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HISTORY
The south west
coast of South Africa was originally inhabited by the nomadic
San people many thousand years ago. They interbred with the
Khoi-khoin tribes and became known as the Khoi-San. These
peaceful people walked the coastline of South Africa, living
off the sea and never claiming ownership to any place, and
became known as the Strandlopers (Beach-walkers). Their beautiful
rock art is testimony to this spiritual tribe that are the
original inhabitants of our beaches.
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In 1498 Portuguese sailor Vasco de Gama
was the first white man to set foot on South African soil,
and quickly set about exploiting the land and her people.
He was soon followed by Dutch settlers,, who became known
as the Boers (Farmers), and not long after came the British
in their quest to colonize the planet. The peace-loving
Khoi-San were driven further and further away by force,
and today only small pockets of Khoi-San remain, scattered
among the sands and deserts of the arid Skeleton Coast.
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Numerous explanations exist about where
the name Jeffreys Bay derives from. Some say that the name
derived from one Captain Jeffrey when his ship was shipwrecked
here and he literally stumbled across the beautiful area that
was to become Jeffreys Bay. Another source says that the name
was derived from a trader that moved here in 1850. Some always
say that Jeffreys Bay was initially used as a harbor and trading
post and was established in 1849 by one, a J.A. Jeffrey, a
whale hunter by trade, originally from St. Helena. As time
passed, Jeffreys Bay became a small fishing village and has
since grown into the wonderful and world famous holiday town
it is today.
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Legend has it that the father of South
African surfing, John Whitmore, discovered the waves at Jeffrey's
Bay in the late 1950s as he drove up the famous N2 "Garden
Route" between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on a business
trip. As he stood in amazement at the side of the road looking
at an as yet unmapped break through binoculars, it would have
been extremely hard to mistake those ruler edged corduroy
lines perfectly wrapping around a point, giving what could
have been a 1.2 kilometer ride. Backpackers
in Cape Town,
African heART.
Cape Town Backpackers Hostel Lodge
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In 1961 Bruce Brown came to
South Africa to film part of his classic "Endless Summer"
and captured the magic of nearby Bruces Beauties firing, and
with it the imaginations of a million surfers. Not the most
consistent of waves, but soon enough the travelling seekers
cottoned onto another nearby set-up, Jeffrey's Bay, which
was to be seen as the best right point-break on the planet,
and still is to this day!(Ed)
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