Weekend Wave Wrap: Surf trip fail

Weeks and weeks of awesome waves. Lots of swell. Lots of photos from up and down the coast all the way to Queensland with reports of amazing waves. Reportedly, the best time of the year to surf the Gold Coast. I have not been to the Gold Coast for a while and a mate of mine was keen to go on a surftrip. Done. Flights to Gold Coast booked.

I even took Friday off to maximise surfing time at the Gold Coast. We arrived and…it was pumping. Snapper Rocks was going off. It was a bit busy at Snapper but then you get enough spots around here that were equally firing. Since Friday, I hardly spent any time outside of the water. That’s how good it was. At one point, I stopped counting how many barrels I had. It was just unreal. Unfortunately, it was actually unreal. That’s where the wishful thinking comes in. It was not pumping at all.

No swell. Nada. All weekend. Ok, it was surfable Friday morning at Dbah and it was still a good 2ft + and I still saw some guys getting some fine barrels that morning. From then on it went downhill rapidly. Not only did the swell drop to a miniscule 1ft but onshore winds came into play.

Saturday 1ft onshore mush all day. It was not even worth hiring a longboard. We  spent the day bumming around in Byron instead and watching poor buggers at the Byron Bay Triathlon sweating their balls off on what it felt like a hot summer’s day (at least something).

Sunday morning, more of the same….gorgeous day but no swell to speak off. At least there was no wind either so we thought about getting some mals and have a bit of a cruise at Snapper. But clearly, we were not meant to surf this weekend. As we turn around the corner, we see a little wave but we also see the local longboard club having their comp on Sunday morning. Aaaarghhh…Unf…ing believable. We had a plan but it failed. By that time we were so desperate that we went for a paddle in Dbah anyway. Barely 1ft and onshore again, we hopped in for a few ripples. Absolute shocker wave-wise.

On the upside, we had 3 days of summer – great weather up here (could have been worse – rain and flat), we got upgraded from an average accommodation to an amazing apartment with ocean views (of the flat ocean), had time for a massage, yoga and lots of ice-cream….oh and time for board shopping. My friend brought a brand spanking new beautiful chilli board.

Also, the surf is meant to pick up again tomorrow. Right in time, when we are leaving for Sydney. At least there will be surf when we are back…