The Happy Medium Between The North And South Coast

The North Coast of NSW is fairyland. 

You have the Promised Lands, Northern Rivers, Great Dividing Range, Tweed Volcano. Even the names seem ripped out of a fantasy novel. Lush greens, sand-bottomed points and waterfalls season the region, nudity and mid-lengths are viewed as acceptable at public beaches, the aroma of burning cannabinoids seem never out of a nostrils reach. 

By contrast, the South Coast is prickly. Often overcast, over-indexing on sharp-bottomed reef breaks, big industrial equipment, meat pies, and Holden commodores. Nudity is less common — the elusive sun and ample sea urchins even seem to discourage it. 

Connecting the two coasts are two highways. The Princes Highway and the Pacific Highway, not long after the Princes becomes the Pacific, is a stretch of coast that’s often overlooked, and from where many a CT surfer has cut their teeth. Ace Buchan, Mol Picklum, Matt Wilko to name a few.

The waves there can sometimes borrow a bit of the South Coast slabby heavy water, with the mise-en-scene more typical of the North Coast’s hinterland. Watch Joel Vaughan, Ace Buchan, Shane Holmes, Hughie Vaughan, Robert Coote, Ryan Slattery, Molly Picklum, Tyler Hallet, Ryan Waine and Luke Bondfield find the happy medium.  

Shot and edited by Riley Edwards.