Most of us surf the same spot, on the same stretch of beach, for a good portion of our lives. We toil in the crumbly two-footers when there hasn’t been surf for weeks. We hem and haw at the wind, and whether it’ll clock offshore and clean things up. And we rejoice in the rare perfection of overhead days, with sheet glass conditions that remain pristine from sunrise to sunset. The reward for our weeks, months, and years of trying to ride at least three waves a session, even in marginal surf.
But if you live at place like the Gold Coast, with waves like Kirra, then every so often, your day-to-day surf spot turns into a world-class, rifling barrel that the rest of the surfing community stops to gawk at online. And if you’re one of those local, everyday surfers, toiling in average summer swell for weeks on end, then your reward for fighting the daily crowds could quite possibly be the wave of your life!
Cyclone Alfred, which is probably making landfall on Australia’s Gold Coast right about now, brought an unprecedented run of swell the past week or so. Like, really unprecedented. “Easily some of the best Kirra I’ve ever surfed — one for the history books,” Jack Robinson said. “When it all lines up, the Gold Coast of Australia can provide some of the most perfect waves in the world. This will be a day to remember!”
But this swell wasn’t just for surfers like Robinson, who travels the Earth riding some of the best waves on the planet. This was for the locals. The locals who were prepared, and knew how to navigate big surf (or had a Jet Ski). And knew how to get barreled. There’s a lot of those on the Gold Coast, and longtime local Craig Halstead was there to capture it. He sent us the edit above, thanks to the front-row seat he enjoys (he lives about 100 yards from Kirra Point).
The 75-year-old just films as a hobby these days, having freelanced in the industry for years. “I only picked up a camera when I had to give up surfing for health reasons so that I could film my friends, giving me something to do to keep in the surfing social loop,” he sad. “It worked out pretty well.”
Craig is a local’s local. And runs a pretty robust YouTube channel if you want to see more.
