Surfing Australia puts forth proposal to shift headquarters and high performance centre to Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast

The governing body of one of Australia’s water sports has put forth a proposal to create a new world class headquarters and high performance base at one of the Gold Coast’s most iconic locations. Full details of the bid here.

Tessa Thyssen of France surfs in the 2024 Gold Coast Pro. Picture: Andrew Shield/World Surf League.

Surfing Australia has put forth a proposal to shift its headquarters and high performance base to Snapper Rocks as Gold Coast City Council works to lock in the future of the city’s most southern beachfront.

The sport’s governing body is currently situated at Casuarina, NSW, but officials have been in talks with consultants who are drafting up a 20-year masterplan for the Snapper Rocks to Rainbow Bay foreshore precinct.

Surfing Australia CEO Chris Mater confirmed the sport’s interest in the move, detailing its vision that would provide participants with access to world class facilities across most of the coastline.

“Surfing Australia is looking for the best training conditions and best environment to drive participation in the world,” Mater said.

Surfing Australia CEO Chris Mater has revealed the governing body’s plans to shift its headquarters to Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast. Picture: Portia Large.

“Snapper Rocks is a really exciting location because of obviously the high quality wave, the potential of the 2032 Olympics, Duranbah is just over the hill and the future state of the art surf park on the northern end of the Gold Coast at Parkwood is coming.

“We are exploring how (a future at Snapper Rocks) could look.”

The current Casuarina base is a 40,000 square foot facility where Surfing Australia’s staff work out of.

It also sleeps up to 44 people, enabling it to host camps and corporate programs while it also has dozens of meetings rooms, conference spaces, gym, trampolines, foam pits, skateboard ramps and more.

Mater said it was a great facility but it was ageing and a new home at Snapper Rocks would provide further advantages for stakeholders.

“We are calling it version 3.0 for a high performance centre for Surfing Australia,” Mater said.

Sophie McCulloch pictured competing at the 2024 Gold Coast Open. Picture: Sebastian Andres Rios

“We definitely need something in the recovery and wellness space with saunas and ice baths. “It also relates to being on a beach and having world class filming and photography facilities so we can film the surf really easily and have that content piped straight into a meeting room so we can do coaching, feedback and analysis.

“We would love a bigger meeting space to hold more coaching, judging workshops and finally we like the idea of being on a beach so we can drive more participation programs.

“It isn’t just about high performance but helping clubs and communities run surfing better and get more people involved in the sport.

“We are trying to run the biggest event in the world which is the Olympics so reimagining how that could look to run that sustainably and easily.”

Snapper Rocks will be considered as a venue for the 2032 Olympics and Mater believed having the headquarters at the same place gave the country a greater chance at winning a gold medal.

“If you want to beat the rest of the world you have to be innovative, you have got to be getting ahead of everyone else and this is the sort of advantage that we could have and a meaningful one,” he said.

“If you don’t invest in these types of things you will get left behind.”

Originally published as Surfing Australia puts forth proposal to shift headquarters and high performance centre to Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast