Inside battle at the Superbank: Journalist Nicholas McElroy took to the waves to experience it first-hand
TWO middle-aged men are in a 100m tussle on a set wave. Pushing, grimacing until one gives up, disappearing into the whitewash.
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TWO middle-aged men are in a 100m tussle on a set wave.
Pushing, grimacing until one gives up, disappearing into the whitewash.
A chorus of onlookers laugh and holler at the surfing sideshow, yelling “Get him, get him” — and they haven’t even had to pay admission.
Nearby, half-a-dozen kids, tanned and wearing pink surf lifesaving singlets, invade the line-up of boardriders less than an hour after finishing school.
Reigning world surfing champion Adriano De Sousa flashes along the face of a wave sending machinegun-like spray into the lens of renowned surf photographer Simon “Swilly” Williams.
A six-year-old girl, wearing a helmet in preparation for the carnage at one of surfing’s most renowned hot spots, is pushed on to a smaller runner by her dad and adopts a sumo stance.
As she rises, legs wide apart, a broken board floats by.
It is the fifth to be snapped in the booming swell in just 15 minutes.
Those waiting to join the surfing merry-go-round study the body language of the surfer on the wave so they can pounce when he makes a mistake and falls off.
But not all are happy. Some say it is not even surfing.
“I would rather concentrate on surfing but instead you have to concentrate on dodging everyone,” a 42-year-old Elanora man says.
Some surfers spend an hour waiting for a wave on the Superbank between Snapper and Kirra.
But not a blond-haired surfer, who threads his way through a seemingly endless barrel.
For a brief moment, the surfing world at Greenmount stops spinning. The frustration, jostling and drop-ins all frozen as surfers watch in awe.
Calls of “Yew!” echo as Mick Fanning re-emerges from inside the tube. Those unfortunate to miss it are bluntly reminded to stay clear of the three-time world champion and not to drop in.
Hours later, as night approaches, police rush to Snapper amid fears a surfer is missing.
As a search party assembles, the man reappears on the beach having struggled in tough surf.
Welcome to the battle of the Coast’s best surf breaks where, for the past two weeks surfers of all ages and sizes have dined on the best swells in years.
The tail-end lashings of Cyclone Winston, which flattened many parts of Fiji just days earlier, have provided a paradise for surfers — and thousands are taking advantage of it.
Even those afraid of the 4m waves hitting the Coast in recent days are getting their fix elsewhere with smaller, rare breakers off Wavebreak Island, created by the giant swell bouncing off the north wall of the Seaway. A Coolangatta tradie, who has battled crowds every morning and afternoon at Snapper outside of work, says large waves thinning out the crowds is what he’s been waiting for.
“It’s getting a bit big for them now,” he says adding the 4m waves aren’t out of his depth.
“You just have to get out there and have a go.”