Cave Rock Surf Guide

Cave Rock Surf Guide

Just on the other side of The Bluff, a few kilometers from the throbbing Durban beachfront scene, exists a very different surfing universe, and the center of that universe is the wave known as Cave Rock. A thick, booming barrel over reef, Cave Rock throws some of the biggest barrels around. It's a gnarly wave for experts only.

There are two main waves, The Pool and The Rock. The Pool is the section that breaks behind the tidal pool. It gets big and thick, and often ledges out on take-off, but the barrel is big and wide. The other wave is The Rock, the section that breaks in front of the namesake Cave Rock. The tubes are probably even rounder here, but the bottom is shallow and gnarly.

Most of the Cave Rock waves like a medium tide and a sweeping south swell and is also best in the northwest breeze. A secret about the waves on The Bluff is that when the beastly easterly comes up late mornings, The Bluff is the last place to feel the wind.

The Rock can be surfed up to about 10-foot and maybe even bigger. Either paddle out alongside the tidal pool and pray for a gap or paddle out from the beach and pray for a similar gap. The sand movement affects the waves, and sometimes on the beachbreak just alongside Cave Rock are some big, slightly less scary barrels. There are sometimes lefts coming through on the beach, and the odd left off the peak at The Pool, but basically Cave Rock offers right-handers on the upper end of the scary scale.