Wannasurfers

Trip: the gold coast

Written by kaimana

Wednesday May 9 2007 04:59:23 AM

Date: from Apr 30, 2007 to May 4, 2007

Surf trip description:
Spent a week in surfers paradise on the gold coast... the goldie was pretty much flat all week. Got a few small waves at Burleigh Heads but the best surf was down past Byron Bay on the open beaches.. Spent a day at Broken Head n got some good 3-4ft waves.. Being from Victoria it was good to surf somewhere warmer with a bit more power n good water temperatures!!

Modified: Wednesday May 9 2007 04:59:23 AM
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May 14, 2007, DrC123 said:

Back in the day ...

The routine was to surf Tallows on the back side which was protected from the noreaster (not unusual to see Bob MacTavish, Nat Young and crew out there during the late sixties and early seventies) and spend Saturday night at the local bar where you might lucky or at least get bombed ... remember driving a Ford wagon off a side road one night down into ditch ... opened the door ... barfed ... fell in it and woke up next morning feeling very seedy to say the least ... lucky some mates came by and got us out.

Just south of Byron lies Suffock Park and Broken Heads. The first time I saw Suffock Park it was little more than a remote beach campground surrounded by scrub at the end of a sandy track off a secondary road. We had arrived the night before in a blue and white VW bus with the side windows covered by checkered table cloth curtains and a mattress on the floor. Dawn came and crawling out of our sleeping bags rubbing out eyes we walked around the point and checked out Broken Heads.

Broken Heads is just that ... broken headlands ... cliffs falling into the sea with offshore

rock islands that looked like they once belonged to the mainland. It was a hot dry day at the end of summer probably 85F degrees at sunup and a light breeze coming from the west blowing from the desert regions of the outback and bringing with it hundred of tiny flies that flew in your eyes up your nose and into your ears looking for moisture.

The wind was slight cross shore but the cliffs protected the bay between the bookend rocky outcrops. The ocean was oily glass and sets from shoulder to head high broke in two peaks, one out by the furthest rocks and one inside the bay in front of the cliffs similar to Zeros just north of Malibu in California. Quick breakfast of Kelloggâ€™s corflakes with banana (now I cannot eat before I go out period) someone else had melted chocolate frogs washed down by a warm beer and a raw egg (true OZ breakfast of champions).

As we knee paddled out the sun burning on our backs the wax on our boards was already soft by the time we made it to the line up. There were only a half dozen of us out there sliding down the fat peaks and climbing and dropping the glass walls. The bigger clean sets were a little inconstant so as we sat in the line up the water dried on our baking shoulders leaving salt crystals and the flies found us all the way out to sea ... not only did you had to dive off your board to cool down and get rid of the flies you had also to turn your board upside down to stop the wax melting right off! By midmorning it must have been 90F degrees with 80F water.

As we had no leashes in this era so were surfing the far point as there is no beach
whatsoever just rocks more rocks and undercut cliffs so if you lost your board it was history. The inside peak was better but just too risky ... one of our friends Mr. Jitters (from his Terry Fitsgerald style) caught a beauty inside but didnâ€™t make it ... board was dinged from top to bottom but didnâ€™t break ... two layers of 10oz cloth was common. (As a footnote this area is now considered a â€œsecret spotâ€ and is frequented by surfers including Nat Young seeking less crowded conditions.)

One weekend as the wind was strong onshore but with a huge swell so we drove further south past Broken Head to the small sea side town of Ballina. At Ballina you could surf the protected north or south breakwaters ... shark heavens ... where the wind was cross shore or if the swell was big enough inside the Ballina river itself.

This day ... across a sandbar in the river where the freshwater met the ocean by a bridge peeled perfect waist high left handers ... a few locals out and a bunch of kids making sandcastles at waters edge. We ripped it up for three hours ... 85F degree water 90F air temp sand and silt bottom with a gentle breeze. Queensland and northern New South Wales is the land of right hand pointbreaks ... lefts are hard to find ... if you are a goofy you surf your backhand better than your forehand!

On my last wave I snapped turned from the top walked up to the nose and stayed there ... used my knees to hold position as the wave broke perfectly all the way from the sandbar to the beach ... hoping some one was watching as I approached dry sand ... still on the nose ... pulled off a spinner and stepped onto a kiddy sandcastle! Sometimes the best sessions are not fleeting moments on giant waves ... a do or die adrenaline rush ... some times they are just pure FUN.