Insane Byron..

That and Snapper. Actually anywhere in SE Qld would have to rate as one of the most densely surfer-populated coastlines in the world.

Much easier to catch a wave in the crowd at the pass than snapper though.

I must concur bluem00n, I live at Burleigh and am amazed at the crowd levels, although one day last week over Easter I checked the Byron cam and thought "Well, at least I'm not there"

The whole coast from Ballina in the south, to Straddy in the north would undoubtedly have more surfers than the rest of Australia combined. Over easter, in my 35years of surfing those areas, i have never seen it as crowded as this year.
I was stupid enough to go and visit a mate in Ballina thinking I might get a surf at Lennox and without a word of a lie there was 160 in the water at 7.30am on the Saturday. Now like I said i've been surfing that coast for 35yrs and that was a joke. Even if it was heaps more consistent than it was, the point still doesn't handle those sort of numbers.
What do people think these days " it's crowded so must be good, let's go and hassle everybody out"?
And why do they all turn up in car loads? Is it because of insecurity issues and need positive reinforcement from their mates as to how much they rip.
When we were younger we used to try to sneak off and find waves by ourselves or 1 other ( to cut down the chance of shark attack by 50% ) and then not tell anybody where we scored until after the swell finished but these days it's not unusual to see 2 or 3 carloads turn up for the instant crowd.
I've been down to places like Nth Narrabeen and Cronulla in the past few years and had good waves with shitloads less people than up this way.
Maybe it's the cost of living down Sydney way making everybody go to work that makes the surf more manageable but it sure has become a nightmare here on the GC and FNC and not gonna get any better by the look of things. Might just be time for me to take to a mal like all the other cranky old cutns and make a prize prick of myself just to get a few more waves .
I think I'm becoming bitter and twisted in my old age and it's not a pretty sight!!

Yeah but the arvo sesh was pretty light on.
Easter Sat at the point was always going to be a shitfight.
Good Friday was pretty fucking uncrowded.
If u duck and weave you can still find some room.

Yeah Steve I guess 40 odd is pretty uncrowded these days.
I must be longing for days gone by of lobbing up to couple of handfuls of blokes surfing good waves out there without 2 - 4 dropping into nearly every wave except when word got out a few days later ( before internet and mobile phones).
Be almost good to see some of the old crew like the Webbs, Spaz & Col Molholand, Gravel and a few of the boys to keep a bit of order out there, but I hear the sheriff is coming back to the town so that could be interesting.

Move to Victoria Mr Seal

The whole stretch from D.I to Ballina wall is a joke.... But no ones laughing... Great surf spots.. Still can score the odd uncrowded beachy..... But seriously, here are house rentals around Lennox..
http://www.realestate.com.au/listsearchview.ds?theme=rea.rent&newSearch=...

Fuck off...... Even a budgie box unit will set you back the best part of 400.... And who wants to live like that.... One piss ant unit amongst 14 others in Ballina for 300..... How many would be applying? Could get a mortgage on a 600k house........
You'd end up working 6 days a week just to pay the bills.... The so called "beach lifestyle" is only for the filthy rich now...... No wonder there are so many aggro folk in the surf...... a brain full of stress on their one day off....

yeh, beats Lismore though.

Anything beats lismore.... Ohh, hang on..... Nambour.....

Yeah, it's the worst of living and trying to buy a house any where on the coast. Overpriced for what u get and surrounded by yuppie types that are more interested in telling everybody how they live in Byron than actually being there for the surf or fishing that was the whole reason that those type of towns became popular in the first place.
Then again I suppose you could be at the other end of the spectrum being a scumbag bastard selling drugs and doing nothing but surfing that would be hard pressed to be of any use to society other than keeping the coppers and centerlink in a job. Certainly got a fair share of them here on the Coast also!

seal wrote:

Then again I suppose you could be at the other end of the spectrum being a scumbag bastard selling drugs and doing nothing but surfing that would be hard pressed to be of any use to society other than keeping the coppers and centerlink in a job. Certainly got a fair share of them here on the Coast also!

Who you calling a scumbag mate, that's how I got my start in life before I moved on to selling boards on ebay that I find in other peoples cars.

That's great Shaun, at least you've moved on from drug dealing to a more noble occupation.
Quite a few people through the ages have been common thieves and some very high profile people still are.
Take most of our CEO s and Politicians as examples!

I lived above the BP servo across the road from the pub at Lennox back when it was a dirt road to Broken Head. $50 a week.

Is the servo and/or the pub still there? I think not.

