Noa Deane slobs, with audience, Byron Bay, NSW

A traffic-free line-up is a fanciful idea on the North Coast of NSW right now. A warm ocean, northerly winds and love-drunk nights makes this time of year a drop-off zone for any owner of fibreglass and a disposable income. It’s a 60 minute roll down the Pacific Motorway for Gold Coast gents like Noa Deane and the banks at Tallows are a refreshing sip from the point breaks at home, which offer little for the imagination during a swell-less summer. “Typically, it was packed with tourists and what not,” says our lensman Shane Fletcher. “You had to hustle for a decent one or you’d just get snaked over and over. Chippa Wilson and Creed McTaggart hit it early in the morning and then we slapped fives, changed shifts and Noa, Jack Freestone and Mitch Crews were all getting good ramps in the northerly wind.”