May is the first of the four peak-season months. The Southern Ocean storms are now tracking where the Eastern Cape needs them, and the swells arrive with the length that turns the J-Bay point from a series of sections into one wave.
The westerly offshores that define a good day here are at their most frequent in the same months. That pairing, groundswell from the south-west and wind from the west, is what a J-Bay trip is waiting for, and from May it happens week after week rather than once a fortnight. The water is at 18°C, which locals surf in a 3/2 and visitors often in a 4/3.
