No Contest: The Biggest Snake At Snapper, The Best Surfer, And Better Waves Up The Road

Consider No Contest your peek behind the curtains of the World Tour circuit.

We have everything from Mick’s worst ever board, the world’s second-best wavemaker, and a self-admission from Snapper’s Biggest Snake.

Twenty years ago, the “Superbank” as we understand it, didn’t exist. The over-kilometre long stretch of compact sand isn’t some natural miracle—it’s a miraculous by-product of sand expulsion from the Tweed River.

The man currently responsible for it all is Gavin Smith, who gives us a rundown on the mechanics, tonnes of sand churned, and the strangest objects he finds flying through the pipes.  

The river benefits from a sand reduction, while the bars at Snapper and beyond benefit from an incessant influx of the replenishment sand – a truly symbiotic relationship.

Once the sand fires out of the dredging pipeline, it lands at Froggies, a somewhat lesser known spot between D-Bah and Snapper. Froggies may not deliver point break walls like those found around the corner, but what it lacks in longevity, it more than returns in reduced crowds and backwash floggings. Kerrzy’s a fan and our own personal experiences out there the past couple weeks proved that Froggies is more than just a closeout spot to snap half your quiver.

Now, this episode ain’t all sand pumps and pumping waves, either.

White Lightning’s dropping off Tour post-Bells, and that means 2018 was the Coolie Kid’s last ever event at Snapper. 

Mick suffered an earlier than expected exit, but let us into his Tugun home turf to chat about his next 12 months, what surf destinations he won’t be striking out for again, and the worst board DH ever dished him.  

“I nearly killed him! He came back and said he nearly died when he rode this board (at Chopes).” Darren Handley admitted. We also had DH go over the recent rockerless jetski incident during Cyclone Gita. 

We went for the Snapper run-around, and hit up the tour’s finest with a few steaming Q’s: Where’s the best spot to jump, who’s the Superbank’s biggest snake, etc.  

And if all these musings aren’t enough, then dial in for more footage of the Snapper Session Heard Round The World, as well as some Kirra-esque tunnels somewhere on the Qld. coast, “a couple hours north.”

Oh yeah, and Red Bull x Stab‘s No Contest show won’t stop here: we’re taking our simpleton questions and not-so-simple Red Cams to Bells. If there’s anything you want to know, nagging questions you need answered about Torquay, leave them below.