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Gold Coast By Sam Watson

Gold Coast By Sam Watson

 

Line Up Surf Australia
Travel Reports

Gold Coast Trip 1998

It's funny how things can work out for the best, even when the best laid plans for that trip of a lifetime go wrong. Well instead of heading off to the Maldives with American friend Scott Elison, Scott and I were off the the Gold Coast with my family from Sydney by car.

The trip also took another twist of dumb luck as late delivery of our new car meant that we would miss the cyclone swell that was happening at the time on the Goldie; or did it? Despite the disappointment of the delay we came to terms with the fact that it wasn't meant to be.

We did find out that the swell did drop faster than expected so we didn't feel so bad and headed North for the 12 hour drive with renewed hope of things to come. With the help of three drivers we drove into the early morning and stopped for a couple of hours kip on the way. We awoke early to get back on the road. The warm, sunny, clear day was to be the start of one of those very special days and set the scene for an unreal surf week.

We first saw the coast at Lennox Heads to be blown away by 4' to 6' lines rolling through. Scott was stoked, being his first time on the NSW North coast, pulling up on top of Greenmount to be greeted with 4' to 6' waves peeling perfectly for hundreds of metres from Snapper Rocks through Rainbow Bay into Greenmount with Kirra in the distance going off. No-one had to ask if we were surfing here. I'll never forget what my 9 year old daughter, Tara, commented as she pulled her board out of the back of the car, "Dad, is there any particular reason why we don't live here?" What could I say?

After a great surf we pulled into our flash apartment at Burleigh Heads and for the next week surfed our brains out, surfing Burleigh, Kirra, Greenmount etc, from 4' to 6'. Scott was stoked and still phones me up from Japan (where he lives) to remind me of how good the trip was. For me, I was stoked even though I had surfed cyclonic Gold Coast on many occasions. For my daughter Tara it was her first time. Scott and I were so gung ho on the trip that it wasn't until we were on our way back to Sydney for a contest that we got the revelation that Tara had gone out everywhere we did, including Kirra, Snapper etc. Not bad for a girl who was just 9 years old. It was also a testimony to the perfect inviting waves. We asked Tara for her perspective on the trip.

We also couldn't help but laugh at our Dumb Luck


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