Where in AUS would you live in you could take your pick?
MNC. Which is where I chose because good weather, beautiful nature, reliable surf in most every condition and not crowded.
If surf was more of the priority it would be South coast NSW hands down.
Northern Rivers is also a contender but I feel they're getting smashed more from climate change. That's one of the reasons I moved from the gold coast.
The Southern coast of Oz/TAS is too windy, cold and remote for me. Also not reliable like NSW for surf.
Access to reliable surf with spots that can handle big swells and EAC exposure so can fish pelagics in season.
Thats pretty much the entire eastern seaboard.
After the surf quality we've had this year (or lack of it) South Coast NSW with it's abundant reef/ledge breaks looks more and more inviting.
yeh, SW WA would be right up there for me too @a-m. west SA too (like elliston or streaky). I need beach solitude, and empty carparks and boatramps, hand-shake tradies and building regs. but I really appreciate small local industry being nigh-ish. access to stuff if you need it. If you can get a job you enjoy in a community you like (like teaching, cheffing, promoting a truffle farm, etc.. plus jobs for any kids that come along..), work flexible hours or only a few days a week cos house/land prices aren't mad, but easily be alone on a beach with fish and surf most days of the week, that's all you need. limestone coast/west otway coast is the shizz too..
(if you choose melancholy coast with chilly water, you get a lifetime of ennui and headspace.. if you choose balmy weather and warm water you will forever compromise and share the hell out of it with everyone and their dog. unless you go for complete economical and geographical isolation, like NW WA or PNG).
WA is as cooked as the east coast………with east coasters. Not much solitude until you hit the almost coast.
Northern NSW hinterland. I've always liked Uki. 20 acres of land, some natural water and I'd be in heaven.
Usually a rideable waves within an hours drive, reasonably close to an international airport and other services but far enough away to still be in the bush.
Warm water too. I'm sick of farking wetties.
Gotta be warm water.
the older I get the more I hate wetsuits.
Just on the east coast- it's amazing how often you can score empty waves if you keep an eye on things./
Such a wide open swell window- you're looking at the Coral Sea, deep into the South Pac, right down through the Tasman, Bass Strait, Cook Strait, below the South Island, on the ice shelf, even right into the southern ocean below the continent.
So many weird little swells that come with no hype and can offer good surf, albeit on the small side.
Of course the major swells at the A-grade spots are massively crowded.
Southern states is much more static- you're looking at the roaring 40/50's the vast majority of the time.
Maybe a cyclone swell once a blue moon for WA.
Sapphire Coast NSW for me. Farkin beautiful part of the country.
I don't want to blow up anywhere secret but it has to be the sunny coast. Warm water year round. Compare it to the GC and you never have issues with southerly swells closing out entire beaches. The points down the southern end of the SC have nothing like the crowds at snapper. There's a cafe. With the turbidity on the southern end from all the runoff you hardly ever see any sharks. The sport fishing is excellent with tilapia in the creeks.
I don't know what more anyone could want, frankly.
""I don't know what more anyone could want, frankly.""
Swell???
Haha only joking! well maybe.
basesix wrote:
yeh, SW WA would be right up there for me too @a-m. west SA too (like elliston or streaky). I need beach solitude, and empty carparks and boatramps, hand-shake tradies and building regs. but I really appreciate small local industry being nigh-ish. access to stuff if you need it. If you can get a job you enjoy in a community you like (like teaching, cheffing, promoting a truffle farm, etc.. plus jobs for any kids that come along..), work flexible hours or only a few days a week cos house/land prices aren't mad, but easily be alone on a beach with fish and surf most days of the week, that's all you need. limestone coast/west otway coast is the shizz too..
(if you choose melancholy coast with chilly water, you get a lifetime of ennui and headspace.. if you choose balmy weather and warm water you will forever compromise and share the hell out of it with everyone and their dog. unless you go for complete economical and geographical isolation, like NW WA or PNG).
