Jeffrey’s Bay Surfers Charge for Environmental Change

Text and Pictures by Alexandra Cheney

Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa – Dark reds and purples gushed out of my knee as I limped, surfboard-in-hand, towards shore. Minutes ago, I misjudged the steepness of a wave, wiped-out, and smacked an exposed set of rocks.  Now I sat, removing grains of sand and scouring fresh cut lime into my bleeding wound.

In March 2006, as a senior at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, I was awarded a Watson Fellowship to explore “What’s Underneath the Wave:” how surfing cultures in Fiji, French Polynesia, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica and Japan engage in environmental advocacy to better understand the surfer to water connection.  The Watson Fellowship is a one-year travel grant for solo independent research and travel outside the United States awarded to graduating seniors nominated by participating institutions. From start to finish I designed where I would surf, whom I would interview, how I would document my journey, and ultimately what I hoped to find.

Born and raised in Santa Monica, California, I experienced the bond to water early on. I began swimming when I was five, surfing when I was ten.  The day I picked up a surfboard and stuck my toes in the sand, I knew I was hooked. I began as a little wahine, got wrapped up in the surf culture, and knew I’d never stop.  As I grew into the surfing culture, I also grew into surfers’ understanding of the water.  

Interacting constantly with the ocean, surfers are some of the first people to notice differences in water temperature, taste and smell of the ocean. With that information, a surfer can tell if their oceanic environment is overly polluted, “sick” with red tides, or under-nourished with sand. Endangered local breaks and receding beaches plague coastlines around the world. Enviro-surfers, as I have coined them, take action to preserve and protect their coastal environment via non-profit organizations and surf clubs, information sessions and beach-cleanups.

As word spread around Jeffrey’s Bay (J-Bay) that a girl longboarded in overhead waves and shed blood at Supers, a surf spot known for its fast-moving and difficult to maneuver walls of water popular with Great White sharks, young locals approached me, curious to hear about my scars.  Like me they were surfers; after telling my story I asked them to share theirs. Over the course of my research I encountered a student surfer/scientist fighting to protect her surf spots and beaches, interviewed a recent college graduate persuading global surf companies to sponsor local surf contests, and photographed young South Africans fighting to establish their post-Apartheid selves through surfing and environmental activism.

According to the United Nations, South Africa under Apartheid “allowed the ruling white minority in South Africa to segregate, exploit and terrorize the vast [black] majority. In white-ruled South Africa, black people were denied basic human and political rights. Apartheid was racism made law. It was a system dictated in the minutest detail as to how and where the large black majority would live, work and die.” Nelson Mandela, a South African born human-rights activist, championed democracy and equality, and served a 30-year imprisonment for his beliefs. After his release, Mandela won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 as the elected President of the African National Congress. In May 1994, he became the first freely elected democratic South African president and ended Apartheid.  Mandela gave his people a democratic constitution, a different flag, and a new identity.

Sean Holmes, a 29-year-old surfer and marketing manager for Billabong South Africa, understands the struggle South Africans, especially students, face to get their voices heard. Instead of ditching his final years of high school and skipping college to chase the dream of becoming a paid professional surfer, Holmes finished his education in 2006, graduating with a BA in Business Science from a local university.  “I had the opportunity to leave my country years ago to join the WCT (World Championship Tour) as a pro-surfer, but if I left, I thought to myself, who would be around to re-bound [from Apartheid], re-organize the country, and represent the new South Africa? So I stayed and surfed in my country and finished my education,” Holmes said.

Even though South Africa is a democratic country, according to Holmes, “we are still working out the kinks” left from Apartheid. According to the UN Chronicle, a quarterly magazine published by the United Nations Department of Public Information, approximately 5.5 million people, more than 11 percent of the population, is living with HIV/AIDS: according to the South African Department of Education 300,000 children do not attend school across the country. Taking his pragmatic approach to surfing and applying it to life, Holmes views surfing as a small way to turn the country around. “Surfing allows the kids to take a break from their problems, have fun, and maybe make some money for their family.  Surfing is more than just a sport, it is something the kids can practice, get good at, and take pride in,” said Holmes. 

