The World Famous Bondi Beach Is Now A National Surfing Reserve

Oh, it’s a fantastic time for Bondi surfers. A very good time, indeed. Bondi is now a national surfing reserve. The peak national body gave it the “green light last month,” according to the Daily Telegraph to the hordes of crowd’s pleasure. Bondi’s set to be the 20th Australian beach to be declared a national surf reserve? They asked.

“Bondi has arguably the richest and most colourful history of any Australian beach,” National Surfing Reserve patron and founder Brad Farmer responded.

But, it’s “more than just another surfing site,” he gleefully boasted. “Bondi Beach epitomises what Australia is to the world, and that’s what NSR seeks to recognise in symbolic dedications.”

Like an ant colony…or Bondi Beach on a Saturday.

There will be a formal event held in 2017 to celebrate this landmark achievement. Will the crowd at the world famous Bondi Beach double due to such recognition? Is that possible? Have you ever surfed Bondi? It’s one of the few breaks in the world where you fear for your life on a two-foot day. A break where every wave has various passengers taking off longways, slantways, sideways, backways, squareways, frontways and all other ways you can think of. Although it does occasionally get fun, and Pama Davies featured above seems to have no problem with the Wonka Elevator, otherwise known as Bondi Beach.

It’s such a surf destination that on Sunday, more than 4000 people showed up for the 10th Annual Dues Ex Surf Swap. Where according to the Daily Telegraph:

Boards were stacked up on the Wall of Joy, allowing surfers to get up close to the equipment on display.
Deus Ex Machina international co-ordinator Tom Osbourne said boards of all shapes, sizes and vintages changed hands on the day.

“The Wall Of Joy ebbed and flowed as boards were added, swapped and sold,” he said.

“The newest Al Merricks stood shoulder to shoulder with the oldest of Gordon Woods. Onlookers haggled as they handled and inspected the worn spots and deciphered markings in the foam from ancient shapers.”

Board designers Jye Byrnes, Hayden Cox and Morning of the Earth took turns shaping, chatting and passing on a few secrets of the trade.