“The Best I’ve Seen It In Years!”

It doesn’t get much better than 8-foot East swell at 18-seconds on the Goldy. 

Tropical Cyclone Gita is currently hovering off the South East Queensland coastline, and oh boy has she been lighting up the region’s points over the past 48 hours—especially Kirra. 

Sunrise, Sunday morning, there was groomed corduroy stretching to the horizon, cameraman setting up their perches, skis prepping for launch.

The swell was solid, substantial. Snapper wasn’t quite handling it. But Kirra saw crowds clamoring for a spot on the clean and consistent 6-8ft commuter trains rolling through all day long, while the Goldie’s VIPs chased down the the odd 10-foot freighter blowing through.  

McKenzie Bowden was one of the lucky ones who managed to wrangle one of the larger set waves (as seen above). But he was lucky to even be out there surfing. “I stabbed myself, getting resin out of my fin box the day the swell showed, and had to get stitches. But that one came straight to me and ended up being pretty nice!” Mckenzie told Stab. 

“I saw Taj get a pretty mental one while I was out there, foot to the floor, just racing through the thing for ages,” Jesse Little said of Taj’s full speed tunnel above. 

The likes of Parko, Mick, Taj, and Jay Davies were all on location to sample Gita’s cyclonic offerings, and “everyone got amazing waves” according to Parko.

Kirra ain’t easy at size though and tough paddling without ski assistance relagated the usual Gold Coast grovellers to the lookouts.

However, taking a ski to a Gold Coast cyclone swell also has its downsides—as Darren Handley and Corey Wilson found out the hard way: 

Monday, the swell had downgraded, albeit slightly, and was gracing the points with more manageable conditions, serving up some of the dreamiest Kirra drainers we’ve ever laid eyes on.

And it’s still cranking right now!

The injury prone hellman, Mark Mathews also made his return to the solid stuff in which he’s best suited, nabbing his first solid barrel in over a year, after dislocating his knee tow-surfing. 

Whether you were chipping into the freight-train of your life or merely a spectator, you couldn’t help but stop and stare at the glory of the Gold Coast points over these past two days. 

Now we just have to hope that the stratosphere hasn’t dished out all the season’s offerings; with any luck we might see a repeat of the past few 48-hours at the start of March, for the Quik Pro. 

Until then, we can only hope.  

This is what dreams are made of.

Photography

Jesse Little

A drawn back view of Sunday’s carnage.

Photography

Jesse Little