Box: Ticked // Logan’s J-Bay Dream Come True
Most surfers have a top-ten list of dream waves that they want to surf in their lifetime and, whether regular or goofy-foot, the fast right-hand point break at J-Bay is on most of those lists. It’s a grand-prix, dream-tour destination, and C-Skins team rider Logan Nicol had the chance to tick it off his list at the end of last year.
“I grew up surfing right points in South Wales, like proper budget versions of J-Bay, and as a regular foot I’ve always been intrigued by what it would be like to surf that wave. I’ve always thought it’d suit my surfing and the type of surfing I enjoy doing. That, and my Dad making me watch The Endless Summer so much as a kid and then watching the WCT webcast every year when I was older. I was super stoked to have the opportunity to go there and have the opportunity to like actually get it on a half decent swell as well”
“My girlfriend and her family are South African and they try to go back to visit every four years or so. This time, I was lucky enough to get to join them on their trip. So it definitely wasn’t a surf trip; it was a family holiday and none of them surf, but they were kind enough to include a couple of nights in Jeffreys Bay on the itinerary because they knew what it’d mean to me to surf there. I took a 3:2 Rewired wetsuit with me, but I didn’t take a board with me. I figured I’d rent or buy a board there if I got a chance to surf. We started off in Cape Town and travelled around loads, doing loads of sightseeing, hikes, game reserves and classic tourist stuff, and spending time inland in places like Swellendam, which was pretty cool. It was incredible. But there wasn’t really any flexibility in the itinerary so that two night, three day window was my only opportunity to surf J-Bay and I was just praying that there’d be a swell. It didn’t disappoint”
"I was eyeing up the charts and I knew that the day after we were due to leave there’d be a proper swell filling in, but we were on a really tight schedule. I bought a board out there which was a couple of litres too big for me, actually took the pressure off a bit and just made me super keen to get in and enjoy the experience. I was shitting it about sharks, though. I think like most people I have a pretty healthy fear of sharks and I was pretty nervous with the whole situation, maybe unnecessarily so, but if there's anywhere in the world you’re going to think about it, it’s probably South Africa. I was planning on only going in and surfing if I could see other people in and getting waves."
The first day we got to J-Bay it was onshore, really messy, and there was no one in. I really wanted to surf but I had that rule. Then I thought, what if it gets worse, and this is the only chance I’m going to get to catch a wave at J-Bay? So I got in and caught literally one wave and got dragged down the point and got out. It was terrible and I had the fear about sharks, but I didn’t want to risk the regret. Then the next morning we woke up and it was pumping. That was a crazy good feeling.
We’d booked an AirBnB on Pepper Street that overlooked Supertubes. As a surfer, I don’t think you could stay in a better place. It was insane. I knew there was a bit of swell coming but I didn’t know how good it would be. I woke up and it was crisp offshores, probably about 4 foot, and one guy in. I was so excited. I think my first surf was three or four hours long because I was absolutely buzzing.
It wasn’t a dedicated surf trip, I wasn’t on my board, I wasn’t surfing with a filmer to get clips or anything, so it didn’t really matter but I still felt a bit of pressure to make the most of the opportunity. I wanted to see how my surfing would go on that wave, but I was surfing purely for the experience. I mean, obviously you want to rip, but it’s actually quite a tricky wave. It’s fast and it’s more section than I’d expected, although the sections can be really hollow. I didn’t get any barrels there but I saw a few guys getting tubed. I was focussed on turns because it was a bit smaller, and the pace of the wave is so perfect that your one turn links into the next turn, into the next turn and so on. It would be amazing to spend a bit more time there and really dial in what boards I'm riding and getting used to the wave.
When we were in Jeffreys Bay we also drove round to Cape St Francis and I went and looked at Bruce's Beauties, one of the waves there which breaks pretty rarely these days but is the spot where they'd walked over the dune in that famous scene in The Endless Summer. We ended up playing nine holes on the St Francis Bay golf course which was pretty sick. I got a little bit hooked on golf while I was out there so that's a bit of a habit I've brought back with me.
J-Bay was obviously a massive bucket list surf spot for me. The most pressure I felt was because I had sharks in my head and I’d dragged all of my girlfriend’s family to Jeffreys and they were all like, “well, are you going to get in there then?”
I was so glad to luck into some fun size swell and to get to surf it. That was a big box tick. But to be honest, the whole trip was a highlight. I loved Cape Town, it’s honestly one of the coolest cities that I’ve been to and it obviously helps that because of the exchange rate everything’s much cheaper in South Africa so as a visitor you can live it up, eat out all the time, and really enjoy it. We did some incredible hikes, too. Obviously we did the classics like Table Mountain and Lion’s Head which were amazing, but one of the best days we had was a hike around Robberg Nature Reserve [a headland on the edge of Plettenberg Bay, bordering a marine protected area] and that was just insane. It was like a four-hour hike and it felt as though we saw every bit of wildlife. We saw sharks, dolphins, these amazing seals, loads of different birds, and the landscape was just crazy. That was probably my favourite day.
I cannot wait to go back to South Africa. I just loved it.
Logan wore a Nuwave Rewired 3:2 Mens Chest Zip Steamer at J-Bay, a high performance wetsuit made with insanely stretchy NuWave natural rubber combined with Halo X2 recycled linings. The compromise between performance and sustainability is no more!
