Red Bull No Contest Sails Into Sydney Harbour, Clocks The Heaviest Surf Breaks Within 30km Of The Coathanger

Welcome back to No Contest — Stab and Red Bull’s travel show examining the culture, characters and customs of various surf communities around the globe.

In episode one, No Contest host Ashton Goggans is joined by Red Bull athletes Molly Picklum and Jarvis Earle, and a bunch of legendary local surfers, photographers and designers, exploring Sydney’s variegated surf scene — from Cronulla, 26 kms south of the CBD, all the way up to Terrigal on the Central Coast, just beyond its limits.

In coming weeks, we will be heading to Hawaii’s South Shore, Japan and Florida.

Sydney, Australia’s oldest city, has a population exceeding 5.3 million, representing nearly 20% of the country’s total population. This makes finding decent, uncrowded waves a real challenge. To help navigate this, we sought advice from some of the surf community’s most respected figures: Eastern Suburbs photographer Bill Morris, World Junior Champion and waterman Grayson Hinrichs, Maroubra local Max McGuigan, and two-time World Champion Tom Carroll from the Northern Beaches.

“Bondi was a hard town. It was pretty underground,” recalls Bill Morris of the “Scum Valley” days during the 1970s and 1980s — a time when Bondi had a reputation for being rough and gritty, with a proper underbelly and working-class demographic. “But by the 2000’s, all the movie stars and everyone rolled in, and prices boomed. Soon Bondi was the place to be.”

2019 ISA World Junior Champion Grayson Hinrichs by contrast, grew up in a Bondi swelling with real estate agents and lip filler. Thanks to the Eastern Suburbs’ proximity to the CBD, stunning beaches, and high quality of living, property prices have soared over 700% since the 90’s in many postcodes, making it one of the most sought after and expensive stretches of coastline in the world. “That’s the thing: you’ve got everything you need right on your doorstep,” says Grayson.

Outside the water, we speak with Sam Coombes, Founder of The Critical Slide Society (TCSS) and Batlow Cider, on how Sydney has functioned an entrepreneurial and creative hub for some of the most recognisable brands in surf – such as Mambo, Deus, TCSS and Monster Children. 

Finally, Jarvis Earle and Max McGuigan wrap up the show speaking to the region’s several heavywater reefs such as Deadmans, Wedding Cake Island and Cape Solander, the latter of which became the site of one of the most spectacular slab contests in existence, Red Bull Cape Fear.

“Growing up in Maroubra, it was just full of heavyhitters like Mark Mathews, Richie Vas, Koby Abberton, Wayne Cleveland and all them boys,” says Max, who is widely regarded as the region’s biggest goofyfoot warlord in waves of peril. “The boys pretty much pioneered waves that were unridden [on standups] and started making them as well.”