Need some love, moving to WA dont know where to move to be close to some surf??? ideas people?

marcdickson's picture
marcdickson started the topic in Sunday, 15 Aug 2010 at 9:54am

Hey Guys and Girls.
Ive surfed through vic, nsw. had some amazing experiences so looking forward to WA, I live in England and surf Cornwall, Wales and Devon whilst avoiding the icebergs.
Its a 7 hour drive for me every other weekend which is lame.

Ive just applied for migration and have the all clear so looking to come over next winter.
My wife is Canadian and I am English were really laid back, but hard workin but not looking to live in the centre of perth if you know what i mean. not looking to raise any children and i want to be able to be walking distance or a bus ride from the beach.

any idea's where i should start looking to live that suits easy work travel, and more importantly accessible surf?haha i'm a plasterer.

Thanks alot guys, means alot if someone could give me some general information about WA, about what to expect and some info on area's and the local breaks.

brendo's picture
brendo's picture
brendo Tuesday, 17 Aug 2010 at 2:40am
dial's picture
dial's picture
dial Monday, 4 Oct 2010 at 1:57pm

Perth is flat. Don't tell the locals that, they think its awesome. If your wife likes the beach, she'll love it.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Tuesday, 5 Oct 2010 at 3:22am

Tough decision Marc - lots of great places in WA to pick and chose from - depends on what you're really after. Plenty of crew live in Perth and make the weekend dash down south (or, when it's really big, up north) but you'll get frustrated with the fickleness of Perth's waves pretty quickly. Then again, you're coming from the UK so the change might be a positive one!

As you're in the building industry, Mandurah's been in somewhat of a boom for quite some time and is probably a good base to find work. It's not too far from Perth or the Southwest, and there are plenty of good waves locally when the swell is running (it can suffer in the summer time though, much like Perth).

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Tuesday, 5 Oct 2010 at 8:09am

Marc, I'd be thinking of Geraldton.
Plenty of money flooding into the town from mining and fishing.
Lots of surf around, with true world class waves not too far away.
The climate is mediterranean but it is fucken windy during the summer, great if you like windsurfing.

etarip's picture
etarip's picture
etarip Saturday, 13 Nov 2010 at 5:41am

Perth: get used to surfing tiny but offshore waves in the morning.... and dealing with a pretty massive crowd (esp at Trigg etc).
Pretty much blown out every arvo - the evil doctor. Vibe in the water can be pretty toxic.

Depends whether you're moving to Oz for surf, or just lifestyle. /you'll probably run into a whole bunch of people you know if you settle in North Perth around Joondalup - pretty much entire suburbs full of transplanted poms!

Best of luck.

timberskills's picture
timberskills's picture
timberskills Saturday, 13 Nov 2010 at 2:11pm

if your looking for that perfect work/surf combo, south side is the go! Rockingham shire offers easy access to perth for work, and you can come home in the arvo for a sesh at any number of beaches south of warnbro. Secrets usualy picks up twice as much swell than any of the metro beaches, and holds about the same type of quality and consistancy of you average sydney beach break on an average day. The big advantage to living here in the west is the quality of surf.... world class! just not in perth. But having lived in Sydney and Perth , Perth takes the cake, the south west is only two hours drive and that has a plathora of pumping world class reefs, rotto has pumping reefs and up north..... farkkk up north pumps to!

Hope you don't mind sharing your waves with big fish!

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Monday, 15 Nov 2010 at 10:49pm

Good point timberskills. People may rabbit on about the sharks in South Oz, but I reckon West Oz has given The Festival State a good run for its money in recent years.