Holmes uses his heritage to market an international brand to South Africans, specifically South African surfers.  “This is the first time in this country that kids are growing up in a generation that gives them the opportunity to surf – black, white, rich, poor, these kids can find a way, I help them find a way.  And maybe through surfing they can get out and see the world, come home, and make a difference in their own country,” Holmes told me. 

A short time ago, Sean Holmes teamed up with other prevalent surfing figures such as Paul Botha, the man who started the first surfer-run, surfer-focused media company in South Africa, to “find a way” to provide South African girls some surfing experience. With Holmes’ influence, Billabong South Africa sponsored a number of youth surfing events, termed the “Girls Get Out There” summer surf series, encouraging young South African girls to get in the water.  

J-Bay, in addition to being Billabong South Africa headquarters, is also home to some of the finest waves in the world. Positioned on the southern South African coastline, Jeffrey’s Bay consists of a 15-mile arc of sand, rock and ocean.  The town and most of the surf sits on the western tip of the bay where the long, curving underwater lava reef begins.  J-Bay’s unique coastal make-up creates a wave that initially breaks in deep water but quickly moves onto razor-sharp rock and reef. With several places to surf along the bay, the proper swell can connect one spot to another, creating a wave that can be ridden for up to a mile.   

Further exploring the geography of bay and reef are J-Bay natives Tyrone Smith and his daughter Ashley. Both staunch environmentalists and surfers, Tyrone was one of the founding members of the Supertubes Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the dunes, beaches, and waves of Jeffrey’s Bay. “As traveling from one country to another becomes easier, more and more locales are being overrun by tourists,” Tyrone informed me. “J-Bay is a special place, the local surfers know that.  Koffie, Brad and I started the Foundation to foster awareness and save the waves, beaches, and sand dunes unique to the bay.  The Foundation now oversees town decisions and was instrumental in the new sewage system and caps on land development,” Tyrone said.  

Protecting Jeffrey’s Bay is one of Ashley’s priorities.  As a student finishing up her graduate studies in ecology and coastlines at a local Afrikaans university, Ashley walks the beaches of Jeffrey’s Bay collecting shells and documenting rock formations. “Just like surfers are the first ones to notice a change in the water or marine life by being in it everyday, by walking the beach daily as well as surfing, I notice how the increase in population affects the coastal ecology of J-Bay.  I have seen the rise of over-fishing lead to a huge change in the shells that wash up on shore, for example. ” Smith said.

With her father and professor at Rhodes University guiding her, Ashley Smith publishes her scientific findings on J-Bay beaches, citing development, weather, and population changes as key factors in Rhodes’ Activate, the university newsletter. As a younger sector of the Supertubes Foundation, Ashley also enlists local elementary and high schools to care for and clean the beaches.  “Most of these students are surfers anyways, and want to protect their beaches,” Ashley said. “Most surfers by nature love the environment.  Turning that love into environmental action doesn’t take much.”    

I hail from a beach town where septic systems overflow at least a dozen times a year, where garbage and pollution kill fish and birds alike. The Watson Fellowship granted me the time and space to explore the connection between surfing and environmental advocacy and allowed me to investigate the why and how behind young surfers commitment to preserving their local breaks.

Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa was just one of the many locales where my hypothesis proved true:  J-Bay’s young local surfers, students and scientists share a dedication to protecting the ocean, preserving the waves, and spreading their love of surfing. Sean Holmes and Ashley Smith are just two of the students I discovered working to make a difference. At the end of our interview, Holmes summed up the mission of enviro-surfers best: “A great ride [on a wave] gives me a frivolous feeling from within, a stoke.  I am simultaneously super-natural and not in control, and that’s a positive thing. Why not control what I can, [i.e.] the cleanliness of the coast and the development of the town, so I can keep the amazing feeling of surfing between me and the ocean?”

My bleeding wound eventually healed but a scar remains, another story to be shared. Around the world surfers share a bond with water, and it is strong. As my year ended, I reflected on my findings, beginning with my initial question and project name of “What’s Underneath the Wave?” With my time in Jeffrey’s Bay and throughout my travels, I discovered and now understand that underneath the wave there exists a sea of change.