Stayed in a suburb about 10 miles outside Cape Town. The nearest kite spot was about 10 minutes drive away. There were big long sandy beaches, so plenty of safe launching areas all the way down the beach. Each spot along the beach has free car parking which we found to be pretty safe. There were no problems leaving belongings in the car or on the beach, as long as we kept an eye on them.
We went for a couple of weeks towards the end of February and found the wind coming from the south east, across shore so the perfect conditions for those beaches. There is a cold current that cools the water down, so the water here is a little chillier than other places around the coast, I wear a full wetsuit and was perfectly comfortable. It is similar to UK water temperature in Auntumn. The air temperature is warm; it’s just the water that is cold because of the current. The wind from the sea is denser and stronger which does make a good difference.
There small shore break but if you have trouble with the waves then go out at high tide and it is easy to get out behind them. If you would rather stay near the shore the waves make brilliant kickers.
The Wind is best between December and March. January is when the wind is at its strongest and then it starts to drop off towards the end of March.
The wind seems to hit around 11am and starts to build throughout the day and lasts until sunset around 7.30pm. In terms of strength you could start on a 12m and then drop to a 9m as the wind picks up. I didn’t take my 7m but there were certainly a couple of days that I could have used it happily.
I have 9m and 11m Cabrinha Crossbow and a 13m Ozone Edge. My bigger board is a 142cm Shinn Monk, it is an intermediate everyday board. The monk is a very smooth board and I would recommend it to anyone, even beginners, they are so easy and do everything really week, especially cutting through chop.