There are three very close breaks on Jeffrey's Bay main beach. Dolphin Beach is a beach break, meaning a sandy bottom and waves break randomly based on the days contour of the beach bottom. It's called Dolphin Beach because in the evening you literally see the Dolphins surfing the same waves you are on. Next to that is Kitchen Windows, named by an old timer at J-Bay because he could see the break out of his kitchen window. After that a restaurant opened in front of the break called, "Kitchen Windows." It is a point break, meaning the waves break the same way all the time as they are formed by a reef on the ocean bottom. Today Kitchen Windows was a bit crowded so my coach, Kelvin, decided we would go to Phantoms about 100 yards next door. Why Phantoms? Because while the waves are as good as Kitchen Windows, there are fewer people. You see the break is a lot farther out which means a long paddle. No worries, I'm very fit. Ha! My arms were rubber when I got out there. It was great though to surf a point break, knowing that the waves would generally break in the same spot every time. The tricky part is that you have to keep yourself in that spot. Harder than you'd think. Another first for me was surfing at night. It wasn't totally dark as we paddled in but all of the lights were on. You'd think it would be scary, but it wasn't. It was actually very peaceful and relaxing. What a great day!
Surfing Phantoms in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa
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