Office shutdowns, uni holidays and family events that are common this time of year allow for travel and surfing opportunities. As we head home, interstate or wherever, this is always an excuse to do a surfing road trip.
Many women do this as a lone ranger.
Pack up your stuff into your car or van, and off you go.
A typical weather pattern effecting the coastal fringes is summer seabreezes.
Get up for the early
(an extract from From Louise Southerden’s Surf’s Up / The Girl’s Guide to Surfing, Second Edition.)
Because it’s summer, the sea breeze is probably going to mess up the surf by about 9 a.m., if not earlier. So the sooner you get out there, the more likely you are to get ‘glassy’ conditions; when the sea surface is smooth and there’s no wind, the waves are easier to catch than when they’re choppy and wind-affected. It’s usually less crowded and the sun’s not as brutal early in the day, too. So it’s more pleasant all round. The rule is: surf early, even at dawn, unless the tide or other factors make you think it might be better later on.
The wind tends to be offshore or non-existent in the morning, thanks to the heating and cooling of the land relative to the sea. It works like this: the land heats up during the day and cools down at night, whereas the sea tends to hold its temperature fairly steady; and when warm air rises, it attracts more air towards it, to replace this rising air.
In the early mornings, particularly in summer, the sea is warmer than the land, which has cooled down overnight, so warm air over the sea rises and draws air from the land, creating an offshore breeze. Later in the day, when the sun begins to warm up the land, air moves from the sea back towards the land, creating an onshore wind, also called a sea breeze. In autumn, my favourite surfing season, you can often get offshore winds all day because the sea is still relatively warm (it warms up through the summer) and the land doesn’t warm up as much during the day as it does in summer.
Conditions for explorers
Of course, there are still many kilometres of relatively inaccessible coast in Australia, and if you can get a jump on everyone else and find yourself a secret spot, the rewards are often well worth the effort. These days, many surfers are relatively conservative about where they go searching for waves. Most crew hit the proven spots, despite the crowd factor. So if you’re willing to go for it and take a chance on spot X, you’re already one step ahead of the pack.
Journeys north to Byron, the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast regions have always been successful in the months of February to May, while someone travelling north from September to December may not be as lucky. I’m not saying that’s always the case, but the chances of getting perfect point waves up north in late spring or early summer are limited by the prevailing northeast winds and lack of swell.
Further south towards Sydney and its surrounds is not quite as predictable wave-wise, because Sydney is susceptible to more weather variables than, say, the Gold Coast. Sydneysiders can score waves from stray low-pressure systems or strong southerly fronts, and even extended northeasterly blows at the height of summer.
You can get lucky on the east coast from about Newcastle south at any time of the year. Yet there are better, more consistent times such as late autumn or early winterwhen that stretch of coastline right down tothe Victorian border often receives clean southerly ground swells generated by lows in the Tasman.
In fact, the general rule on Australia’s surfable stretches is that autumn/winter are the real surfer’s seasons. Winds blow pre-dominantly off the land (offshore) and intense low-pressure systems frequently zip across the bottom of the continent in the Southern Ocean, sending lines of thick, powerful swell onto the exposed stretches of the Victorian, South Oz and WA coastlines.
With the autumn/winter seasons generally safe bets for scoring quality surf on most stretches of the Australian coastline, I thought a good way to conclude this little rave would be to briefly list some traditional summer wave magnets (without going into any detail) – regions that often provide rideable and some-times good waves when everywhere else goes flat.
- Ben Horvath
The Do’s and Don’ts of Lone Rangering
Do remember to pack electrical tape for dings, and also booties for rock situations, long nose plyers for fishing and for changing fuses, and fuses. Do bring extra munchies like museli, nuts, rice, salami, pre-packaged soups etc, and your own cooking stove for times when there aren’t any food or cooking facilities. Do keep enough fresh drinking water and water treatment tablets, warm clothing and blankets, sun gear. Do check out couchsurfing.com if you don’t have many friends. Do regularly check your tyre pressure (every second time you fill up with petrol), oil and water levels.Do take a camera to record all your fun.
Don’t pee in your wettie – it will really start to make your car/bedroom/kitchen stink after a few days in the sun. Bring a little sachet of eucalyptus woolwash in case it gets really bad. Don’t stop if there’s something unusual placed in the middle of the road, or something makes you feel uncomfortable, especially if there is no other traffic, people or buildings around. Keep driving and call the cop shop instead.
Don’t think you would pass a roadworthy? Remember that it’s best not to drink drive, put your life at risk or the lives of others, as these are all things that will get you pulled over. Don’t speed. Someone might wave their little pinky at you as you pass but it wouldn’t be applicable in our case.
Accom
Options may or may not include illegal camping (best sourced from experienced illegal campers or Google Earth), your uncle’s garage, or that empty holiday rental carport in the back street of your favourite coastal town.
Payment may be cold hard credit card or perhaps picking up all the ciggie buts and cola plastic containers that the local bogans left behind. Show the locals where they can shove their localism by picking up a bag full of rubbish from their beach. They’ll be awestruck and not know what to do with you or your car full of gear.
Have a blast
Nothing compares to a holiday as a Lone Ranger. People are very approachable and the opportunities for adventure are endless.
Words by Kristy Theissling
As published on Coastalwatch.com
