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Photography by Alan Van Gysen

Muizenberg is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking of surfing in South Africa. Its gentle peelers are readily eclipsed by J-Bay’s high-speed runway and Durban’s tube-making piers. Dungeons, which is only 12 miles across the Cape Peninsula, is a virtual Everest in comparison. Yet Muizenberg lies firmly at the epicenter of South African surfing. (We also have a live cam right there.)

Mikey February and scenes from Muizenberg cluster. Photos: Alan Van Gysen

The country’s first documented surfer was recorded here in 1919, a young woman named Heather Price. By 1923, waveriding had become firmly entrenched in Muizenberg and the popularity of “surf-boarding” or prone-style “bellyboarding” made it a favored holiday destination among South Africans and the traveling elite. Famous writers George Bernard Shaw and Agatha Christie are documented as having enjoyed the odd session there with other dignitaries, and the soft, consistently rolling waves found at Muizenberg Corner — a wind-protected nook bookending the south end of the expansive beach — were perfect for all beachgoers. In some ways, it was not dissimilar to Waikiki in Hawaii, with its forgiving bathymetry and thrill of the slide. Surfing then gradually spread out around the country while Muizenberg’s fortunes swung high, and then low.

Levi Mayes. Photo: Van Gysen

By the 1990s, the beachfront had become a dilapidated stretch of buildings bookended by drug dens. When the winds of fortune changed again, they were spurred on by a coastal property boom that was partly driven by the growth in surfing and a longboarding renaissance. Muizenberg found itself perfectly positioned at the crossroads. Today, “The Berg” is home to a thronging surf community and has reclaimed its rightful place as a logger’s paradise. Also, July 1-3, it’ll play host to the second stop of the Vans Duct Tape Invitational, with the world’s best loggers tackling its frigid peelers. (Oh, yeah: we’ll be on the scene all weekend, posting realtime on our Instagram.)

Local pro Mikey February provides a closer look:

Surfer’s Corner from the air.

“Muizenberg is probably the most diverse surf spot in South Africa. You’ll find people who are young and old, beginners and shredders on all kinds of craft, packed into this lineup on any given day. A lot of this has to do with it being such a user-friendly wave and how accessible it is. It’s kind of the halfway point on the Cape Peninsula and has really become a beach for everyone to enjoy, no matter who you are or where you’re from. At most other spots this would be a bit of a nightmare, but at Muizenberg, it’s part of what makes it so special.”

“The wave itself is pretty simple and is basically a series of slow, rolling lefts and rights breaking along a mile-long stretch of beach. The bathymetry inside the bay is really gradual, so the waves tend to break from far out and then just roll gently towards shore. On a really good day, you’ll just see these clean lines stacked to the horizon. There’s not much of a defined bank, but you can always find these little corners or double-ups that make it really fun. On the bigger days, it breaks a couple hundred meters out to sea and can run forever. You’re going to be paddling just as much as you’ll be surfing, though.”

“As soon as the northwest is blowing, you know it’s going to be clean and offshore and there’ll be something to ride. It rarely gets big because swells usually have to wrap around Cape Point to get into the bay and lose a lot of their size and energy, but it’s still ultra-consistent. Summer or winter, it’s pretty rare to see it completely flat. The waves break further out and tend to be softer on the low tide, but as soon as the tide gets a little bit higher, there are a lot more double-ups and it has a touch more power. Three to four-feet with an incoming to high tide and moderate NW wind is about as good as it gets.”

Muizenberg’s famous, colorful bathing huts.

“On a good day, it’s packed. It’s full of people, but it’s not like other spots where you’d be bummed. It’s a pretty social and encouraging lineup, and I think that’s very infectious. There’s loads of little kids and so many people learning to surf, and it’s just rad to see everyone have a good time. It’s also one of the few paces where I don’t think it matters if you drop in on someone or get dropped-in on. It’s kind of a given that you’re going to be sharing a wave with someone and everyone seems to accept that. Nobody takes it too seriously. If the crowd gets too much for you, you can just head further east — the beach stretches for miles to Sunrise Beach and Cemetery, where hardly anyone surfs.”

“Tich Paul has been such a big part of the Muizenberg community. He started Lifestyle Surf Shop in the 1970s, still shapes beautiful boards and has been there through it all: longboarding, the Shortboard Revolution, the longboard renaissance… You still see Bernie Shelly in the water often, too. She was one of the core pioneers of women’s surfing in the Cape and still surfs with such style and grace. Then you have guys like Mathew Moir, who is a World Longboarding Champ and still probably does some of the best longboard surfing out there. There’s a really good crew of younger loggers, too, and so many epic people who surf there on any given day. It’s also really cool to see the recent generation of groms who grew up in Muizenberg like Papi-Chulo Makanyane, Paul Chow Sampson and Ben de Castro. There’s a bunch of them that really rip and push each other out there, especially when it comes to shortboarding.”

“You can pretty much ride anything at the Berg. It’s a very easy place to learn how to ride different boards or progress from a beginner stage to riding a mid-length or a fish or a shortboard. I used to ride shortboards there when I was younger, but it takes a lot of effort because the wave is pretty soft. A log seems like it was just made for Muizenberg and is the ideal board to ride there. It matches the tempo and pace of the wave beautifully. A lot of waves end up standing up for ages and only breaking further down the line, so it’s nice to have a lot more foam to get into it early and enjoy more of the wave. Sometimes you can trim for ages before the wave even starts to break. It’s the kind of wave where you have a lot of time to think about what you want to do and just be creative with the canvas that you get. That’s what makes it really special for logging.”

Clockwise from top left: Chemica Blouw, Nick Dutton, Roger Vuanza, Apish Tshetsha, Mandla Nglovu, Bernie Shelley.

BEST PLACE TO STOCK UP

“Lifestyle Surf Shop is a stone’s throw from the shoreline and is a Muizenberg institution. They have a huge range of boards to choose from and pretty much everything else you need. They also collaborate with a variety of shapers who you can order boards from, which is pretty convenient. I actually got my first custom shape from them and spent a lot of time there growing up, and I still love hanging out there. Just up the road is the Corner Surf Shop, which also has legendary status and is the oldest surf shop in South Africa.”

“It’s crazy to think but until fairly recently the beachfront at Muizenberg was kinda sketchy and run-down. You’d surf and then leave as soon as possible because there wasn’t much going on and it wasn’t the best place to hang out. But then again, it was one of the few places where my dad and his friends could surf back in the day [under apartheid], and they still had a lot of fun. Either way, it’s changed a lot over the past decade or so. Now the beachfront is packed with cool restaurants and coffee shops to hang out at and there’s a really good, family-friendly vibe. People come here just to spend the day, and everyone really embraces its surfing history. Bootleggers makes good coffee and is right on the beach, and that’s a great place to get something to go. Hans and Lloyd is an awesome surf-themed restaurant. They make a really good breakfast and the walls are covered in vintage boards and there are always surf films playing. The place that I go to the most is Harvest Cafe, which is a nice coffee shop and deli with super good, healthy food. Whatever you’re after, there’s plenty to choose from.”

“There’s a boardwalk that runs along the sea and goes all the way to Kalk Bay, a small fishing village a couple of miles away. It’s a really nice walk and there are some cool shops and art galleries in Kalk Bay that are worth checking out. It’s kind of like a mini-Europe in a way, with these little cobblestone streets and boutiques. There are also some really good hikes in the mountains just above Muizenberg that are easy to access and vary from two-hour walks to full-day hikes. The best thing is, if it’s flat or onshore at Muizenberg, it’s just a short drive across to the other side of the peninsula where it will be offshore. And you can always find a wave somewhere.”

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