Gold Coast

Simply
Surf, Sun, & Sand

The Gold Coast is an epicenter of coastal vacationing in Australia. The heart of excess on the coast is Surfers Paradise, the quaint town come giant tourist city. There are multitudes of giant hotels soaring upwards and dominating the skyline. Downtown is riddled with pumping night spots on every corner and lots of drunk and sun burnt vacationers [LEFT: Chilling out at Shooters with Daniel and Leanne from England, Photo by Mike Garre]. Just outside the city there is even a grouping of large amusement parks, theme parks, and water parks. The city is fully geared up give the hordes of vacationers an over the top Las Vegas style beach vacation experience.

Fortunately, though just down the coast for Surfers Paradise exists a real surfers paradise in the form of Coolangatta [BELOW: The lights of Coolangatta reflected on the beach]. It is what Surfers Paradise probably was a couple decades ago, and in a couple more it will likely be just like its overdone neighbor. But, right now it still has some lingering charm and offers up some great surfing.

Mike and I started our time on the Gold Coast in Surfers Paradise. Though while we had fun going out to the clubs, taking a surf lesson, and getting our mini golf game on; we soon tired of the over amped atmosphere and after a couple days we headed down the coast in search of the lazy beach side lifestyle. We found Coolangatta and an excellent base camp in the Coolangatta YHA. We booked to stay there for an entire week and then rented surf boards for the week too. Our game plan was wonderfully simple; surf, eat, sleep, and repeat.

Over the course of the amazing laid back week we surfed a number of different beaches and breaks in the area. We started with the Bilinga Beach just a short walk from our hostel which gave us small consistent wave on which to learn to surf. We surfed there for 2 days. But had a short day the second day because both Mike and I got stung by Blue Bottle Jellyfish. They are not a serious threat, but are certainly painful enough to make you hesitate before going back in the water again. We elected to spend the afternoon building a sand castle instead of surfing as a result [RIGHT: Castle Hole In One].

Next we headed down the coast to try Snapper Rocks break just outside Coolangatta. The break here was both longer and larger which made for some great long rides. In larger surf Snapper Rocks have the distinction of providing the longest rides in the world. They call it the Superbank, and it is often host to international surf competitions. After 3 days in a row, Mike and I took a well earned rest day.

Then we spent the next 3 days enjoying the great surf at D-Bah break [BELOW TOP: Mike surfing a good wave at D-Bah; BELOW BOTTOM: Me surfing at D-Bah, photo by Mike Garre]. The waves got bigger each day and we got better. I definitely consumed a fair amount of salt water and was pummeled over and over again, but I made marked improvements each day. By the end I felt really confident with riding 3 and 4 foot waves consistently. However, moving into the 5 and 6 foot waves generally just resulted in me getting a proper beating and being tossed around in the turbulent water. The sheer power of the ocean can be very humbling.

The only downside to spending a week at the beach was getting a little sun burned despite applying sunscreen every couple hours. With the hole in the ozone hovering above Australia, it is unbelievable how intense the sun can get down here. It is not surprising that something like 1 in 3 Australians get skin cancer.

Overall, I had a blast and was wonderfully tired and satisfied with my hard days work at the beach every night. Surfing is equally challenging and fun, and I would love to get into it more. It is just unfortunate the the coastal waters are so astonishingly cold on the Washington coast. It was a great week of surfing though, and I had a blast.

As always,
-Russ

[Pictures from GOLD COAST]