You don't have to be an online omnivore to know that Queensland and northern NSW have been pumping crazy for the best part of a fortnight. Whether you like it or not the fruits of Tropical Cyclone Winston are coming at you in the form of clips, photos, stories, and updates. Such is the way of the modern media world...

But is was just this kind of information overload that Justin McMillan and his brother-in-law Dan Vardy were trying to escape when they surfed Broken Head earlier this week. They'd been surfing together each morning but Tuesday was particularly nice; a clean mid-range swell, light offshore wind, and manageable crowd made for dreamy conditions. It was a world away from the devastation being wrought by Winston in Fiji. At present 42 Fijians are reported dead with the number expected to climb.

"You know," said Dan in a moment of reflection, "it's amazing how people suffer so much at one end, while surfers have so much fun at the other."

He wasn't the first surfer to muse on the disparity caused by cyclones: destruction here, perfection there, but he did come up with a plan to try and improve the situation.

If every surfer who rides a wave - or indeed has already ridden a wave - from Tropical Cyclone Winston contributes to the Fijian Relief Fund then they've done their bit to redress the imbalance.

Go on, do it!

Contribute to the Red Cross Tropical Cyclone Winston Appeal here.