and excel­lent takeaway sea­food, there’s some­thing for everyone.

Useful Links:
More des­tin­a­tion info at:
Jeffreys Bay Accommodation
Jeffreys Bay Tourism Info
Jeffreys Bay Shell Festival
The Sunshine Coast
Billabong Pro Website