Yep, servo no longer serves petrol ( that part is a real-estate office, surprise surprise) but mechanic is still there and pub is doing a roaring trade.
Still a few old locals around but no Wheelbarrow Pete and village has lost it's quite, laid-back feel.

Have just done half a trip around oz and would agree with the fact that this little corner of the Oz is the most crowded. I tell you what thought I don't know how much far behind the Torquay region is??

About a month before the comp I was passing through there in my camper van. Bells was predicted to be 6 feet. I was driving along before sun up to the Bell's carpark and this fella actually overtook me 50 metres from the carpark! That was one thing, once I got there the froth was almost palpable, blokes wigging out at getting there toes snagged in there wetties etc. Once in the water from the Bowl to Rincon I've never seen more blatant and frequent drop-ins in my life, including Snapper and the Pass. Granted the next day things got more manageable but give me NC NSW any day

I don't say anything, because really, what's the point?
But I do get a certain wry amusement from my friend's husband.
He only surfs when the forecasts are definite the surf will be great, but then complains about the crowds.

staitey wrote:

Have just done half a trip around oz and would agree with the fact that this little corner of the Oz is the most crowded. I tell you what thought I don't know how much far behind the Torquay region is??

About a month before the comp I was passing through there in my camper van. Bells was predicted to be 6 feet. I was driving along before sun up to the Bell's carpark and this fella actually overtook me 50 metres from the carpark! That was one thing, once I got there the froth was almost palpable, blokes wigging out at getting there toes snagged in there wetties etc. Once in the water from the Bowl to Rincon I've never seen more blatant and frequent drop-ins in my life, including Snapper and the Pass. Granted the next day things got more manageable but give me NC NSW any day

That would've been about the first decent swell on the Surf Coast for the season. The inconsistency of sets in Victoria is what stuffs it. Not enough waves to go around and the points can't service a crowd the way the east coast points can. Add to that most waves you can't scrap for the 2 footers on a four foot day like you can at shallow points. Winki, and a cpl of beachies are about the only waves in Vic that can handle a bit of a crowd.

Bells area is also about the quickest spot to get to coming from Melbourne and Geelong, and there are a lot more surfers in Melb than you'd think. So it has to handle locals, and 2 cities without their own waves.

Surely everyone knows you dont go for a surf trip up the coast in easter holidays?

Last week, after everyone else was back at work, we pretty much had Seal Rocks to ourselves, overhead - double and offshore all day tuesday through to Wed lunch.
Then it pissed down with rain and I packed up the family and left.

lostdoggy wrote:

staitey wrote:

That would've been about the first decent swell on the Surf Coast for the season. The inconsistency of sets in Victoria is what stuffs it. Not enough waves to go around and the points can't service a crowd the way the east coast points can. Add to that most waves you can't scrap for the 2 footers on a four foot day like you can at shallow points. Winki, and a cpl of beachies are about the only waves in Vic that can handle a bit of a crowd.

Bells area is also about the quickest spot to get to coming from Melbourne and Geelong, and there are a lot more surfers in Melb than you'd think. So it has to handle locals, and 2 cities without their own waves.

A really good point about the Long Period Swell thing. In places that don't get crowded that long period swell is great but up our way its flat out to be over 11/12 sec. …..although we get a little less push at times, there's shallow banks and endless sets for the maddening crowds………..its funny to hear people complain about how inconsistent it is when we get those 14 sec+ southerly groundswells up here on the Nth Coast / GC

a comment on Winki - I agree that it can probably handle a little more of a crowd but I find for any given wave the take off area so broad that it invite 4 dudes over the space of 20m or so to think its 'their' wave only to result in drop ins or pushing white water down

there's always spots around here you can duck and weave. the main thing is having some flexibility in the program. weekends and school hols are a friggen nightmare on elm street.

staitey wrote:

a comment on Winki - I agree that it can probably handle a little more of a crowd but I find for any given wave the take off area so broad that it invite 4 dudes over the space of 20m or so to think its 'their' wave only to result in drop ins or pushing white water down

Well I don't surf there on weekends. When I say a bit of a crowd I mean up to 30. Gets a bit hard beyond that. Flynns reef would have to be almost the most crowded spot when working in Vic though. Absolute joke. I'd take the FNC any day to down here. So many easily accessible options. Have to drive a bit to score here IMO.

