Byron is buggered

[Trev]

most of the north nsw/ se qld stretch – shit you could include most of the east coast – is buggered when you compare it to the purity of earlier times.


it's been hard to watch just through my time, i can't imagine what it must feel like to have had the 60's & 70's all to yourselves out at the pass, and kirra and burleigh etc ...

even though it's madly cold, i found tas still has that purity.

Kirras always been crowded.

Not "always".
I'm a few years older than you but while weekends could get busy (not by today's standards) in 1963-67, it was never crowded in the morning or on week days.

[Drailed]

last year I turned away from perfect point surf time and time again because there was no-one out.

Kook.

[The Mighty Sunbird]

Now I've seen everything

[Trev]

Now I've seen everything

Sharks were prevalent.

[Kunji]

I first surfed the place in the winter in the year of our lord 19 hundred and 13. Back then it was called "Brians Way" named after a stubborn koori bloke who said he knew a safe passage from broadwater to the stones at lennox. Turns out he was right but that didn't stop the white fellas consuming his flesh at the tip of the cape. Ill miss brian and his funny ways.

[crabmeat thompson]

[Beanpole]

most of the north nsw/ se qld stretch – shit you could include most of the east coast – is buggered when you compare it to the purity of earlier times.


it's been hard to watch just through my time, i can't imagine what it must feel like to have had the 60's & 70's all to yourselves out at the pass, and kirra and burleigh etc ...

even though it's madly cold, i found tas still has that purity.

Kirras always been crowded.

Not "always".
I'm a few years older than you but while weekends could get busy (not by today's standards) in 1963-67, it was never crowded in the morning or on week days.

I reckon I surfed Kirra for the first time in about 1971-2. I'd started surfing in the summer of 69-70. Inter club contest with Kirra.

[foamy]

The first day I saw Rainbow Bay was on a saturday in August 1971. Coming over the Greenmount Hill and the view opened up to show a beautiful head high swell wrapping into the Bay. I was gobsmacked. Those horrible Norfolk Pines hadn't grown, so the whole beautiful scene was totally unblocked by the giant weed trees. And it was pretty bloody crowded.
But, as Trev said, it was often relatively uncrowded mid week.

On a late Sunday afternoon in 1973, the surf had been crappy but suddenly turned golden. The whole Snapper Point to Rainbow Bay was cracking and my school mate and I had it totally to ourselves. Just 2 people. Perfect wave, run around, another perfect wave etc. It was baffling that we were by ourselves. But, there was no internet and good surf forecasting was virtually non-existent and I'm sure everybody was doing the Sunday arvo session at the Patch. One of my top five surf experiences.

[Trev]

Used to do that run around on the couple of occasions each year when the planets aligned and the south swell would be big enough and solid enough to wrap around Snapper and run right across the bay, wrap around Greenmount point and finish up a couple of hundred yards down towards Coolangatta. After school, ride to Snapper, catch one, walk back, catch maybe two more. Then ride home in the dark, log under my arm and he wind behind me.
1964 and 65.
Sort of like Superbank, but all natural.

[Beanpole]

I had been watching an American surf show on TV for a while......I think it was called Surfs Up or something. Just starting High School. Wondering what I was going to get into as I approached being a teenager. I had a cold and my parents had taken me to the Kirra Zoo.....which was seriously lame. Got dumped in the car at Twin Towns Services Club....as was usual in those days. The sun was warm...September I think. Had a flouro acrylic turtle neck jumper on and I was cooking. Went for a walk around Greenmount and it was peeling right through. It used to hug the point at Greenmount when it was smaller in those days. Guys were getting waves right though Rainbow and if they were lucky dodging the rocks and going right down the side of Greenmount onto the beach. That was it for me. I couldn't imagine anything better to do on a day like that.