Bruce’s Beauties – Cape St. Francis (Surf Report)

After a solid blow of onshore winds from the SE yesterday wiping out the surf, I thought the last day of surf would be a write off of junked out swell. Took off on a bike ride and ½ way through at about 9am I noticed the winds dying and swinging to offshore (I peddled really fast home!). Got the tip from the guy who runs the B&B restaurant here that with a SE swell on the water and the winds clocking SW that this could be the day to check out Cape St Francis. I got there by about 11:30 at it was quite the site pulling into the parking lot at Bruce's Beauties (the site that was made famous in Endless Summer) and seeing the stacked up corduroy perfectly groomed by the offshore winds with sets overhead and sections throwing barrels. They say the wave is not as good as it used to as they have lost all the sand flow with a development of high end homes on canals (very cool by the way – each has a dock and wake-boat…and all the houses have to be the same white colour and black thatched roof that they cut into very unique rounded roof lines!), but the wave is still amazing. I forgot my wetsuits so had to skin it, which wasn't bad at first but after about 2 hours the upwelling turned a whole layer of cold water and I ended the last hour of the session shivering and totally numb! Only 6 guys out when I got there and then it got down to just 3 of us and nice guys that rotated the set waves with each other. The wave sets up with a solid drop and with the right angle wall you make it past a rock point and can ride it 500m way to the inside. Tough launch – but I opted for a boat ramp at the bottom of the bay that added a few extra minutes to the paddle but at least no cuts or bangs to the board on the rocks. Found out I was really lucky that this was the first real time that Bruce's has broken this year with the right angle swell and right angle wind. The smaller waves were fun and about 200M before you kicked out in front of rocks (Paula got a snap of me on one of these) – but the bigger set waves were hauling fast and I even scored a barrel on my last wave that I figures I better cap the session off with that.


Guess what too boys – it gets better! Cape St Francis has a Nicklaus signature course (see pic.) that opened last year and only costs $60 a round for an amazing links course that rivals Bandon Dunes! They also have another links course that is older and basic. Then on the drive back into Jeffreysbaii we saw that there is a new development with a Nicklaus designed course (not a "signature" course – and not quite the nice terrain as Cape St Francis – set to open in October. So you have the perfect Surf n Turf combo. Ahhh….this is truly Mecca! Nice way to end it and off to dinner with a family of Brit's who live here part time and have done really well with local real-estate investments…great guy I met surfing the point a couple days ago. 4AM call time tomorrow to start the venture to the next stop in India!