Watch: Kirra // Aint No Freight Train
A week after the other fastest wave in the world broke, Kirra picked up its own head of steam. Beginning Friday, an unseasonal east swell sent eight feet of short range energy into Queensland's south-east coast, which, combined with south winds, limited the options.
Kirra was always going to be on the checklist, tucked as it is inside Coolangatta Bay. And yeah, it broke, and yeah, it was a good size, however the short period nature of the swell - the low was positioned just a few hundred kms offshore - meant the swell was wobbly and scrappy, even with the cross-shore wind on it.
In comparisons between Ma'alaea and Kirra, the former easily gets the points this time.
Also this week: Matt Warshaw posted an interview with Owl Chapman talking about Ma'alaea where he exclaims: “All I can tell Rabbit is that his Kirra Point sucks."
Footage here by Craig Halstead/Surf On Mars.
Comments
Please tell me that I'm not the only one to think that while the footage of Ma'alaea was impressive, it was still rather sectiony, had devil wind ribs the size of which would equate to running over that pesky bodyboarder several times per wave, and that was the "best" they had in twenty years? Meanwhile, Kirra produced about it's 20th clip in.... what, a year?
Agree. Looks better to me, and obviously offers a much higher strike rate.
In the Top 5 for me.
Me too.
Best tube of my life was at Kirra. Nothing has come close in 40 odd years.
(maybe that says more about me than Kirra though)
Same. Geez I'm old.
Maui tube time equity; free from Qld snakes on jetskis'
surfing, surfboards & video have improved over the years.
Is there a better test than a high speed wave & edit from 17th July 2022...?
No one has seen Ma'alaea break at that size in living memory - a swell that big at just the right angle to get in betwixt Lanai and Kaho'olawe is very rare.
Kirra on the other hand, isn't so rare and depending on the sandbank, can be very bit as fast and as hollow as Ma'alaea and relatively more consistent.
https://eos.surf/video/entry/video-maalaea-81-from-tales-of-the-seven-seas/
1981 retro surfin Ma'alaea with Owl Chapman
https://eos.surf/video/entry/video-maalaea-86-from-amazing-surf-stories/
1985 Michael Ho & Ray Pino surfing overhead Ma'alaea
https://eos.surf/video/entry/maalaea-2005/
2005 overhead Ma'alaea
Maui wowi ... forget... sum-fins
Owl Chapman is a wanker.
Not sure if it was the angles but it didn't look too crowded either. I've seen the bigger crowds at 2 foot Hobart points on a 2 degree mid-winter dawnie.
Lots of hard work.
Yep super shifty and hard work and if you picked the wrong one an hour back and around. I wanted to surf it so bad but only the skis doing stepoffs were making any good ones. Bank was fractured and shifty.
everything is "best ever" these days...
Re fastest wave, there are plenty of contenders, in Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Obv. 'skeleton bay' is in the running, as is Mick Fanning's (and others') 'snake'. Sold Coast - kirra, and some other points, are in the running on their day, sand, swell, wind permitting. Certain lefts and rights in Indonesia and Micronesia rifle down their respective reefs like the proverbial 'freight trains', appearing on first sight as being too fast to surf, but offering incredible barrels for those game / foolish / skilled enough to have a dig. It's a moot point really, like those 'best ever' claims, the latter simply click bait for the vid makers.
This vid at 44:40,
doesnt look like nokanduis to me, but ive never been there...was planning to when the floating house was there but never got around to it. Still this wave in the vid is slightly too fast for most surfboards.HOWEVER not on a Roy Stuart, which cost $1.3 million but weight 15kg and go 35 miles an hour! out run any too fast shutting down point break! Kelly should have ridden one at j bay.
Kirra was pumping thru...had to pick them as there was a lot of shutdowns...paddle out was from Coolie with freight train rip...vid doesn't show the ski parking lot at North Kirra... Maui is a different kind of wave...surfed it in 70's when the swells seemed to be a bit more regular into that side of Maui... definitely fazt and hollow
Enjoyed the vid and comments here....
I would have jagged one.
But didn't.
Seems to me that the outer/Back-banks at Kirra and Superbank are preventing us from getting proper Kirra. Yes there have been some great waves but most swells in the last 6 months but all seemed to be missing the mark.
There sure is a lot of sand out the back of Superbank at the moment and it seems to refract the swells too hard and cause it to be a closeout. It also isn't breaking with it's usual body contorting power.
Anyone have any theories?
If I was to guess, I would say all the large easterly swells we have had pushed the sand out off the main bank to the outer banks. This is quite obvious at the tweed bar which is much further out than it usually is. Same problem is occurring at Dbah where the back banks are refracting the south swells much harder than it usually does, leading to a lot of closeouts
Reckon that's been the case for a while. The bay isn't as deep as it once was meaning wave energy is mitigated before it hits the bank - less muscle, less below-sea-level mutations.
Figure it's a by-product of sand dumping. Well actually, not even a by-product, they dump sand out in the bay precisely to reduce wave energy.
Makes sense.
I also just remembered it was a shit year for Kite-Surfing [not many Northerlies] and I think that has played a large part in the lack of sand being pushed back towards the beach. The Northerlies play a huge role in pushing sand back to the shore as they are usually associated with very small, low-period swells which pushes sand back to shore.