Watch: Jordy Smith Is Your South African Surf Tour Guide

Fastened to the southern tip of the mother continent, South Africa is as raw as it is diverse. 

Cape Town, for instance, is constantly pelted by swell and a frigid Atlantic current, making it famous for big-waves and thick rubber year-round. 

As you come around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean, the swells get smaller but more refined, the water noticeably warmer. This pattern extends through the Jeffrey’s Bay region all the way up to Durban—where Jordy Smith learned to surf—and even further into South Africa’s neighboring nation of Mozambique, where some of the world’s most welcoming, bath-water bays reside. 

On a recent trip with Jordy Smith, Ian Crane, and Soli Bailey, a tricky swell forecast forced the boys to experience all the different sides of South Africa. First heading to the icy southern beachies then into the balmy northern points, the boys’ efforts were duly compensated with quality surf.

If this doesn’t make you want to book a plane ticket, what will?