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St Francis to JBay, as told by Jasper Mocke........... I hooked up with PE hell man Richard von Wildemann on Sunday to do my second St Francis to JBay downwind. This famous piece of coastline is home to some of the world's leading surf spots like Super Tubes, Seals and Bruce's to name a few and then some not so famous one's not to be named...sorry! Being a conservative Cape Tonian I was in for one hell of a day! Pre-mission......... Sitting in the loft of my girlfriend's house at Point, JBay, wind howling. My planned fishing trip for leerie and prawns on the Krom river basically blew away! So I phone my long last mate from PE to ask him if he's keen for an epic downwind. My question............"chopper, the wind is howling bru, lets go from St Francis to JBay".........his answer..........."Bru, im on my way already, see you in 15 minutes!" Richard is probably the most enthusiastic ocean man I know beside my brother, I never doubted his commitment for a second. Conditions............ WSW 30 knots!!!!!!!!!! Swell 3m from SW, busy picking up to an overnight 6m. Overcast and pretty spooky looking! The mission.............. If you ever have any trouble finding a driver, phone someone with a learner's! He/she will be there in a flash! This was exactly the case with my girlfriend's younger sister. So the debate begins with Chopper. He is certain it's gonna be a no-go cross shore out to sea. "No ways" I tell him. "I've done this in a NE and it was completely wrong, so this must be right.hey?" Not like anything was going to stop us from going anyway. We arrive at St Francis main beach after opting for that rather than the harbour. Its damn cold, I know this because Richard takes out his thermo instead of his normal speedo! Im left to my hellie, vest, waterproof top and..........hoodie! So we set off and it's pretty disappointing. Look like wind has died so we drift slightly out to sea and BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM it hits us!! We're right in the middle of a 30 knot WSW and it's going a bit off course from where we want to go. Still there are so many runs you can get on them and surf sideways still making a great downwind. 20 mins into the paddle we're deep enough to pick up some swell and this is when things hotted up. What followed was an epic 55 minute surf between wind and ground swell. Definitely one of the best feeling to trade runs in the open ocean with one of your best mates! We rounded the point at Aston bay and the famous JBay lay ahead of us, problem was that the wind was now crossing our ski's from left to right at a 90 degree angle. So reluctantly we gently paddle closer into shore with the pace picking up for a split second after a little Mako said hi to Richard! The final stages of the paddle was a gentle tap about 100m off shore along Jeffrey's Bay, catching waves from Kitchen's to Point. There were a few swims and laughs and great fun. The problem is that those amazing waves at JBay are formed by rocky shelves and it's pretty much impossible to come in unscathed, unless you know exactly where the channels are. Luckily the tide was pretty high and combining this with my little knowledge of the channel at point we both made it in ok. Reflection.......... WSW was probably the wrong wind to go in. I would say that a SW or ideally a SSW would be the answer. Combing this with a big SW swell would make it an epic adventure. You could go from the main beach at St Francis on a SW or SSW. On a SSW you could go from the Port which would connect well with the runs. As you take off aim just outside the big water tower at Paradys strand. Then hook a left to JBay. Finish at the main beach if you are unsure of the channels at Super's. It was a great paddle and hopefully we'll see some more holiday makers to East Cape join me and Chopper for this paddle.
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Big wind one day
Clean world class waves the next