SURFING - Is Muizenberg (Cape Town, South Africa) the best beach for learning to surf in the world?

Spike finally gets to surf again, while I hoot for him!

Hello everybody at Surf Hive! My name is Jasper, and I am writing to you from Cape Town, South Africa!

Me...😀 getting ready to add fins, traction, leash and wax to a new board!

I recently posted an Introduction post to help you get to know me, and my part of the world a bit better here: @jasperdick/introduceyourself-my-introduction-to-the

Last weekend, my friend Spike finally visited Cape Town again after several years. He has been living inland for the Covid pandemic. He was eager to surf again, but wanted to surf something small and easy because he hadn't surfed for a long time, and is unfit and out of practice...

Does Cape Town have an option for him? YES OF COURSE it does! This is Cape Town, and we have every kind of wave you could want somewhere around our peninsula. The peninsula is nearly an island... there is always somewhere offshore no matter which way the wind blows. There are places exposed to the main swell direction, and there are places that are very sheltered, which is great when the ocean is raw with massive swell!

Each of these zones has many surf-spots, and all are within 30-45 minutes of where I live, as land-locked as a surfer can be in Cape Town, haha!

What Spike wanted was to dust off his longboard and ride waves at Muizenberg beach. Muizenberg is situated in False Bay, where swells have to fight their way in from the open ocean and lose a lot of power in the process. The beachbreak itself goes from deep to shallow in an extremely flat gradient, which makes the waves break softly and gently, and run for long rides. This makes it the best beach for learning to surf in Cape Town, and a strong contender for best beach for learning to surf in the whole world?

Teaching another friend to surf at Muizenberg a few months before

The downside to Muizenberg? Well, once you are a competent surfer, you may find the waves a bit too soft, especially for a shortboard. Luckily, I am a dad now (my first baby daugther is just starting to walk) - so I'm well on my way to becoming a grumpy old man. This means that I do have a mini-malibu 7'6 surfboard among my young man shortboard collection... for days like this!

Also luckily, there are many other waves in Cape Town that offer anything from a little more power... to A LOT more power!

Muizenberg also gets quite crowded at the main carpark where the surf shops rent out boards to tourists and run surf-schools. Luckily again, about 500m down the beach the crowd thinned out considerably and we had waves all to ourselves!

So let's see what you think of the video evidence - Is Muizenberg the best beach to learn to surf in the world? Have you ever seen such small clean waves, break for such long rides (especially towards the end of the video), on safe flat sand instead of rocks? Please let me know, but I might not believe you!

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