We Tried Surfing 10 J-Bay Spots in One Day

Six local surfers, one stretch of Jeffreys Bay coastline, and a plan that fell apart within the first ten minutes. The film is "We Tried Surfing 10 J-Bay Spots in One Day". A crew who all live within walking distance of the Point tried to surf ten named breaks along the Supertubes point-break system before the light ran out.

Filmed by Ernst Ohlhoff (@surfcanon), edited by Addai Willmott / SLAP Productions. Surfers: Addai Willmott, Gary Willmott, Indie Ellerington, Richard Ellerington, Ezra Cruciano, Casey Cruciano.

Before sunrise

The crew was up in the dark, sorting boards, wax and sunscreen ("very important," someone jokes on camera, "in the dark") before piling into a car nicknamed the Super GS. There was a wave-count spreadsheet drawn up in advance: ten spots, a rough order, an ambitious schedule. Swell size and consistency change from one section of the point to the next, so they adjusted section by section as they worked their way down.

The line-up: all 10 spots

Jeffreys Bay's Point is a chain of named sections that link up, on the right swell, into one of the longest rides in the world. The full run, with the moment each spot appears in the film:

• Super Tubes0:42
• Salads3:43
• Coins4:10
• Tubes4:56
• Lower Point8:23
• Albatross10:53
• Kitchens13:46
• Phantoms15:38
• Magnas16:06
• Boneyards17:58

Tap any spot to jump straight to it in the video. Super Tubes is the wall the whole point is named for. Boneyards and Salads pick up swell first on the outer edge. Kitchens, Phantoms and Magnas hold the smaller, punchier sections further along toward Lower Point. Lower Point is the easy-access take-off zone, five minutes' walk from Dwell at Point, and usually the friendliest place on the list for a first session.

Session rating: one out of five

By the crew's own scorecard, the session landed a one out of five, and they were proud of the hustle anyway. There's a running joke about one surfer "only" paddling from Super Tubes to Albatross in four hours, another about a cameraman answering to "the ginger vicar." Chasing ten spots in a day turned out to be a way to find out which wave is working when you show up.

Do the mission yourself

Dwell at Point sits two minutes from Lower Point and five from Super Tubes, so the drive time between spots on this list is mostly a walk. Start at Lower Point on a smaller day, work your way toward Boneyards and Salads as the swell fills in, and save Super Tubes itself for when the tide and your legs are both still working.