Swell Cabin › Africa › South Africa

Elands Bay surf guide

Remote West Coast fishing hamlet with a fast, cold left-hand point that's one of South Africa's best waves.

Location

Western Cape, South Africa (-32.3150, 18.3360)

Best season

Mar – Sep: March, April, May, June, July, August, September

Water temperature

11–16°C (4/3 mm (warmest) to 5/4 mm + boots (coldest))

Waves

Point break

Suits

Intermediate, Advanced surfers

Surf spots in Elands Bay

• Eland's bay: Point break, left-hander, advanced surfers, faces N (offshore wind from the S). Long left point over rock and kelp, with a left reef too. Can get crowded. (-32.3136, 18.3307)

Where to stay in Elands Bay

27 places to stay within 20 km: 8 holiday rental, 7 hotel, 5 camp site, 2 bed and breakfast, 2 guest house, 1 surf camp, 1 hostel, 1 motel. Compare them by distance to the nearest surf spot on the interactive map.

Surf camps: Elandsbay Surf Shack.

Hostels: offshore backbackers.

Cafés, food and surf shops

2 cafés and bakeries, 1 restaurants and bars, 0 surf schools and 0 surf shops nearby.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time to surf in Elands Bay?

The best surf season in Elands Bay is Mar – Sep (March, April, May, June, July, August, September). The sea ranges from 11°C to 16°C over the year.

Which months have the most good surf days in Elands Bay?

Measured over the last three years (2023-11-01 to 2026-10-31), the waves at Elands Bay's best spot were good or better most often in May (72% of days, 45% great), July (65% of days, 39% great) and August (72% of days, 32% great), and least often in December (28%). From each day's swell and wind (Open-Meteo), rated like Swell Cabin's forecast.

Do I need a wetsuit in Elands Bay?

Water temperature in Elands Bay is 11–16°C: 4/3 mm (warmest) to 5/4 mm + boots (coldest).

Is Elands Bay good for beginner surfers?

Elands Bay is better for intermediate and advanced surfers.

What are the surf spots in Elands Bay?

Elands Bay has 1 surf spots on Swell Cabin: Eland's bay (Point break, left-hander, advanced surfers, faces N (offshore wind from the S)).

Where should surfers stay in Elands Bay?

Swell Cabin lists 27 places to stay within 20 km of Elands Bay, including 1 surf camps such as Elandsbay Surf Shack, 1 hostels, 2 guesthouses and homestays, 8 rentals and villas. Each one shows its distance to the nearest surf spot.

What is the surf forecast for Elands Bay this week?

Swell Cabin shows a live 7-day surf forecast for Elands Bay and each of its 1 surf spots on https://swellcabin.com/town/elands-bay: 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 Elands Bay?

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 Elands Bay 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 Elands Bay surf forecast checked against measurements?

Yes. The open water off Elands Bay is checked against the satellite altimeters (Copernicus Marine's near-real-time wave heights): 32 satellite passes within 100 km since 2026-09-23, typically 50 km out, put the forecast wave height within 20% of the measurement 100% 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 2026-11-03.

How reliable is Swell Cabin's information about Elands Bay?

Trust in this page's data is medium (65/100): the town has not been verified against sources in the last 12 months; 1 of 1 spots fully verified, 0 with a researched tide; season and water temperature checked against measured data; no open audit warnings. 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 Elands Bay?

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

Nearby surf towns

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

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