The Dream in FACE-BRICK

If you ever visit J-Bay and take a wrong turn away from the surf shops, restaurants, guesthouses and the hallowed amphitheatre of Supertubes’ perfect right hander, and instead head up into the surrounding face-brick suburbia, it is unlikely that you will be overly impressed with this piece of the town that surfing built. Worse, if you drive through the J-Bay surf village, past the skatepark, Country Feeling and Natural Curve Surfboards, beyond the township of Pellsrus and get in amongst the informal homes and broken streets of Ocean View, you’ll really scratch your head, and wonder what the hallowed waves of J-Bay are doing round the corner from the ghetto.

So how did Jeffreys Bay get like this? And is J-Bay a warning shot, or an exemplary case study for how surfing can grow villages into towns that drive growth and development? Maybe it’s a bit of both.

AfroSurfonomics is the idea that a quality surf break and an engaged community of local surfers do more than just support development in Africa, they