Watersports in Cape Town – Cape Town's two ocean playground

Cape Town is a fabulous city for watersports. The complicated currents, the cliffs, bays and beaches along the Cape Peninsula and along the west coast north of Cape Town mean there is something for everyone from small children looking for a gently shelving sandy beach to adrenalin junkies looking for an extreme playground. On the whole, the False Bay side (the east coast) which is the Indian Ocean is several degrees warmer than the west coast Atlantic Ocean which also has wilder water. Water can be surprisingly cold in summer thanks to currents flowing north from the Antarctic.

In addition to the various companies listed below, there are a couple of other operators who offer a wider variety of activities. Downhill Adventures offer surfing, shark diving, kiteboarding and sea kayaking. The Cape Sport Center, Langebaan, offer kitesurfing, windsurfing, surfing, sailing and kayaking. The Cape Adventure Zone offer surfing, kitesurfing, diving, shark diving and kayaking.

Diving in Cape Town
Although you won't get the startling colours of the tropical coral beds, there is plenty of underwater drama for divers around the Cape Peninsula. With crystal clear water providing visibility up to 25m, two oceans and a huge range of habitats there is also plenty of choice to keep everyone from the beginner to the highly skilled diver entertained. Choose whether to swim amongst giant boulders covered with sea anemones, explore a seacave, its floor studded with sea urchins, fin across ghostly wrecks or swim with Cape fur seals, or simply dive with the rays and turtles at the Two Oceans Aquarium! There are many dive operators to choose from. Those included here all offer the option of doing PADI training courses as well as dive excursions. They include African Diver, Ashanti, Table Bay Diving and Scuba Dive Cape Town - as well the companies listed in the intro.

Sailing
Messing about in boats is a wonderful way to spend the day. If you want to do things the easy way, try Waterfront Boats, who run a variety of sightseeing boat trips, yacht charters and sailing holidays from harbour tours and seal watching trips to champagne sunset trips and full week-long sailing holidays. If you'd like to learn to sail, the Cape Town Sailing Academy runs courses from simple day or weekend introductory courses to full yachtmaster certification training as well as chartering boats for sightseeing trips around the coast should you wish someone else to do the hard work. The Ocean Sailing Academy also runs a series of courses, including gap year training courses and will even train you up to master superyachts.

Deep Sea Fishing
Fancy yourself as Papa Hemingway? Game fishing is a year round occupation in these deep ocean waters. From October to May, you can expect to find long-fin and yellow-fin tuna, dorado, yellowtail, reef fish, swordfish and the occasional marlin, while in the winter, between June and September, there are plentiful supplies of yellowtail, reef fish and Cape snoek. Hooked on Africa and Cape Charters both run fishing charters with expert guides and all the equipment suitable for both beginners and experts.

Kitesurfing and Windsurfing
There's plenty of wind around everywhere and around 30 kitesurfing beaches around the area, but if you are looking for five-star A-grade de luxe windsurfing and kitesurfing, the Langebaan lagoon, on the west coast, about an hour from Cape Town on the Atlantic coast, is internationally famous as one of the best boardsailing venues in the world. There are plenty of local operators offering equipment and training including Cabrinha Kitesurfing, and Best Kiteboarding Africa. Kite Kahunas, based on Sunset Beach near Green Point, does intensive 12-day advanced courses.

Surfing
There is good surfing most of the way along the South African coast and the waves keep on rolling in year-round. Those looking for really wild water should head for the Atlantic Coast in winter (June-August) when furious storms stoked by the Southern Ocean crash their way north. Remember that the earliest explorers called this the Cape of Storms - Cape of Good Hope came later! You will almost always need a wetsuit. Gary's Surf School in Muizenburg offers surfing courses as well as equipment hire. More about -- South Africa's Top 10 Surfing Spots.

Sea Kayaking
Sea kayaking can be one of the gentler watersports adventures available locally. Trips within sheltered False Bay to see the penguins on Boulders Beach are suitable for older children and anyone reasonably fit. Those from Cape Point or Langebaan require a greater degree of strength and fitness but no previous experience is necessary. Both offer a chance to see the views of what Sir Francis Drake described as 'the fairest Cape of all' from off-shore, to look for seabirds, seals, dolphins and whales. Sea Kayak Trips are amongst those offering trips.

Shark Diving
Between October and May every year, the warm Aghulas current brings some 98 species of shark (a quarter of all the sharks in the world) along with all sorts of other giant sealife from yellowfin tuna and dolphins to whales to the coastal waters of South Africa. Some 40 species of shark including hammerheads and great white sharks hang out in the waters off the Cape Peninsula. Numerous companies Great White Shark Tours (tel: +27 28 384 1418/083 300 2138) and Shark Diving Unlimited (tel: +27 28 384 2787/082 441 4555) offer those brave enough the opportunities to try shark diving. The richest waters are in the area known as 'Shark Alley' near Gansbaai, about 110 (65 miles) from Cape Town, but you can find them far closer in to the city. More about -- Diving with Sharks...