Yeah Steve, you're right if there's a fair bit of east in the swell but when it's a south swell over 5ft the coast is pretty small and only a few spots down FNC are worth surfing and everybody knows 4 days in advance these days what is gonna be like.
Unfortunately a lot of us are locked into the whole mortgage, work, family thing ,so getting the flexibility when there's swell isn't that easy but you can get lucky at times.
What my main gripe is that it does't matter how crowded it is, crews of blokes just keep going out adding to the madness and then bitch and moan about the crowd when they get out there.
Surfing isn't a team sport!
If u need your mates to hold your hand and pump up your egos all the time, play soccer or go on The Voice ! Surf for yourself or with a mate not the whole of class of '92 plus their extended families. And what's with the turning up at spot and calling everybody on the east coast you know that it's halfway good so get here. Fark!, call them two days after the swell and tell them they missed it. You'll feel a shitload better about yourself that you got off your arse and scored and they didn't, even in this day and age of being all politically correct.

lostdoggy wrote:

Flynns reef would have to be almost the most crowded spot when working in Vic though. Absolute joke.

That's amazing considering there are no useful surfcams in the vicinity, and no daily surf reports from that end of the Island (used to be a while ago, but not any more as far as I know). And it's a reasonable drive too from Melbourne, compared to Torquay.

thermalben wrote:

That's amazing considering there are no useful surfcams in the vicinity, and no daily surf reports from that end of the Island (used to be a while ago, but not any more as far as I know). And it's a reasonable drive too from Melbourne, compared to Torquay.

It does work in conditions that 90%+ of Vic don't work in though and on only one half of the tide. It's pretty obvious if it will be working or not.
Every weekend there is a huge influx of weekend warriors (Fri night-Sun evening) to the Island and every time it works on a Monday or Friday everyone seems to have an RDO. Maybe Tues-Thurs is the way to go. I haven't got it uncrowded in a very long time that's for sure. Right point tends to get a bit of a more mellow crowd and shifting takeoff to me but can still be a shitfight too. I tend to avoid the whole island as much as I can to be honest, and the amount of Island locals that are regular on the mainland these days would suggest that a lot of them do too.

And as for the drive compared to Torquay, it's not far for the SE suburbs. Dandenong, Berwick, Cranbourne, Pakenam etc. There are developments going up all the time here with their holiday homes also been built at the Island, Cape Pat, Inverloch.

Lost doggy beat me to it Ben .

But I will add that there aren't too
many right handers that are offshore in
Sth/Sth-East winds . Blame the
Unadventurous natural footers .
The other thing is its a pretty easy wave to surf .
Just keeps presenting wackable sections ,
Reminds me of Shipwrecks on Lembongan .
( obviously not climate , current , water temp , but
Just how it lines up / breaks . )

southey wrote:

Lost doggy beat me to it Ben .

But I will add that there aren't too
many right handers that are offshore in
Sth/Sth-East winds . Blame the
Unadventurous natural footers .
The other thing is its a pretty easy wave to surf .
Just keeps presenting wackable sections ,
Reminds me of Shipwrecks on Lembongan .
( obviously not climate , current , water temp , but
Just how it lines up / breaks . )

Really, god I wish it was half as fun as shipwrecks the Flynns set up actually reminds me of Periscopes geographically etc sadly its not even one tenth as good wave.

IMO Flynns is such an overrated wave great take off then one section for a turn if your lucky but generally pretty fat, even at half to lower tide and a solid swell its still pretty fat.

Apart from it working in conditions other waves don't, I think people get sucked into surfing it because the set up from the track/look out just looks picture perfect a nice little reef at the end of a beach where you can paddle out without getting your hair wet even when its solid.

Fair enough fellas. Seen a few good photos of Flynns over the years but never surfed it (or Right Point) meself.

I'm 34 years old Flynns reef has always been crowded since like ever s/e offshore it's a no Brainer everyone in Victoria heads there in those conditions I don't know why you would bother...
I remember surfing the reefs of torquay around '95' with a group of friends and maby max 4-8 others on a Sat now in 2014 on a Sat up to 60 people on the top reef breaks and I have counted 200 at juc in summer... but I have counted approx 300 at the superbank on the Web Cam. .. you can still get the reefs in vico uncrowded in winter at the right time of day it's so cold in Torquay sometimes and I mean COLD! That means you get lucky sometimes.....you can enjoy a surf in vico at the best reef breaks uncrowded till 3:30 when the whipper snappers finish school then another influx of people a 4:30... you have to be smart about where you surf and what time example 2/3 ft surfcoast on a Sat don't even bother it's brain damage! I spoke to my bro this morning he got up early before work surfed bondi the whole beach was shutting down he said he was the only one out.... I'm sure a couple of shoulders came in for him... how many people in Sydney again........

The trick for Bells/Winki is Saturday arvo when Geelong is playing in the Grand Final.

lostdoggy wrote:

The trick for Bells/Winki is Saturday arvo when Geelong is playing in the Grand Final.

...Not anymore