True B6, but I always felt a bit on edge at those SA breaks. Some big fish, and the mind would play games.
Never really had that feeling in WA, although logically probably the same risk??
SW WA was never empty but just so much swell and setups.
How about OS, Bali would have to be #1 for all things considered if had a time machine to take you back pre 2010.... :)
freeride76 wrote:
Gotta be warm water.
the older I get the more I hate wetsuits.
Just on the east coast- it's amazing how often you can score empty waves if you keep an eye on things./
I admit it is scary how staggeringly attractive an idea that becomes as I get older. I was having a few ales with a melbournite swellnetter a few months ago, he has a few years on me, and he painted a very engaging and bucolic picture of retiring up north to a surf zone. I think I thought I'd go to indo every other year in my 50s and 60s. Not having to financially manage travel in order to not wetty-up.. yep, can see massive appeal in that.
And the east-coast-hump swellnetters who talk about secret waves in plain sight, lone beachies and uncrowded B-waves make it sound even more attractive. Hopefully I'm forever priced out of such a move, sounds a lot of effort and I'd miss the space.
I love northern NSW.
Yeah it's getting busy, and the primo days at the A grade spots are a joke, but there're still lots of uncrowded surfs to be had.
And there's warm water, and a perfect climate (best in the world for mine).
Also, a huge plus is what you can access from here, the bushwalks, the national parks and state forests, the big rivers with no-one around for miles.
Places where I go, if something goes wrong it can be a full day walk out to the nearest house, never mind the nearest town. Proper isolation.
And this within three or four hours of the tourist ghetto of Byron.
Apart from the growing crowds, two things bum me out at times.
First, the water clarity where I live just north of the Richmond is mostly very ordinary, so if you like putting on a mask and fins it can be disappointing.
Second, I would love to magically create a couple of massive headlands to create backbeaches for those northerlies.
The options round here at this time of year are pretty limited.
But jeez, all in all this area ticks a lot of boxes.
M.P
Gods country baby. The whole coast line from Portsea to Cape Schanck is national park so can’t be built out. Left handers at either end. One is fat and mostly uncrowded. One pumps but the crowd makes it almost not worthwhile.
Can still get quiet beachie waves in between.
Dead flat twice a year only.
A couple of scary waves if you want them.
Jump on the ferry to the west coast over winter for some point break action.
Good fishing for certain species if that floats your boat.
Southern Goldy 100%. You've got anything you could ever want here, pumping waves for most of the year, point breaks, some world class beachies (north goldy) AndyM's home town only 50 mins away.
Downside, crowds, trafic and crowds again.
Where I live now is perfect…..but I’ve had better in the past.
For me, the early 80’s on the Sunshine Coast where I lived and worked for some years was a high point as I could surf the whole coast within a short drive.
But that was back when you could surf A bay to get swell when flat without naked gay men parking themselves next to your towel……very awkward when you came in….…especially when two of them were sitting there smiling at you…..there were just a few cute girls back in the early days getting all over tans….no blokes.
….and a drive to Double island where there was always waves and no people weekdays……I used to hustle to get someone to come with me so I wouldn’t be alone with the big sharks….the lefts were incredible.
Plus much less crowded points in the national park where I surfed the best waves of my life sometimes for two weeks straight and never under 4 feet then brekky and a coffee in Hastings street where the good vibes were and the pub on the hill and the cheap staple burgers at Betty’s and harvest lentil burgers in the 70’s
Time warp me back and I’d say there in the 70’s early 80’s with a modern thruster instead of those awful old boards……..though muzz did make me good single fins in the late 70’s……but today………Right here where I am now……in NSW rural ….or anywhere rural….dosent matter where…...get self sufficient…..drive to the beach is ok ….you get used to it…..time to think….…..you have to move with the times…
In terms of waves, lifestyle, weather, culture etc... What would your pick be, if cost and accommodation/work were no barrier?