Gold Coast Success

Written By Jamie Moran on July 8th, 2009 with 1 Comment.

My previous post chronicled the first part of my recent mission to the fabled land of 10 second tubes known as the Gold Coast. If you remember, I was starting out in Sydney, which is supposed to be an 11 hour drive away from the 3km stretch of sand know as the Superbank, and I was trying to meet up with a massive winter-time low that was pushing 20-30 foot seas right into Australia’s east coast. It was more or less a last minute decision to pull the trigger and charge the drive because the forecasts were changing every two seconds leading up to the swell event. There was a really good chance that the swell was going to be huge and washed out with out of control gale force winds. I decided the night before to wing it (hey you only live once, right?). The drive up the coast turned out to be a hellish nightmare testament of mental fortitude as a cyclone engulfed over 600 miles worth of Australian coastline, forcing highway closures and massive detours. After 20 odd hours later, we finally made it to Coolangatta with hopes of waking up and catching solid surf the next day, but since we arrived at night time we had no indication what to expect for the morning.

That next morning I anxiously awoke at daybreak to check out what mother nature was serving up. My first glance at waves from my balcony produced a sigh of relief immediately. HUGE steamrollers barreling down the Rainbow Bay section of the bank – and despite sketchy forecasts calling for onshores, the wind was actually offshore! Frantically, I ran down to the beach for a better look.

The morning view from my balcony. Jackpot.

The ocean was still angry with 15 foot plus bombs coming through and a current that resembled a river more than anything else. Since the storm was pulling away from the coast at this point and conditions were expected to improve throughout the day, I decided to save my strength for a long afternoon session. And what a payoff it would be. My friend Ryan and I decided to paddle out around 2pm despite only having seen a handful of people attempt going out (which is shocking considering the Superbank plays host to one of the largest surf crowds in the world on any given day).

Bombs rolling through way outside

For those of you who don’t know, the Superbank is comprised of 4 different sections, starting with Snapper Rocks then transitioning into Rainbow Bay and Greenmount, before finally reaching the infamous section of Kirra. I knew the paddle was going to be intense, but I just hoped to get into position in time to catch some freight trains down at Kirra. Sure enough, after 30 minutes of paddling and getting steamrolled by nonstop walls of whitewater, I finally got myself into position and swung around for the first good one I saw. An airdrop and a massive, long drawn out bottom turn set me up for a beautifully groomed 12 foot wall that looked more like J-Bay then Kirra. Surfing a perfect wave is the most surreal thing in the world and that’s exactly what this wave was. Perfect. Feeling the power of the ocean beneath your feet and eyeing up an endless wall as it races into the sunset is nothing short of euphoric. And after six massive carves, a floater-air-drop, and a closeout re-entry for good measure my smile was officially ear to ear.

The next couple of days produced similar results. Although the recent cyclone wreaked havoc on some of the sandbars from Snapper to Greenmout, Kirra could be described as nothing short of perfect. As the swell trailed off a couple of days later, the torch was seamlessly passed on to the neighboring beach break of D’bah where 8-10 foot peaks rolled in relentlessly before eventually subsiding back to “average” standards a week later.

Seven days and 50,000 calories later, it was over. I thought my arms were going to fall off but I couldn’t have been more stoked. It seemed too good to be true honestly. When I originally decided to roll the dice and drive up I thought I might be lucky to catch one epic day, but instead I got six! Mission: successful