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Cape St Francis surf guide

Home of Bruce's Beauties, the right made famous by The Endless Summer, with quieter points than J-Bay next door.

Location

Eastern Cape, South Africa (-34.2070, 24.8340)

Best season

May – Sep: May, June, July, August, September

Water temperature

14–22°C (shorty or rash vest (warmest) to 4/3 mm (coldest))

Waves

Point break, Beach break

Suits

Intermediate, Advanced surfers

Surf spots in Cape St Francis

• Cape St. Francis: Point break, right-hander, all levels, faces NE (offshore wind from the SW), best at all tides. Suits all levels. (-34.1735, 24.8402)

What's on in Cape St Francis

A quiet holiday village with very little nightlife: evenings are mostly sunsets and dinner. The Full Stop Café by the Cape St Francis Resort often has local live music on Saturday nights; otherwise no regular nights could be found.

Updated 2026-11-02.

Where to stay in Cape St Francis

60 places to stay within 10 km: 24 hotel, 19 holiday rental, 7 guest house, 6 bed and breakfast, 2 resort, 1 camp site, 1 villa. Compare them by distance to the nearest surf spot on the interactive map.

Cafés, food and surf shops

6 cafés and bakeries, 37 restaurants and bars, 2 surf schools and 3 surf shops nearby. Surf schools: St Francis Main Beach, Fore Royal St Fancis Bay.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time to surf in Cape St Francis?

The best surf season in Cape St Francis is May – Sep (May, June, July, August, September). The sea ranges from 14°C to 22°C over the year.

Which months have the most good surf days in Cape St Francis?

Measured over the last three years (2023-11-01 to 2026-10-31), the waves at Cape St Francis's best spot were good or better most often in March (13% of days, 3% great), January (8% of days, 0% great) and April (6% of days, 1% great), and least often in November (1%). From each day's swell and wind (Open-Meteo), rated like Swell Cabin's forecast.

Do I need a wetsuit in Cape St Francis?

Water temperature in Cape St Francis is 14–22°C: shorty or rash vest (warmest) to 4/3 mm (coldest).

Is Cape St Francis good for beginner surfers?

Cape St Francis is better for intermediate and advanced surfers, though Cape St. Francis can suit all levels on smaller days.

What are the surf spots in Cape St Francis?

Cape St Francis has 1 surf spots on Swell Cabin: Cape St. Francis (Point break, right-hander, all levels, faces NE (offshore wind from the SW), best at all tides).

Where should surfers stay in Cape St Francis?

Swell Cabin lists 60 places to stay within 10 km of Cape St Francis, 7 guesthouses and homestays, 20 rentals and villas. Each one shows its distance to the nearest surf spot.

What is the nightlife like in Cape St Francis?

A quiet holiday village with very little nightlife: evenings are mostly sunsets and dinner. The Full Stop Café by the Cape St Francis Resort often has local live music on Saturday nights; otherwise no regular nights could be found.

What is the surf forecast for Cape St Francis this week?

Swell Cabin shows a live 7-day surf forecast for Cape St Francis and each of its 1 surf spots on https://swellcabin.com/town/cape-st-francis: each spot rated hour by hour (Flat, Poor, Fair, Good, Great or Epic) from the way its coast faces, the swell, its period, the wind and the tide, with the best time each day and why, the size in surfers' words (e.g. "chest to head high, clean"), tides, and how sure the forecast is (three wave models compared). It is checked live against the nearest buoy and airport wind reports where there are any, and refreshed every few hours (waves from Open-Meteo, wind from MET Norway).

When is the best tide to surf in Cape St Francis?

It depends on the spot: shallow reefs usually want mid to high tide, most beach breaks work best around mid tide. Swell Cabin's forecast for Cape St Francis weighs each spot's tide hour by hour and shows the best window each day with the high and low tide times (approximate: there is no tide gauge near the town).

Is the Cape St Francis surf forecast checked against measurements?

Yes. The open water off Cape St Francis is checked against the satellite altimeters (Copernicus Marine's near-real-time wave heights): 70 satellite passes within 100 km since 2026-09-24, typically 48 km out, put the forecast wave height within 20% of the measurement 96% of the time. Of the three wave models compared, Météo-France has been the closest to the satellites here. Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information (https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00179). Last checked 2026-11-05.

How reliable is Swell Cabin's information about Cape St Francis?

Trust in this page's data is low (52/100): the town has not been verified against sources in the last 12 months; 0 of 1 spots fully verified, 1 with a researched tide; season and water temperature checked against measured data; 1 open audit warning. How we check: https://github.com/danielgalam/swellcabin/blob/main/docs/data-accuracy.md Last checked against sources on 2026-11-05. Every value comes from measured data (Open-Meteo, buoys), open databases (OpenStreetMap, Wikidata) or a published page we opened, never from visitor reports; a daily audit compares them and a weekly evaluation measures the error rate (https://github.com/danielgalam/swellcabin/blob/main/docs/data-quality.md).

Is there a live surf cam in Cape St Francis?

Swell Cabin hasn't found a live surf cam it could check in Cape St Francis yet (it only lists cams it has opened); the surf forecast on its page shows the waves this week.

Where can I take surf lessons in Cape St Francis?

Surf schools in and around Cape St Francis include St Francis Main Beach and Fore Royal St Fancis Bay.

Nearby surf towns

• Jeffreys Bay, South Africa (best May – Sep)
• Kommetjie, South Africa (best Mar – Sep)
• Elands Bay, South Africa (best Mar – Sep)
• Durban, South Africa (best Mar – Sep)
• Mirleft, Morocco (best Oct – Mar)
• Tamraght, Morocco (best Oct – Mar)

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